Middle school faculty and students met over lunch last week to share their reflections and to discuss
their experience of #DigiDetoxGA. When 7th grader, Zack Thurlow, was asked the question: How would you summarize the detox in three words? he quickly responded, "Not that hard." Cianni Williams, another 7th grader, had a different experience, calling it
"agonizing" noting social pressure to be on her device. She continued commenting that it was
painful to know that she was missing out on what her
friends were doing and saying. A silver lining, though, for Cianni: "At least I got a scarf out of it."
She took up knitting during her time away from her phone.
Jarrett Anderson, one of the faculty participating in the detox reports, "The detox allowed us use of technology for reasons related to our jobs as faculty and students of GA, and many discussed the difficulty in
finding where those professional obligations start and stop. We also
talked about how technology has become such a
reflex, that we didn't even notice when we'd starting checking e-mail
for personal reasons. Technology's massive presence in our lives, and
the power of habits!"
Faculty and students plan on continuing the conversations around the use of devices, mindfulness about habits, and other issues related to our daily use of technology.
