A GROUP OF media students in Wexford are planning on living without electricity or technology for 48 hours.
Twenty-one students from Enniscorthy Vocational College will take on the challenge in a community hall in the first weekend of March.
And the group is not making it easy for themselves.
There will be a “temptation table” where their mobile’s will be left (turned on) so they can hear their phones beep with messages, calls and e-mails…but they can’t check them.
The Out Of Service project will be turned into a show by SouthEastTelevision.ie as the students try to survive with no laptops, phones or lights.
Maura Roche is one of the students taking part and she told TheJournal.ie:
Technology is everything. I’m always on Facebook and Twitter. I don’t know how I’m going to survive without them.
The group will have a private room called the “Chatter Box” where they can express how they’re feeling.
A number of tasks will have to be carried out during the 48 hours. There will be rewards for completing them but punishments for failures. They’re looking for suggestions from the public on what the tasks, rewards and punishments could be.
But if it all gets too much there is a panic button students can press to get out.
Similar studies have been carried out by pupils in the US, mostly concentrating on giving up technology.
ABC News reported on a group of 250 students who went without devices for seven days.
They described it as “a trip back to 1995″ but reported that most students enjoyed the project, with one saying she started “to like the social experiment”.
“It’s good to talk to people,” she mused.
Meanwhile, a study conducted by students at Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, found students were angry after going without media for 24 hours.
The International Centre for Media & the Public Agenda at the University asked 200 students to take part in the project.
Its research found that “students hate going without media.
“In their world, going without media, means going without their friends and family.”
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