Matsie For the Win!

This week, Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg University students will be blacked out — from social media, that is.  Eric Darr, the university’s provost, has enacted a week long ban on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook.  The ban will only be effective on the university’s network so students living off campus or who have smartphones will be affected significantly less.

The ban doesn’t seem to be motivated by a disdain for social media, but rather a fascination and respect for it.  Darr’s motivation is simple:  we take technology for granted and need to be reminded just how much we may or may not rely upon it.

The ban’s effectiveness will be tested by the widespread use of smartphones like the Droid and the iPhone that can access the internet without using wifi. Darr acknowledges this, “If someone feels the need to borrow their friend’s phone to go check Facebook, it’ll be interesting to ask the question at the end of the week: Why did you feel the need to do that? What compelled you to do that?”

Darr’s social experiment is interesting.  I wonder how effective it will be when smartphones are so prevalent on college campuses.  Nonetheless, I hope the students embrace the week-long ban and some good reflection comes out of it.  We use social media in so many ways in order to communicate with each other and it has made widespread communication even easier than before.  Maybe we should all take a week off from social media and see where we’re at by week’s end.