Individual Communications Experiments
Undertake some experiment communicating with someone in a different way than you are now, and reflect on your experience.

  1. Use a different way of communicating or different social media platform to talk to someone than you usually use with that person.
  2. Choose someone from an older generation to communicate with and commit to communicating with that person on a regular basis through a method you both agree to.
  3. Choose a good friend and make phone dates to talk for a length of time.
  4. Use a social media platform that you use regularly and use it in a different way. For example, if you use Snapchat to connect socially, try only posting links to meaningful content.
  5. Only converse with people face-to-face for a while – no texting, calling, video, or apps
  6. Only converse with people digitally for a while – no face-to-face conversation.
  7. Seek out as many sources as you can for viewpoints that differ from your own.
  8. Decide together with your family to try to use/create a different way of communicating with each other. Use a bulletin board, open a social media account shared only with family members, etc.
  9. Get a typewriter and type all your school assignments on it for a set amount of time.

Individual Digital Technology Relationship Experiments
Undertake some experiment with how you interact with digital technology, and then write a reflection about your experience.

  1. Track your usage of devices or programs carefully/accurately (instead of just trying to “guesstimate”)
  2. When doing homework, keep an exact log of the time, including each time you switch tasks within the homework or each time you switch to a different talk. Note if you are doing multiple things at the same time.
  3. Choose a device and decide on a set amount of time when you won’t use it.
  4. Binge on an app or show. Really binge.
  5. Only consume news from a single type of source (if you are used to consuming news from multiple sources).
  6. Consume news from as many sources as possible (if you are used to consuming news from a single source or not really consuming news at all)
  7. Use your devices, but not with the Internet or WiFi.
  8. Delete all apps from your phone. Use it only for text/phone calls.
  9. Use an app to track which websites you visit and how much time you spend on them.
  10. Compare your use with your parents’ use – create an experiment between parents and kids