Onsrud

David Onsrud
Professor Laura Knudson
UWRT 1103
7 October 2015
Cultural literacy Narrative
Before I had ever heard of a Cultural Myth, I encountered a rather life changing event
that centered around a cultural myth. Even though I didnt know what I was seeing was a cultural
myth, I still knew it was something quite intriguing. It all began early this last July when I was
getting ready to go on a camping trip. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but this was
the best point in my life for this kind of change as I was trying to start working my way out of
my comfort zone and try new things. The myth involves my generation and our apparent addition
to technology. Without it, many teenagers seem lost and unsure of what to do, and as a result, it
might seem that it would be hard to make new friends without any form of technology or social
media. I feel that this has held a large roll in the modern youth being far more materialistic than
those before us. However, I saw quite the opposite when I went on this camping trip. There was
no doubt that I was nervous about going, I wouldnt be the person I am now had I not done that.

It all started when my sister had gone on the trip the year before me. It was appealing to
her because she tended to be the type to try and meet new people and go on the occasional
adventure. However, I was quite the opposite, I wasnt the type to go out of my comfort zone or
try and meet new people. For that exact reason I had absolutely no interest in going on some
huge adventure like this. But thankfully for me, right as the time came to decide whether I was
going to do it or not, I had gotten a bit of inspiration to go out of my comfort zone and find an

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adventure. Once the time came and I decided to go, I had to try and figure out what exactly I was
getting myself into. It was a 23-day camping trip across the entire country. We went through 21
states and covered over 7,000 miles. And arguably the most interesting part of this, it was with
51 random people that I had never meet before, and not a single person was allowed to bring a
cellphone. The most we could have in regards to technology consisted of a camera and a digital
watch. We were all on a level playing field. No one had anything that was better than anyone
else. Needless to say, I was intimidated. Its a lot to take in, especially when you are an
introverted person like myself. I wasnt so much concerned about the fact that that I had to live
without technology itself, but the fact that I was living without all the luxury of communication
with any and all of the people Ive ever known. And knowing this as I was about to embark on
my journey, I knew that the adjustment would be fairly different.

As I embarked on my journey, I first encountered these strangers as we sat across from

each other in these Ford 15-passenger vans. We sat there and all kept to ourselves, silently
making judgments about the people we were going to be living with for the next three weeks. It
was probably one of the most awkward situations that Ive even been in. This was completely
intentional on the part of the staff, which was coordinating the entire trip. But before long at all,
the fact that we were all in the same uncomfortable situation made it very judgment free. It was
by far the most accepting group of teenagers Ive ever seen in my entire life. This is where the
cultural myth begins to fall apart. As we sat there in total awkwardness for the first few hours, we
were all wondering why we were doing this and probably regretting the whole thing entirely. But
on the second day, something really interesting started to happen. People had come to terms with
the fact that there was no outside communication and all we had was each other. There was a

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vary rapid shift from introverted shyness, to an overwhelming sense of openness with people
who were basically just strangers. It started slowly with casual small talk in order to get to know
peoples names and perhaps some basic information about them. But the part I found to be really
interesting was when it rained on the third night of the trip. We hadnt had a chance to set up
tents before it rained, so we were working to keep our belongings dry as well as establish a dry
place to sleep. This was an incredibly stressful situation, but once we accepted the fact that we
were all going through the same problems, we were able to work as a team to set all the tents up.
It almost seemed like a spontaneous teambuilding/trust exercise that mother nature wanted to
through our way. And after that, these teenagers who barely knew each other had come together
and become really close friends who trusted each other immensely. This is when I began to
notice the social changes that were happening within the group. Normally it takes a really long
time to get to the point of friendship that we had reached in only a few days. I feel this has a lot
to do with the complete separation from technology and many of our more materialistic norms.
Not only were teenagers able to live without a constant Internet connection, but also we were
having far more fun than if we were all staring at cellphones the whole time. My generation is so
drawn to technology when we arent doing something that demands 100% focus, and even then a
lot of people still use their phones (like texting ad driving). It has become the norm in our society
to be this way, but why? Talking to just about anyone over the age of 40, and they say they
remember a time when kids used to go outside to have fun. Sadly, now the definition of fun
often just involves watching Netflix, or playing video games. Also friends arent measured by
the number of actual friends you have, but by a number of Facebook, or twitter followers. This is
exactly why I was so surprised seeing all of these people, including myself, being totally content
with absolutely no way of updating Facebook, or checking twitter. And as the journey went on

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the urge to check a phone for texts, or read about whats happening in the world seemed to drift
further and further from our thoughts.

My understanding of cultural myths, is that they are ideas held by society as a norm for a
certain group or type of person. And therefore, its not a stretch at all to say that teenagers (and
everyone for that matter) have become known to seem oblivious to the real world because they
are so caught up in the virtual world. Our society has transformed during the digital revolution,
now so much of our time is consumed behind a screen that we have forgotten a lot of what used
to be fun. We have morphed our thoughts to accommodate this new way of making friends and
talking to people that we seem to become more anti-social. This raises the question of whether
social networks are really social, or is it just this fake sense of friendship that makes people feel
like they have hundreds or thousands of friends, when in reality, they only have a few real true
friendships. I had not really put any thought into this cultural myth until I went on this trip, but it
was a really eye opening experience that cause me to notice how much time people spend on
their phones in a normal day. How often are you walking down a sidewalk and just about every
person you see seems to be on their phone? In Bell Hooks book, Where we Stand, she talks
about how the me-me class is a generation of youth driven by material possessions and
materialistic goals. She discusses the fact that young people are becoming more and more
detached with what really matters. And although her book was written in 2000, I think she would
certainly agree that the changes brought on by more recent social networking and digital
communication have only furthered this problem with the youth.
This particular myth stood out to me due to my experience without a cellphone, which
seemed to me as a fairly necessary part of modern life. But as I saw myself and the people

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around me change rather dramatically in an extremely positive way. Teenagers can live without
technology, and in many ways its a lot easier to not only have fun while also simply enjoying
the world around us. Its a shame that cultural norms can dictate our choices so strongly that we
are almost afraid of living without our technology. Older generations can clearly see the
difference, whereas younger people have grown up this way. I learned how something that was
an extremely deeply rooted and largely true stereotype, could be changed quite easily with a
different environment to help aid the change.

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Works Cited

Hooks, Bell. "Chater 7: The Me-Me Class." Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York:
Routledge, 2000. N. pag. Print.