Blog #4: No technology for a year?

Although the Thoreau Challenge we were proposed with in class seemed very tempting for those looking to get some extra points, I couldn't even lie to myself to think I could even try it. No cell phone, no text messaging, no calling, no chat messaging, no Facebook, no status updates, no Google, no ESPN.com, no Pennlive.com, no video games, no television watching, and the gut wrenching  list goes on. How would I wake up for class in the morning? Wake up to the rising of the sun? Impossible. To us now, I feel this challenge is way more difficult than it may have been back in the time of Thoreau because the advancements and developments we made in technology were not around back then. We have more things to tempt us than Thoreau had to deal with. What I ask is: what did he really have to "give up" when he stayed isolated from society in that wooden cabin?

If I were to ever give up all of the treasures I desire so much and rely on everyday, I think I might surprise myself with what I could do. I could just sleep for long periods of time to pass the time and just do nothing but wait with anxiousness to be relieved of my self-invoking promise to steer clear of technology. Instead, I think I would be able to read a lot more and analyze many writings like I always have wanted. I am interested in topics of life experience, but never reach out and find those novels to obsess myself with. I am sure that there is plenty of great literature out there that I have not been fortunate enough to stumble upon. Also,  I would use my time to think deeper than I ever have before about life. I took a philosophy class and was dumbfounded by the concepts and realities that were taught to me. I wanted to understand but I felt as if I was never supposed to, and maybe giving the topic another chance I could maybe have a better light shined on it for me to grasp it all. I have always wanted to fully "understand our universe" or something of the sort.

Hopefully by the end of my time in solitary confinement, I will be able to contribute something back to the world. Rationalize something or even curing a disease would suffice, just something to prove that I has some sort of success of something when I did what I did. I would want the world or anybody who would listen to see that without material things, we have a gift, the greatest gift, and that is our minds. It's something that can't be taken away, it is ours to utilize however we choose, and if we allow it to be fed with societal norms and media or ideas such as consumerism, then we have lost. We will never gain a greater satisfaction if we stick to what is expected or the predetermined pathway. The "verse" I would want to contribute is one of rebellion to the world today. Show that social ties can be broken, everyone can get along if we really put forth an effort, money isn't something that should drive us to do things and run our lives, and such ideas relative to that. If we all rise up together, we can't all be knocked down in defense.