October 14, 2014
The Van Winkle Project Response
http://goo.gl/HRxTav
The concept of living an entire year in today's news-driven world without gathering any information on current events is remarkable. Each day thousands of articles are written by everyone from giant news outlets to common bloggers; in addition, hours of breaking news shows fill the television channels. To isolate oneself from all current news is an extremely difficult task and it seems rather unnecessary except in extreme circumstances. As Birdie from the Van Winkle Project describes, before his experiment he had been a news junkie. When news is dictating one's life it may be necessary to limit his access, however for most people this change is not needed. The alteration in Birdie's perspective came as a result of how much influence the news had over his life to begin with. While the news is omnipresent in almost everyone's life, a radical shift in accessibilty would not have as significant of an impact. As an example, at boarding school there is a relative "bubble," due to a lack of television accessibility. The effects of this "bubble" are not nearly as substantial as the effect that a year in isolation had on Birdie. Limiting one's access to current events may be beneficial and open his or her eyes to a new perspective, but to "sleep" for an entire year is excessive unless in extreme cases.
Why is this exercise unnecessary? In my opinion, we can learn about ourselves and discover that it is in fact unnecessary to hear about all news all the time. So, I see this 'sleep' as the exact opposite of unnecessary; everyone should attempt to take a step back from our notification ridden lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree agree that the idea of being Rip Van Winkled is intriguing, but with so many things going on around you and being easily connected to anyone around the world, it is unnecessary to restrict oneself from communicating and educating oneself with the affairs of the globe.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that being Rip Van Winkled in today's society is difficult, but the experiment is still valuable. It gives an experience that cannot be replicated.
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