I initially started writing this post several days ago and decided to give my frustration with this research time to subside. Even though I have giving this a few nights I am still annoyed because these researcher are missing a fundamental point about what media and the Internet really are. The post is actually called “Going 24 Hours Without Media” and if you look at the 15 surprising facts they do make sense in context of highlighting how students feel when they have to give up their “media”. The notion of being addicted to the Internet or to media is also reasonable if you hold that we just use the Internet to consume media.
This is where I vehemently disagree with the researchers and anyone else who posits that the Internet is really just about media consumption. I would argue that this a classic NOOB (newbie) error and while I respect the intent of the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda I think they are either making a NOOB error by positing that the Internet is used for primarily for media consumption or they are very wise marketers who know how to get the biggest response to their work by leveraging the “addicted to the internet/media” angle. To clarify, a newbie is someone who over enthusiastically embraces only parts or limited aspects of a system while missing the power of the whole. Seeing the Internet primarily as media delivery platform extremely limits the power and potential of the Internet and really misses what the Internet really is–a communication platform.
So if you understand the Internet and the media that exists in it as part of our global communication platform/system then asking students to not communicate with each other for 24 wouldn’t even be considered because we are social beings and we know how important communication really is. If we want to be isolated we go backpacking for the weekend and leave our cell phones behind. It is good to get away from the “noise” of the world but that was not the intent of this study. They were really asking students to give up communication so should we really be surprised by the results? I suggest not. How would you feel if you were asked to give up communicating for 24 hours?
In moving from US to the Canada recently I went nearly a week without a cell phone, texting and ubiquitous Internet access that I am normally accustomed to. While I don’t consider myself addicted to media and I do rely heavily on being able to communicate with everyone when I need to and not having that ability was very unsettling. Was it unsettling because I am addicted to the Internet–NO! It was unsettling because I had to function in an uninformed fashion. I was making choices and decisions without having full access to all the information sources that I generally use.
In 20 or may even as few as 15 years from now we will look back at research studies like this and chuckle at the naive questions that were being asked. The Internet and the wide assortment of media and related tools make up our newest form of communication. By our very natures, humans are social beings so the idea of being addicted to communicating or being social is nonsensical.
