Assignment: Life Before the Web

For this assignment you will spend one weekend (or any 48 hour period) without any digital technologies available from the advent of the world wide web onward (early 1990s). This means you may only use your phones as a phone. You may not use any smart feature on your phone. You may not use the internet. You may not use satellite radio. No tablets. Etc.

You may use your computer for word processing and viewing documents. Make sure to get any information you may need over the weekend before you begin this task.

No viewing or listening to media on computers, tablets, phones, iPods, etc.

You may watch television but you may not use the menu feature on your cable box (you have to actually flip through the channels).

You may not watch DVDs. You can play CDs (if you have them).

While video games did exist, modern game systems and powerful computers did not, so no games unless you are playing 80s games or earlier.

Absolutely no social media!

While depriving yourself for a weekend, take note of any time you are about to use your media technologies. Next, you should look back and examine how your life was different than normal over those two days. Finally, you should attempt to imagine how life was most different before our current digital technologies.

Write a 750-1000 word paper on what you find to be the biggest difference between a pre-web world and today. You can focus on positive or negative aspects of our current media technologies. Your paper must include a thesis that you will back up with your experience from the weekend.

Papers will be graded on the strength of your thesis, support for the thesis, grammar, punctuation, format and style.