(Dis)connected

I recently discovered that hulu.com has documentaries--really good ones (and a few questionable ones).  Most of them are around an hour long and, of course, it's free, so I always like that.  Most of you know that I'm a sucker for true stories, so documentaries are like sirens drawing me in.  


The one I saw recently, Disconnected, was about three college students who voluntarily chose to go at least three weeks (some went five!) without their computers. No email, no Facebook, no typing papers, no using their phones for anything other than calls, and no letting other people read your email to you--nothing. They were in a documentary film class and this was the project they came up with.  Mind you, it was five weeks before finals.  


The documentary was thought-provoking as I watched these college students unplug from their livelihood, the machine they spent most of their days on (I'm not exaggerating). They literally had to go through withdrawal, complete with tears, hair pulling, and rocking back and forth.  They didn't know what to do with themselves. Now, I would be incredibly inconvenienced without a computer, especially in school, so I sympathize with their frustration about that, but to not know what to do with your free time? Yikes. Over the course of the experiment, these students had to learn to go outside, talk to people in person, actually do their homework, and pick up new hobbies.  I was shocked that their worlds had shrunk to the size of a computer screen.


I won't give everything away, but I think the social experiment had the positive effect fasting has--it broke them of relying on something too much.  In disconnecting, these students actually connected to reality much more. If you have an hour are willing to be a little disturbed and fascinated, check out this documentary, and let me know about other hulu documentaries you like. 


P.S. Can anyone explain why my blog is suddenly putting massive spaces between paragraphs?