"By it's very nature, television technology teaches us to experience the world as a series of fragmentary images. It trains us to prize emotion and stimulation over logic and abstract thought.We are conditioned to expect quick resolutions to problems, and to develop evanescently short attention spans. We expect the world to be entertaining if ti is to hold our attention: eventually we learn to judge the world by essentially aesthetic criteria. For the man who gets his metaphysics from television, boredom is the root of all evil. As media critic Mercer Schuchardt told me, "Morality today is very point-and-click; life is completely about image and surface texture now...
The television medium is by its very nature a force against tradition, against continuity, against permanence and stability.
Schudardt, a former student of Postman's who when I spoke with him taught media theory at Marymount Manhattan College, in raising his six kids without a television. His students find their crunchy-con professor's TV-less existence hard to accept.
"They'll say things like 'What do you mean you don't have TV?' - almost like they think it's illegal." he said. "Part of it is people feel almost embarrassed not to have a TV. When they ask, 'How will I stay informed?' I tell them you'll find that you can't turn of the television, even when you get out of your house. It's on everywhere you go. You can't escape it. You'll still know what's happening, but you'll have four more hours in your day to use creatively.
The number one advice that I give my students is to be a culture creator, not a culture consumer," he continued. "You have to have time to create, and to create, you have to get rid of those things that steal your time. TV is the great time stealer in American life."
I used to be a TV critic, actually. and finally got so bored with it that I quit my job and moved to a country house down south to put myself through the media detox and figure out what to do with my life. I spent the fall and winter of 1993 living virtually alone, with no television, no newspaper, and no Internet ( I did ave a radio, and got my news from NPR). All i had was books, silence, and solitude.
The withdrawal was difficult. I was jittery and easily distracted. The monastic quiet unnerved me. But gradually i reconciled myself to it, and came to love it. There was no buzzing in my head anymore. I found I could write long letters, and sit for lengthy stretches reading novels. Prayer became easier. I started living by the rhythm of the day, awakening at daylight, and going to sleep not long after the sun went down. I began to feel, well, normal. I discovered how to be alone with my thoughts, and in turn to think in a sustained way. Had I ever known how to do that?
By the end of the four months at the house, I felt vastly less anxious, restored to myself, and had I learned to listen for life's quieter, deeper sounds drowned out by the daily media cacophony. That was a decade and a half ago and many times since then I have wished I could pack up my family and move to a place like that, where we could live the tranquility of a media-free existence.
...the goal is not to get rid of technology, but to limit its use "to restore a more integrated life, were you have the physical, the social, the mental, and the aesthetic aspects of life blending seamlessly as possible. When you make your technological selection, you have this one question in your head: does this enhance integration, or does it undercut it?"
The television medium is by its very nature a force against tradition, against continuity, against permanence and stability.
Schudardt, a former student of Postman's who when I spoke with him taught media theory at Marymount Manhattan College, in raising his six kids without a television. His students find their crunchy-con professor's TV-less existence hard to accept.
"They'll say things like 'What do you mean you don't have TV?' - almost like they think it's illegal." he said. "Part of it is people feel almost embarrassed not to have a TV. When they ask, 'How will I stay informed?' I tell them you'll find that you can't turn of the television, even when you get out of your house. It's on everywhere you go. You can't escape it. You'll still know what's happening, but you'll have four more hours in your day to use creatively.
The number one advice that I give my students is to be a culture creator, not a culture consumer," he continued. "You have to have time to create, and to create, you have to get rid of those things that steal your time. TV is the great time stealer in American life."
I used to be a TV critic, actually. and finally got so bored with it that I quit my job and moved to a country house down south to put myself through the media detox and figure out what to do with my life. I spent the fall and winter of 1993 living virtually alone, with no television, no newspaper, and no Internet ( I did ave a radio, and got my news from NPR). All i had was books, silence, and solitude.
The withdrawal was difficult. I was jittery and easily distracted. The monastic quiet unnerved me. But gradually i reconciled myself to it, and came to love it. There was no buzzing in my head anymore. I found I could write long letters, and sit for lengthy stretches reading novels. Prayer became easier. I started living by the rhythm of the day, awakening at daylight, and going to sleep not long after the sun went down. I began to feel, well, normal. I discovered how to be alone with my thoughts, and in turn to think in a sustained way. Had I ever known how to do that?
By the end of the four months at the house, I felt vastly less anxious, restored to myself, and had I learned to listen for life's quieter, deeper sounds drowned out by the daily media cacophony. That was a decade and a half ago and many times since then I have wished I could pack up my family and move to a place like that, where we could live the tranquility of a media-free existence.
...the goal is not to get rid of technology, but to limit its use "to restore a more integrated life, were you have the physical, the social, the mental, and the aesthetic aspects of life blending seamlessly as possible. When you make your technological selection, you have this one question in your head: does this enhance integration, or does it undercut it?"
I found this very inspiring and showing me that I'm not in this battle alone. That there are so many other people out there with the same questions, frustrations, and beliefs. I really recommend this book Crunchy Cons, written by Rod Dreher. Although I am not yet finished with it, what I have read so far has been amazing.
1 comment:
I can relate to this so much. It would be so cool to live in the quiet God gave us all the time! Even though I have been off my computer for a while instead of loving it more I am thankful for the phone. Why? Because I can interact with people. Truly. Not e-mails, texting, or IM. Not that they are bad but why does everything have to be faster and better? I can't wait to shed this skin of a computer life. Great post Julia. I'll be looking this book up.
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