If you know me well, you know that I don’t have television reception and don’t take a newspaper or listen to the radio. In fact, my family has effectively cut itself off from media for the past three years. There are many reasons for this choice, but much of it stems from our Son being enrolled in a Waldorf School (Cedarwood School in Portland). We ended our media contact in July of 2001 – meaning that we really did not even get to see much of the media take on 9/11. I have a feeling that we will continue this media blackout until our children get to an age where they really desire to know more about politics and the larger world. For now (at ages 3 and 7) they are more interested in hanging out with Mom and Dad.
That said, I do get some news from the Web and lately I have been subscribing to more feeds from various blogs. So far I am focusing on blogs that relate to technology and ERP applications – so mainly work related. But it is an interesting way to get news in general, particularly for someone like myself that is avoiding the “mass media”. I don’t think I will be subscribing to any of the popular political or hard news blogs anytime soon – I just don’t have any interest in bringing that influence into my life right now, but when I am ready, I will probably use that as my main source of information.
Avoiding the media (in all its forms) has an interesting effect for me. It focuses my attention more on my life and away from things that are outside of my control. I have no influence over the sort of politics reported in the media (that is not to say I cannot have an influence, but at this stage in my life I have neither the time or desire to exercise any influence). It gives me focus on the things that really matter to me – my family, my work and my personal goals. For me it is a way to cut out the things that I can’t change. It may sound ignorant, but it frees me up in many ways and makes me more effective in all my endeavors.
I have been asked how I find out about important events that occur locally, nationally or globally. The answer is that I talk to people, and they tell me about what matters to them (and sometimes that is information that came from the media). I would much rather get my news from this grassroots source – it is much more personal and interesting than reading it in the morning paper. It is fun to have someone ask about a recent big political event and respond with – “I hadn’t heard that – can you tell me about it?” rather than “Well, my opinion is X”.
I know my approach is not for everyone. Some people have jobs that require constant contact with the media. Some people just find it to be extremely entertaining and hard to give up. And some people really work hard to influence the events that occur on a local, national or global scale. I know it is important for other people to follow events in the media (after all, where would I get my news otherwise?) but for me, it is a great thing to have a media blackout at this point in my life.
So I thought about this for a few hours as I was going thru my day and I was wondering … do you vote?
Ryan,
It is funny that I get this question all the time when people find out I don’t pay attention to the media. The answer is that I have not voted in at least 6 years. I think that Talbott sums up my attitude very well on page 45 of his book: “I couldn’t see how any of the things that really mattered were ever touched upon by politicians.” The stuff that really matters to me and the people around me is the people around me. As the bumper sticker says “The best things in life are not things” – and media comes under the category of things to me. I am certain that I can have a bigger effect on the world by changing myself than I can by voting in elections. Politics (for me) just distract me from doing the real work of finding truth. More on that in a future post.
PS. I don’t take Talbott’s word as gospel, but we sure seem to share a similar philosophy.
So… couple of other questions:
1. How long did it take until you found out about 9/11… or, better question, do you know about 9/11?
2. Do you know the country’s at war in Iraq?
3. Have you heard that Ronald Regan died this week? Do you know who Ronald Regan is? đ
Rich,
1. I knew about 9/11 about 15 minutes after it happened. I was at a customer site getting ready for a demo and one of the employees at the customer told me. In fact, I think she was very pleased at being “in the know”, a phenomenon I notice often when someone reports news items I was not aware of.
2. Yes, I have heard about the war with Iraq, and I have some strong opinions about it. I guess I don’t need to see it on TV every day to convince me it is wrong. A basic lesson in how Ghandi defeated the British Empire is enough to do that.
3. I heard about Ronald Reagan as well – this time from a friend at a party on the day he died (the party was not in response to his death, although given the political leanings of the participants, it would not have surprised me).
I really like getting my news by word of mouth. It makes it so that I can really understand the world around me as well as the people around me. Feel free to zing me an email when something big (or something you care about) happens!
