Techno-Strike

DISCLAIMER: While this doesn't exactly pertain to flash mobs, it has everything to do with the media that arranges them!

Two weeks ago, I had the great misfortune of my computer breaking. Of course, it fell during a week that I had mass quantities of typed homework to do, and I was completely freaking out. Honestly, I felt naked without the constant companion my computer had come to be. However, despite my doom and gloom mentality, I decided that I would treat my time without a computer as a technological detox. I wasn't excited about it.

As the day went on, I had to rely on computer labs during my breaks and library visits after class to get my work done. Having to schedule these in, I found I was so much more productive. My computer wasn't there for me at my convenience; I had to use my resources as they became available. It was only after this that I realized how deeply connected as a society we have become to our technology- not only the internet, but our televisions, cell phones, etc. Why? These devices seem so time sucking when we take a step back (or a forced detox), but that isn't enough to motivate us to limit our time with them. For example, I made great proclamations about how much I loved being unconnected and how productive I was without my computer, but as soon as I got it back, I digressed back into internet TV and procrastination. I think we allow this because the temptation is just too much to resist in our "everyone's doing it" society. We have the capability to be connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and because of this, we face a lot of pressure to be up on current events. Almost without us noticing, this results in us constantly dedicating our time to this pursuit of what is current.

I suppose this experience has gotten me to be a bit more cautious of my pop culture consumption. I believe consumption is the most accurate term- because we have the tendency to let it consume us right back. It's infiltrated our lives and our leisure time, and now that I've noticed this, I'm working on making little changes to take my time back. There's nothing wrong with being connected- I just want to make sure I'm not slacking on my personal, face-to-face interaction because of it.