You are about to enter an experience called the Black Mirror. (“Black Mirror” re

You are about to enter an experience called the Black Mirror. (“Black Mirror” refers to the reflection you see when staring at the screen of any smartphone, iPad, TV, LCD screen when it’s off—it looks like a Black Mirror and is of course, the name of a show on Netflix that examines the consequences of new technologies.)
You will adhere to a strict information blackout for a couple of hours. Make no effort to obtain news from any source, including from family and friends. No cell phone updates or e-blasts. No weather forecasts, no sports scores, no news of any kind, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit or other any other social media. No conversations about news. No TV news, no radio news, no alerts on your cell phone. Those screens will all be “black mirrors” when it comes to any news.
More importantly, you must take active steps to avoid news that makes its way to you: walk out of the room if the TV is tuned to news, switch stations if news breaks in on your radio, change home pages if news turns up there, leave the table if it comes up at mealtime. The point of this experience is to shut out all news, whether it is consumed actively or passively.
Use your phone to take detailed notes (time you started/ended and when/where your observations occur, details of incident, what you felt or said) of your observations and reactions. How difficult was it to stay unplugged? What made it difficult? Or easy? Did news sneak past your defenses? If so, what happened? When your blackout was over, what information did you realize you missed? What did your experience teach you about where and how you get news? Did it teach you anything about the role of news in our lives?
Before you begin your essay, select three to four anecdotes to illustrate your experience and what it taught you. Describe your experience in a 300-400 word first person reflection. Start with a strong, well-crafted opening paragraph that introduces your theme: Your takeaways from this experience and then back up those takeaways with several effective examples in subsequent paragraphs. Be specific. NO trivial weather-related anecdotes please. Use the last paragraph for a conclusion about what you learned about yourself and the role of news and media in your life. Please double space this essay and use the highest standards of correctness in grammar and punctuation