Part 2
Presenter: So what were the results? Was it a positive experience?
Jenny :At the end of the book Susan says that it was a positive experience in every way. At first, of course, the kids complained bitterly, they kept saying they were bored. But then they started to talk toeachother again, to go and sit in each other's rooms and chat. They got interested in cooking and reading, they went to the cinema together. They played cDs on the cDplayer and they actually sat and listened to the music instead of just having music on their headphones all the time as background music. And Susan's 15-year-old son started playing the saxophone again,He'd stopped playing a few years before, but then he started having lessons again and even started giving concerts... oh, and the children said that they slept better!
Sally: oh, well that's good, yeah. What about the children's" schoolwork? I mean nowadays we sort of assume that everyone needs the internet to do research for homework and so on.
Jenny: In fact, the children's schoolreports showed that they all improved. when they needed the internet they used the computers at school or at university (the eldest daughter was at university), or they went to friends' houses. But when they did their homework they did it better than before because they weren't multi-tasking they weren't doing homework and listening to music and sending messages all at the same time. So they concentrated better, and their schoolwork improved. Andrew: What about, Susan, the mother? Did she find it difficult to live without modern technology? Jenny: What she found most difficult was writing her weekly article for the newspaper because she had to do it by hand, and not on her laptop. She says that at the beginning her hand used to really ache, she just wasn't used to writing by hand anymore. But that was just a small problem.
Nick: Any other negatives?
Jenny: Well, of course the phone bill for their landline was enormous!
Nick: Has the experiment had a lasting effect?
Jenny: Susan says that it has. She thinks that they all get on much better as a family, her son is still playing the saxophone and he sold his video console. Theyve all realised that we live in a digital world, but that we need to disconnect from time to time and to re-connect to the people around us. So they have new rules in the house, like no TVs in bedrooms and no TV in the kitchen where they eat. And no wasted hours on the internet.
Sally: That would be a good rule for me too!