Teens Go Tech-Free: No Facebook, Texting for One Week

Dec. 7, 2010— -- Facebook and texting are like food and water for modern-day teenagers. They think in status updates, check e-mail before brushing their teeth and fall asleep while texting.

But, this week, students at two rival high schools in Washington state are taking a trip back to 1995: no Facebook, no texting, no e-mail, no Instant Messaging. Except for emergencies, they don't even plan to use their cell phones.

In a social experiment somewhat inspired by the movie "The Social Network," the teenagers are competing to see who can last the longest without any of the modern-day communication tools that define their lives.

Trent Mitchell, a video production teacher at Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Wash., said that soon after the movie "The Social Network" came out, he chided his students for paying more attention to the cell phones in their hands than their classmates by their sides.

"I jokingly said, 'You guys couldn't go a week without social networks and texting,'" he said. "And one of my students [said] 'we should do that.' And about half the class cheered and about half the class booed."

Ultimately, the half of the class that cheered won out and managed to convince not only classmates at their own school, but students at their rival high school, Shorewood, to participate in the experiment.

Mitchell said about 250 students and teachers at each high school are planning to go tech-free for the week. Students who survive the week – and don't get caught by the "Facebook spies" who are monitoring students' online habits – stand to win prizes donated by businesses in the community. Students in his video production class are filming the experiment and will create documentaries out of their footage.

Nate Matthews, 17, a senior at Shorewood High School, said that even one day into the experiment, he's realizing that old habits die hard.

"When I woke up this morning, I had a thought and my first impulse was to post it on Facebook," he said.

Matthews locked up his cell phone at home so that he wouldn't be seduced into peaking at texts, but said, "It's weird not to have something in my left pocket."