Final - Part 4 - Bonus Work

Creative Endeavor

As a creative part of my final I went a day without physical human communication and the day after that I went the day with only electronic means of communication. What I hoped to experience was the full limits of the human connection in both its different forms.

On the first day I had to hide myself in my room in order to avoid my roommates. I stocked up on food so I wouldn't have any reason to leave my room, a vital part of my plan to minimize contact with people. When I eventually had to leave my confines to go to the bathroom and had to ignore their greetings I made sure to explain my seemingly rude actions in an email when I was able to. To simulate what any normal day would be like, I made it a point to try and not reveal my experiment. While in my room I did things like text my mom, blog, plurk, check facebook, and updated twitter; in my opinion the whole shebang plus a small boom or two. It was a pretty relaxing day, although I did miss out on a party. My friends sent pictures of it though. It was... kind of the same. If by 'the same' I mean 'really fucking lame' of course.

Preparation and execution of electronic silence the next day was a little harder. Pulling the battery from my phone was like losing a limb, like the loss of Perceval’s wings in Dust. Every couple of hours I would feel phantom vibrations and think I had a text message, but my phone was dead in the other room. I continuously felt the desire to grab my laptop and check my email, my myspace status, anything! Those were all on my self-imposed ban list though. Finally I decided to see a movie with friends as a distraction; my roommates had to make the plans though because I had no means by which to contact anyone.

What stood out for me in this experiment was how much of an ass a person seemed if they didn’t interact with physical communication. I couldn’t speak to the people around me when I went for a glass of water (Water happened to be the one thing lacking from my horde of tasties) I couldn’t gesture at people who were kind to me on the road. The least I could do was twitter about them, not while driving of course. I also realized how impossible it is to stay in contact with a large amount of people without electronic devices. Those who are too far to drive to for a convenient visit are left to fade into past memories of the good ol’ days. Over those two days I came to a major realization though. I need both types of communication to keep on functioning the way I’m used to. Without the internet I’ll lose a great deal of my friends in other schools. The internet is an essential part of my life now anyways. It keeps me connected with my classmates and teachers; it makes me feel a part of something larger. As demonstrated on plurk, everyone’s thoughts mesh together and seemingly make a larger world of interaction. Those of us who continue to be on plurk after this class ends will become pieces of the next one. Internet connection through all these different web sites should be accepted, not looked down at like it is less genuine. Each new generation has evolved internet speak to more closely resemble and maybe even surpass the kind of speech you find in non-electronic conversations. Emoticons can be used to express emotions, as can abbreviated words such as 'lol' and 'jk'.

I recommend this experiment to everyone. It's a great way to learn more about yourself and your priorities. It also can give you a greater respect for the internet and the way it is changing relationships and connectivity.