Hi there,
I found the link to your blog on openwaldorf.com. I feel compelled , as a former Waldorf parent, to point out that the media ban in Waldorf schools applies to the children, not to the adults. Just in case that was unclear to others. I guess the Total Ban on ALLMedia (which in a Waldorf school means tv, radio, movies, recorded music, audio books, computers, video games, anything mass marketed ,etc). even for young children was something I never fully agreed with while a Waldorf parent. There is no inherent harm in or cause for expulsion if a child watches a half-hour video once a week, IMO. Our former school did not have that mindset (see Ahrimanic forces for the reason). Of course I believed and believe that severely limiting “mass media” and especially news from young children is a good thing – but a total ban often results in rebelliousness later. Not to mention the whole “why can’t I play with cousin Sally because she watches TV , has GameCube and eats Twinkies?” thing that often occurs when parents go overboard adhering to the school’s Media Policy.
And while recent research has presented compelling reasons for limiting TV and computer games, some of the reasons for the Waldorf Total Ban were just too esoteric for me (“ahrimanic forces” coming through from the media …). Additionally, I have seen my Waldorf community become increasingly insular and “us v. them” because of the Media vs. No-Media debate. I even know people who cut off all ties with their extended families because their families have TVs. Really. ..You state your family has “effectively cut itself off from media” for three years – is that even possible? …advertising is everywhere, for example – even on your computer pop-ups. and you state elsewhere that you watch movies – is that not media? Do you find at your school that the “media free-ness” of each family becomes an , shall we say, “p**sing match”? That was definitely our experience at our former school. People would say “we don’t have TV” , meaning they have *an* TV but don’t get cable…so maybe the kid watches videos but they aren’t talking đ
Now I am not at all saying you are creating a division between yourself and your TV watching family and friends nor engaging in such competitions – but I felt compelled to write to say that the media ban is for Waldorf *children* (also remember NO computers, no electronic games, no recorded or amplified music, ) and then I just went off on a tangent there đ …and while I agree with limited exposure (and how can we define limited?…which is another reason for the Waldorf total BAN – it just makes it easier that way) for the *children*, I find it kind of insular and maybe even exclusive for adults . Personally I would feel an irresponsible citizen of today’s global world if I completely cut myself off from Earth news. And I definitely have less contact with the media than most of the other people I know (I don’t have TV reception either)- but still, to be mostly ignorant of world affairs? To do nothing about or not speak out against the atrocities around us? … But then again, *personally* I wouldn’t feel entitled to an opinion if I didn’t vote…
anyway – thanks for a thought-provoking entry!
Dear Anon,
I appreciated your comments on my family’s media blackout. I wanted to clarify a few things:
Our children do watch videos occasionally – so we don’t have a completely media free home. My wife and I often debate this, but in the end I agree that a little carefully chosen video from time to time will not destroy our children’s sensibilities. And I also agree that going overboard can really disconnect you from interactions with other children and families. That is probably one of the most difficult parts of diverging from the mainstream – most of our extended family has television and media in their homes and it is something we just have to accept. Limiting the media in our own home is our solution.
Our Waldorf School does not get in our face about media in the home (this may be because it is a young school) and it certainly does not request that adults live media free. It is possible that the school will become more extreme about media as it becomes more established, but at this point there seems to be a wide variety of beliefs about media in the home. Some parents have television and others have a total ban and I would be hard pressed to tell you who is who. I agree that it could easily turn into an “Us vs. Them”, which would completely miss the point for me. Our Waldorf School provides a community that shares the sensibility that too much media has a negative effect on children and that supports our way of dealing with that reality. If we had to spend our time justifying our choices we would lose the benefits of that shared sensibility.
