Entry 6: Final Reflection

Throughout my reading the memoir The Winter of our Disconnect, I took note of a few things to compare to my feelings I had before I began the book. For one, it was written in many different styles to form one book with many interesting aspects and experiences that Maushart writes about. For one, the book does not follow one consistent format. In certain sections the book will be written like a journal or diary, with dates and small entries about things that have happened concerning the disconnect that day. In other sections of the book, Maushart writes like it is a novel; with page after page filled with nothing but paragraphs of her talking about certain challenging aspects of the disconnect or how it has affected the family. In some ways, I prefer this ‘chaotic’ writing format: It gives relief to the mind reading paragraph after paragraph with some short and sweet dialogue filled entries.

In terms of what was expected, Maushart filled those expectations and added some more. I was initially interested in the book to see what would happen when three teenagers, relating to me more obviously than Maushart herself, were suddenly deprived of the internet and technology they know and adore. Comparing that to other memoir’s previously studied, like Night by Elie Wiesel where there was little to no connection to me and the topic had no present and reoccurring connection to my daily life, The Winter of our Disconnect was a memoir that related to me in multiple ways discussed in other entries, and that was what drew me to the book.

“When we thunder ‘But how can you THINK with that racket going on?’ they explain sweetly, ‘The thing is: Our brains are different.’” (146) is a quote that connects with me and I believe most of my peers in many ways. It’s true; children these days can multitask and work in conditions most adults cannot focus in. The quotes and passages like this are plentiful, and Maushart did a wonderful job of making me think about my life differently than I have before. 

Entry 5: Connections

The work I selected to relate to my memoir The Winter of our Disconnect, meaning the work had to relate to a loss or complete lack of technology or electricity, was a YouTube clip titled Life Without Technology at Temple University. Immediately, the video is in a black and white format and the audio disabled; the students who made it at Temple University designed it to look similar to a silent film from older days of society. The video shows a student in a life that seems to be completely screen free, and comments on the movie appear throughout the video. “It was dull, it was cold, it was quiet all of the time…” (0:41). This quote describes the atmosphere of the students life without technology. Using adjectives like dull and quiet, the video is demonstrating that, contrary to Maushart’s experiment, life without technology is not the best kind of life.

Images of students seemingly being confused and having a hard time finding a book in a library without a search engine computer available to direct you to where the book is located, giving an example of how technology makes things simpler, faster, and easier for everyone that can use it. This relates to Maushart’s memoir in an opposite way; Maushart’s memoir had a general theme of a life that was more peaceful and a family that got along and did things together much more often than they would with technology, putting Maushart’s position on the matter against a constant technological life. This video by students at Temple University seems to have the perspective from the other side; before even the basic technology, things were long, boring and challenging: “For this slow-paced work flow was driving everyone insane…” (1:09). This quote is stated in a time of the video when students seem to be having a challenging time at doing their work in the library, scanning book after book looking for the right one.

The ending clip is of students discovering technology for seemingly the first time, and suddenly the video has switched from black and white to color. The last few seconds show students working together and having a good time in a conference room with a big television and computer. Again, the views are opposite and the theme and tone of my memoir and this video clip are, for the most part, against each other. Although Maushart did not believe that technology was a bad thing, she simply believed that being sucked in to it like most people do is not living life with technology to the fullest. Overall, both the video and the book demonstrate how technology makes a huge impact on our lives, negative or positive.

Life Without Technology at Temple University  

Entry 4: Title Significance

The memoir’s title: The Winter of our Disconnect has literal and figurative meanings that author Susan Maushart has put in place to enhance the book as a whole. Literally, the experiment did begin in the end of December, in the winter season and carried on into the end of July. Approximately six months, from winter to summer, of no technological help besides the basic electricity in the Maushart family home. Of course, the children most likely got a good amount of it at friends’ houses or at school, but for the most part, they had nothing. Then there’s the second part of the title: the disconnect itself. This portion of the title literally explains what the Maushart family will be doing during that long winter, spring and portion of summer: disconnecting themselves. Specifically, they will be disconnecting themselves from power altogether and gradually come back to basic power. However, throughout the entire experiment, there was no such thing as a Facebook account or texting someone from a cell phone. The title explains that the Maushart family will be completely disconnecting themselves from social media and technology in that long dreadful winter.

Figuratively, however, the title The Winter of our Disconnect seems to be a reflection of the novel by John Steinbeck, entitled The Winter of our Discontent, and many people seem to get the two titles mixed up. The Winter of our Disconnect is so similar in name to Steinbeck’s novel most likely on purpose; Maushart wanted to convey that her winter of disconnect with her three teenage children is equal to that of a winter of discontent. This is because of the levels of boredom that all four of them will undergo, the rebellion the children will most likely pose at some time or another, and rebellion Maushart herself poses on her own operation. Additionally, the loss of something like technology which has become so vital to most families in today’s day and age including the Maushart family, suddenly losing it when most of our daily routines involve it has to be quite an uncomfortable experience.

