Do you happen to know an adolescent whose first impulse, on opening his or her eyes in the morning, is to rummage under the pillow for the cellphone?
Would you be familiar with a teenager whose inclination at the dinner table is to tweet, text, e-mail or otherwise connect electronically with others not present at the table?
Have you driven a carpool with someone who tweets more than she talks?
Here’s an idea: Plant these technologically addicted young people in front of the TV for a short, important documentary from Linda Ellerbee and NickNews.
“Middle School Unplugged,” at 7 p.m. Sunday on Nickelodeon, follows three hyper-wired teens through a solid week without gadgets after a “tech intervention” by friends and family.
For seven days, these plugged-in kids had to reliquish smartphones, computers, videogames — even TV and radio. They doubted they could survive.
“I’m definitely addicted,” acknowledges Mary Catherine.
“Technology is sort of part of my identity,” says Wade.
Some experienced boredom, even acute anxiety without their gizmos. But nobody bailed on the experiment and, by the end, they had all engaged with friends and family in new ways. Deisha talked, read, cooked, played guitar and bonded with her mom in a new way. Mary Catherine jumped on a trampoline and had a hula-hoop contest with friends. Wade read and caught up on sleep (he’s usually online first thing in the morning and into the wee hours).
One actually observered that time spent with friends was “more fulfilling than a social-network site.”
Nobody is suggesting they take the Luddite approach to the rest of their lives. But they suggest themselves that maybe there’s a healthy balance.
Engel in Afghanistan.
With violence escalating in Afghanistan, the president’s top military commander there, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, was relieved of command midweek over remarks he made criticizing the administration and the war effort. Cable news was all over the errant general. Fallout continues. And so, Richard Engel’s timing is perfect.
The NBC News chief foreign correspondent contributes a remarkable two- hour documentary Sunday about a lethal U.S. oversight in Afghanistan that seems sadly indicative of what’s going on there.
Engel follows a father who tracks down the lack of planning and communication that got his son and many others killed in Afghanistan. “A Father’s Mission” will be broadcast 6-8 p.m. Sunday on KUSA-Channel 9. It’s under the “Dateline NBC” banner, but don’t let that put you off. Frankly, this report would have had a stunning emotional impact last week, if it had aired on Father’s Day. But more people may be open to its serious message this week with Afghanistan ascendant in the news.
Engel, a veteran war correspondent with five years in Iraq, tells the story of Chosen Company. In the summer of 2008, nine members of the platoon were killed defending a tiny outpost in eastern Afghanistan.
Without adequate gear or even water, they were sent to hold an impossible bit of territory at the bottom of a ring of mountains, easy picking for snipers.
The circumstances of their deaths were sketchy at first. Their families, led by one of the fathers (who has an impressive military history himself), petitioned the army for answers into why their sons died. Engel puts it all together from eyewitness reports, e-mails and videos sent home from the front, and amazing battlefield footage.
In his telling, the personal stories of loss and lives forever changed leads into a chronicle of how the military has since changed its approach to the war. It’s heart-wrenching television.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
