"The fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable."

That's what she said.

Literally.

The University of Maryland just completed a study in partnership with International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) where 200 college and high school students were asked to give up all media for just 24 hours. From computers to television to cell phones, they could not use any technological devices. The quote from this blog title was a good summation of the overall feelings conveyed by the subjects. Each student who participated was asked to write blog entries after the fast with no length requirement. Among the 200 students, over 110,000 words were written. Just so you know, that's about a 400-page novel.

The study concluded that "without digital ties, students feel unconnected even to those close by."

"The student responses to the assignment showed not just that 18-21 year old college students are constantly texting and on Facebook -- with calling and email distant seconds as ways of staying in touch, especially with friends -- but that students' lives are wired together in such ways that opting out of that communication pattern would be tantamount to renouncing a social life."

One of the stranger, more disturbing parts of the study involved the language of the addicted online socialites. They used words that the researchers often hear from alcoholics and drug addicts, saying they got "jittery" and "extremely antsy" and "frantically craving" and even "miserable."

I've got to say, that when I purposefully fast from technology in order to keep myself in check with some of my beliefs, I find that I'm not so different from my peers. I'd like to think, as perhaps many of you would, that I'm not addicted to my phone or computer, but alas I seem to know my heart well enough to say that I'm equally linked electronically. I reach for my phone or go to turn on the TV without even thinking about it. When my technological fasts are most successfully done, I'm usually in the woods or at the monasteries.

However, the idea that we're now all being connected electronically is not all bad. The study also found that this generation has responded so positively to things like Facebook and Twitter because many of this up and coming generation really care about what is going on in their world: both locally with friends and internationally as a citizen of the world. A student who failed the assignment and wasn't able to shut off the computer said he was glad he failed because he was able to find out about the earthquake in Chile and a friend who needed someone to talk to. The researchers were surprised at how many blog entries included sentimental language about missing their friends and the news about the world around them; the students seem to really care.

The electronic age is not something to be resisted because, frankly, we're already in it. The best thing for those who are older, perhaps having trouble understanding "all this techno-stuff" that the "kids are in to these days," is not to lambaste and demonize it, but to get involved with it. This is how humans will connect for a good amount of the foreseeable future, and if you desire to talk to anyone from any culture or generation, it's often best to meet them where they're at, even if they're online.