I agree that my family is not truly cut off from the media, but it does not overwhelm our lives. Movies are certainly media (we stopped watching movies for about a year or so, but have returned to them in the last year) and the Web is absolutely a source of media as well. Moderation in all things, including moderation đ
Just thought I might add my two cents on the media blackout and waldorf. I know this is old but I was googling Waldorf blogs and came across this and I just so happen to have spent some time thinking about it recently. You can check it on my blog if you like http://almostgirl.coffeespoons.org/?p=57
Television: Still Drug of A Nation No Matter How Much It Helps the Hoi Polloi Learn To Keep Track of Details
The New York Times and Steven Johnson are trying to convince us that TV really isnât so bad Watching TV Makes You Smarter! Johnson posits that television in the past was not narratively complex and thus we didnât have to work our minds when watching the book tube. There were narrative hints that helpd us process what we were seeing, like when we hear the music swell and we scream donât open the door! âThese hints serve as a kind of narrative hand-holding..they reduce the amount of analytic work you need to do to make sense of a story. All you have to do is follow the arrows. â
Ahh but Johnson says that now TV has evolved and it is making us leaner, meaner, more effective consumers of hard to untangle plots, narratives, and story arcs. âYou have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing youâre exercising the parts of your brain that map social networks, that fill in missing information, that connect multiple narrative threads.â Or in other words television is helping you learn to think! Watch enough West Wing or 24 and you will get smarter, or so Johnson might have us believe, because it is teaching us to connect the dots.
Now I have long believed that the key to good thought is the ability to connect seemingly disparate ideas. Thinking in both a linear and lateral manner, or as a whole brained thinker, is what makes you smart. You process more quickly. One reason I think modern schooling is so awful is that it operates on the supposition that if you put enough in your brain then you will be smarter. No Child Left Behind operates on that principle. But this is like saying if you load your computer with more software it will be a better computer. But if your central processor isnât fast it will actually slow down your computer. A good education is like upgrading your processor rather than installing lots of software. If you think faster then you can switch between programs more quickly, make connections, and come up with new ideas. You still need the details but learning to think should come first. Yet another reason I value Waldorf education, it gives your kid a top of the line processor.
Ostensibly this is what Johnson would have us believe television is teaching us to do. I, however, am incredulous. He says âWhat I am arguing for is a change in the criteria we use to determine what really is cognitive junk food and what is genuinely nourishing.â But is watching complex programming really helping you think more effectively? To work with his metaphor I would contend that television still isnât very nourshing. Someone else is still making dinner (thoughts or ideas, even if they are cleverly and quickly connected) for you. My question is then if you keep buying ready made meals how are you ever going to know how to cook? Sure you might be really familiar with how a meal is cooked, you are watching tons of Emeril but until you actually get into the kitchen and whip up a fresh batch of ideas you havenât actually done it! You think you know how to cook nourishing meals, you see it done all the time, but your kitchen still isnât getting a lot of use.
Beyond that Johnson says that âThe kids are forced to think like grown-ups: analyzing complex social networks, managing resources, tracking subtle narrative intertwinings, recognizing long-term patterns.â Except kids ARENâT grownups. They donât process the same way we do, their brains havenât had a chance to fully develop. Their neural pathways arenât fully mylineated.Now I am not totally clear on the biology involved here but I have basic understanding of the concept of the reptilian brain, emerging from the base of your spinal column at the skull, as the center of instinctual thought as opposed to the neocortex which helps us process past events, plan for the future, and is generally the site of reason or the mammailian which is where emotions reside. When you are watching television you are only using your reptilian brain. You arenât using higher thought processes used in your neocortex, you are still simply processing images chosen for you, mediated by a producer, and packaged to make sense in whatever way the producer has seen fit. Like Neal Stephensonâs metaphor of the GUI inIn The Beginning There Was The Command Line we think we are understanding and knowing what is presented to us but we are missing an entire level of the experience. It is mediated for us by someone else, sure we get more information that way but it wasnât really our choice. In other words your kid isnât learning to think like an adult by watching complex TV, he is still seeing images that are connected for him via a complex path of mediation. It isnât really analysis! So not only canât a child think like an adult but now they wonât ever get the chance if television is what passes for complex analytical thinking. Joseph Chilton Pierce writes in Evolutionâs End, âtelevision floods the brain with a counterfeit of the response the brain is supposed to learn to make to the stimuli of words or music. As a result, much structural coupling between mind and environment is eliminated; few metaphoric images develop; few higher cortical areas of the brain are called into play; few, if any symbolic structures develop.â In other words, we are being tricked into thinking we are smarter than we are. Only the writers of these shows are really exercising their ability to think, process, and connect. We have the illusion that we are getting smarter, that we somehow got the joke, but if you want to really nourish your mind then you need to turn off the tube and cook (metaphorically of course). Only when you make your own connections instead of watching others will you really begin learning how to think.