            “’Muuum, I’m bored.’ It was Bill, a towel slung over his shoulders, demanding to be taken to the water-polo pool.” (64). The boredom certainly is an aspect of discontent in the beginning of the book, not to the bored child but to Maushart, the motherly figure who her kids all go to for help or guidance as to what to do to satisfy their need to be entertained. But, the disconnect cannot take all of the ‘credit’ in the figurative language; Maushart associated a cold, bitter, and harsh season such as winter to the experience as well as discontent. Maushart clearly had a negative outlook on the experiment and feared it would not be pleasant.

Entry 3: Emotional Reaction

Throughout The Winter of our Disconnect many entries in the book or sometimes entire pages of it made me stop and think about my reaction to reading it. For instance: “Bill played Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1, on the piano, beautifully…Overwhelmed with admiration, wonder…and guilt. If we’d been ‘experimenting’ all along, where would he be now??” (138). A few parts of this quote taken from an entry on April 24^th, later on in the experiment, really stop and got me thinking about what I would be like today if I cut all of the technology out of my own life. And, being a piano player myself, seeing another pianist mastering pieces beautifully because of how they cut out the huge vacuum of social media gets me wondering the same thing as Maushart wondered: Where would I be now if I had done the same, in anything?

Mausharts dialogue here, shockingly, describes my mother’s feeling about me playing the piano and spending too much time on things like the computer. That is the second part of my reaction to reading this passage; how guilty my mother must feel, like Maushart was, about not encouraging me more and more to play the piano or disconnecting me from technology which is simply holding me back! Now, I’m feeling more and more like I need to surprise my mother with a beautiful piano piece like Gymnopédie No.1 sometime and have her admire me and feel good. But, that terrifying thought of losing technology for six months, the thought that had to have crossed Annni, Sussy and Bill’s mind several times throughout “the experiment”, speaks to me and tells me I wouldn’t be able to handle it. But, this quote has me wondering if I could.

Entry 2: Passage Analysis

            One quote that impacted me the most in the beginning of my reading of The Winter of our Disconnect was: “That night, I went to say goodnight and found the boys sitting up on Bill’s bed, side by side with their Coleman lanterns and their books: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and—get this—The God Delusion. So Dawkins was wrong after all, I reflected as I tiptoed down the hall. There really is a god” (54).

            This quote, written in a section of Maushart’s memoir that takes place after the disconnect has begun, shows how the children were adapting to the situation at hand so quickly which shocked me the most. In this case, it was Maushart’s son Bill and his friend Pat, who were both major gamers on their PCs. However, after the disconnect occurred and Bill was left powerless, literally, it seems that they adapted to the situation and ended up productively reading instead of playing video games or watching television on the internet. In this case, the productiveness and time of the two children that would normally be spent on technology, is now being put to use making light of a situation they were disgruntled about, and therefore for the better.

            Maushart even incorporates irony in this quote, stating that there really was a god after viewing what was going on in Bill’s room. To her, it must have seemed like a miracle that she had gotten two teenage boys, previously almost addicted to internet and video games, to read a book on their own and with no complaints. This ties in to how this quote is significant to the book as a whole because now, at a rate where the book is only 1/4^th the way through and the children are already adapting and enjoying themselves to a technology free life, a thought arises about how things, from here on in, can get even better for the Maushart family. 

Entry 1: Initial Impressions

            “The Winter of our Disconnect” by Susan Maushart will be quite an interesting read. I expect the book to relate to me and my life greatly because the book is about how Susan and her three teenage children literally disconnected themselves from technology for a period of 6 months. Because I, like most other children my age, am so dependent on technology and use it in my day to day life in numerous ways, I think this memoir was a good choice for me. It will also be interesting to see how Susan Maushart writes her books; I know nothing about her or her writing style, so this memoir will be opening a world of new things to me into Susan and her personality.

            I’m excited and anxious to begin reading the book, and I anticipate that, through interest in what it would be like if I disconnected myself from technology and what the results were from Maushart doing it, I won’t be able to put the book down. I’m also intrigued to see how the process of Maushart and her family disconnecting from the technological world affected them physically and emotionally, as well as their bond as a family. I have questions for the book that will hopefully be answered in my reading that include how characters behaved and reacted over certain things and periods of time. If the book accurately portrays that unplugging has positive, rich, and varied benefits and rewards as opposed to being on the chain attached to technology for the rest of my life, perhaps an unplug is in my future, inspired by Maushart’s memoir.