Yesterday our class watched Disconnected, the documentary. For those of you reading this blog who are not in this class, it is essentially a documentary about three Carleton College students who go without using a computer for three weeks.
The most glaring lesson, or recognition, we took from the documentary Disconnected was how much computers save us time. Computers are so quick, efficient, and convenient; what would take an hour to track down a library book using a card-catalog (as we saw in the documentary), could be done in minutes on a computer database. Computers are an integral part of our lives, community, and world today; disconnecting from such a powerful medium yields enormous obstacles and drastic changes.
Although the premise of disconnecting from computers for three weeks is both impressive and admirable, there was a general consensus of negativity towards the documentary in our class. One of the main criticisms of the documentary was that there was no real diversity in the three students undertaking the challenge. All three students were relatively socially inept, very studious, and lacked demanding extra-curricular activities (or at least we were not shown these aspects of their lives). We were also unimpressed with the production value of the documentary and thought the students were a bit cliche in expressing their feelings throughout their computerless journey. Conversely, we were very impressed with the students’ dedication to the challenge, and for some, we were extremely impressed with their success and ability to adapt.
When our class was asked, “Well, do you think you could go three weeks without a computer?” The class responded, “I could, but why would I want to?” Also, we heard, “It depends on the circumstances and environment (i.e vacation, work, or school).” No matter what the responses, the entire class unanimously agreed that it would be an unbelievable challenge to go three weeks without a computer, and we all agreed that it would drastically change our day-to-day lives.