DISE Faculty Lecturer Aron Lee Rosenberg and his Year without Internet Featured in 不良研究所 Alumni News
Most PhD candidates don鈥檛 spend a year shunning their topic of doctoral study. But that鈥檚 sort of what Aron Lee Rosenberg, MA鈥�19, PhD鈥�23, did when he decided to spend an entire year offline to better understand the impact of the internet. Rosenberg deliberately doesn鈥檛 mention Covid in the book. We all know it happened. And though the pandemic accelerated many online trends, it wasn鈥檛 the cause.
He prepped for his offline year, acquiring a flip phone and setting up text messaging through SMS (phone) networks instead of MMS internet-based platforms. He ordered the Yellow Pages and White Pages and made a lot of phone calls. He received bills in the mail and paid them by cheque. He eschewed email and started writing letters the old-fashioned way.
Registering for his classes proved to be surprisingly difficult without using the internet. Rosenberg now better appreciates the challenges facing students living up north who face internet problems regularly.
