Seattle Times reporter Nick Perry looks at an academic response to our always-on media culture.
It’s tough tuning out in today’s world. Just ask a dozen communications students at Seattle University who attempted a 96-hour media-deprivation experiment:
No listening to iPods or car radios. No checking e-mail. No chatting on cell phones. No surfing Web sites such as MySpace or Facebook. No watching “Desperate Housewives” or “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
The professor of “Restorative Solitude” at the Jesuit school originally wanted a week in the off position, but agreed to four days after complaints from her students.
In related news, an activist group called Shutdown Day is lobbying for one day free of computing. So far, nealry 20,000 people say they will participate in the experiment.