Dr. Audrey Wagstaff: 'How Has Our Reliance on Connected Devices Impacted Our Feelings of Connection with Others?'
Now two years into the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have become accustomed to connecting with others via Zoom, FaceTime, social media and other digital platforms. In acknowledging that reality, Dr. Audrey Wagstaff asks, "How has this reliance on connected devices impacted our feelings of connection with others?"
PICTURED: Students leave class in this 2015 photo with about half of them looking at their cell phones. What would be the percentage today whose immediate reflex is to check messages and social media?
Each year, Wagstaff, associate professor of communication arts and social science, asks her Mass Media in a Global Society students to consider this by mindfully disconnecting from their mobile phones, televisions, radios and other media devices.
Dubbed the “Media Exclusion Project,” students are to refrain from using media for a 24-hour period and then reflect on this experience by connecting it to concepts learned in the class.
Wagstaff explained one the class' primary resources in preparing for the assignment was Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation. “While many students report feeling 'annoyed' by the project, they end up finding value in connecting their experiences with course material," she said. "We are storytelling creatures, so being able to connect a lived experience to an abstract concept or theory from a class helps tremendously with memory.”
One student who conducted her cleanse over the Thanksgiving holiday break found greater appreciation for making memories rather than trying to capture them.
She said, “I love capturing the moments at family events, but this made me realize that the relationships we create with others are not based on the moments we capture on our phones. We do not need pictures of everything. The more memories you make are stored in your memory by being in the moment. That is what I believe Sherry Turkle is trying to get us to see and understand throughout her whole book.”
Other students also made connections to Turkle’s work.
One wrote, “I went into this project expecting it to be extremely difficult and stress-inducing. This is because I always have my phone on me at all times in case someone needs me or in case of emergency. I always knew I had an innate anxiety when it came to my phone, worrying about who could need me at that moment, or maybe if I miss a call I’ll get in trouble, or what if my residents' building is on fire and I didn’t pick up the phone, or what if my family in California needs to get a hold of me and I wasn’t there for them? A lot of 'what ifs?' worst case scenarios, and a mindset of 24/7 emergency. I remember reading a line from Reclaiming Conversation that said that my generation is quick to use the word 'emergency' for everything and in the end, frame our life narrative by seeing life this way.
"I never realized how true this was until I couldn’t use my phone. I finally had an excuse to not to be available and to take time for myself. Not having to check my phone at all was such a breath of fresh air.”
Wagstaff said, “To read these papers each year and to engage in discussion about them is always refreshing. They write painfully honestly, making genuine connections to what they have been studying throughout the semester. And every time I think about making a change to the assignment for fear of revolt, I read through former students’ papers and find such comfort knowing this group of students can do this too.”
Fear was also a theme for many students – the fear of missing out.
“Throughout this class, an important theme that we covered dealt with fear, and the many ways it can incorporate itself into the media," another student said. "A main way I felt myself experiencing fear during this period was 'FOMO.'
"It is a word used by many people in our generation that refers to the fear of missing out. I found myself wondering what everyone on social media would be talking about. Feeling like there would be important things that I was missing. It felt embarrassing when I had the realization through this, that if I am experiencing 'FOMO,' I am truly so much more addicted to social media than I may have previously thought,” the student wrote.
Wagstaff noted several students divulged that others seemed to have more difficulty with the project than themselves. "As one student described, her mom often texted her for seemingly no reason or to check her status."
When the student arrived at a restaurant to meet her mom for lunch, she reflected, “She [Mom] kept making the comment about her wondering where we were or when we would show up, even though I had told her multiple times about this project. I made the comment to her about if phones, like what they had back in the day, were still a thing, then you would just have to trust that we are okay and that we will be there on time… she didn’t like that comment too well. But when you really think about it, it’s the truth. Without this new technology that makes it so easy to be in contact with people, we would just have to strongly trust the other person and I feel as if that is why it is hard for our generation to trust people.”
Other students also expressed the need to provide a status update to their parents has become “automatic,” Wagstaff said, noting, "They wrote, 'I’ll also admit I cheated at least once. After my shift, I got off at around 11 p.m. and for a minute I totally spaced and forgot I wasn’t supposed to be using my phone, although I will say all I did was let my parents know I was finally off and headed back to my dad’s house before I went back to using it just as an alarm clock for the next morning when I could once again use the media on it again. I felt a little guilty about forgetting, but I rationalized it by telling myself it was only one text to my parents out of all people.”
Students also shared realizations of their dependency while underscoring that a one-time cleanse was sufficient for them.
One wrote, “I couldn’t help but realize how much I relied on my phone for communication. I knew this day was going to be challenging, but not this challenging. As a college student who is away from home, I knew it would only be harder if I wasn’t home. So, I knew I had to be home for this project. Even though it was difficult, I survived. But one thing I know for sure is that I don’t want to do this again.”
As another student reflected, “I turn to my phone and social media when I am bored because I feel like I can drown out the silence with the ‘company’ of social media. Anything we see as ‘uncomfortable’ we use our phone to ‘fix it.’ I use my phone to fill the void of uncomfortableness when waiting in lines or trying to kill time while I am in the car.”
Many students also expressed appreciation for the break from their devices. As one student wrote, “Overall this project has allowed me to understand that I do not need media as much as I think I do. I am able to think more and be less stressed.”
Another reflected: “Another aspect of not having technology at my fingertips was that I felt less noise in my head. My thoughts were a little more collected and I felt more composed. I also felt that my thoughts were my own, that there wasn’t someone else telling me what to think or feel about a certain issue or topic. It was nice just to exist in the present for a day.”
Wagstaff summed up the project sharing that many students "find themselves feeling less uncomfortable and more socially and emotionally present as a result of this cleanse. To be forced to be alone with their own thoughts or…gasp…to engage in conversation with another human being sans-machine, that’s a splendid outcome.”