Behaviorism at Walden Two : Reading Odell and Skinner

In my essay, I discuss the aspects of “How to Do Nothing” by Jenny Odell as well as Walden Two by B.F Skinner. I found that Odell’s use of Skinner’s book propelled her arguments on the strengths and weaknesses of different types of communes. Walden Two is one where both Odell and I saw it as far too controlling as my essay discusses, and the use of behavioral and social sciences come into play with how a society like this is run. Odell speaks of how Walden Two is a commune that is more on the side of optimistic, but rigid and a less idealistic place, rather than one of disorganization and chaos. An interesting revelation is the fact that the Attention Economy also used behavioral type science to pull people in, in somewhat harmful ways. In my essay I discuss these ideas and others as well.

Link: https://eporette.medium.com/behaviorism-at-walden-two-reading-odell-and-skinner-4e6227a640e9

Forwarding Jenny Odell and breaking free from technology.

            In the section of reading we were tasked to do; Jenny Odell discusses the ideas of communes and social disruption. Both of these topics continue on her narrative of the importance to disconnect from the attention economy. Odell Uses the topic of communes to show that one cannot as Odell puts it “cleanly break “from society at any instant. The idea of social disrupt is used to display the reactions which you can expect if you begin to behave against the social norms amongst other people. Each of these ideas serves a specific informative purpose whose knowledge can be applied to other contexts than just the ones given.

            In chapter two Odell tells stories of many failed communes that took place mostly in the 1960s and 70s. Each failure is used as a teaching point to show that we as modern-day humans cannot simply choose to leave society one day and be 100% independent and isolated the next. While each member of the communes originally was motivated to separate themselves from society, they soon realized that this system would only work if they could drop everything and leave in a snap of their fingers. If this break was not clean the commune would struggle to pay off their prior taxes or pay for the land on which they intended to live or farm. As Odell says on page 40, “After all, mortgages had to be paid, children had to be raised, and most communes couldn’t grow all of their own food” Now that Odell had described the shortcomings of such a break from society, she uses a new example of isolation to communicate her narrative

            Since the break from society which Jenny Odell described in chapter two was almost un-accomplishable many people attempted to disconnect in everyday society by performing acts of social disruption. These performances were done to see the reactions of people when one stopped acting in the ways that have become to be expected of them. One example given by Odell is that of “Bartleby the Scrivener” (p.g. 69) who responded to the orders of his boss at work with the simple sentence “I would prefer not to”This got him fired from his first job, but his second boss grew so frustrated with the situation that he took the man to court where he also only responded to the judge with “I would rather not”. In this situation, people were so shocked at the “abnormal” behavior that they were not sure quite how to respond. Odell used this example to show that you cannot break completely free from the constraints of society while living in it either. 

             I thoroughly enjoyed Odell’s use of real-world examples in this book, especially those in the first chapter. However, I think that the examples used in the second chapter can be pushed to have greater meaning than to show the difficulty of breaking free from society. I think that these examples should go to prove even if you were able to break completely free from society, you would still have a dependence on a community. Even In the successful moments of these communes, people were still dependent on each other. This can be applied to Odell’s narrative in resisting the attention economy to show that you should not turn your back to technology altogether. Instead, you should focus on how you are using technology and make sure that it is in a productive and meaningful way rather than to simply fulfill your desire for attention. 

            Just a few months ago I decided to delete Instagram for several reasons. First, I was getting frustrated with the pervasive politics from both sides and the lack of productive conversations that were coming from this material. Second, I found that the majority of posts I was seeing on Instagram were portraying the most ideal aspects of each person’s lives in ways that were completely misleading to their real lives. Since Instagram was serving no meaningful purpose in my life, I decided to cut it out however, I continued to stay in touch with people I valued via other methods of social media. Several months later, I am still extremely pleased with my decision to remove myself from Instagram. While cut off from one platform of social media I made sure to use other forms of social media in productive and meaningful ways. As Odell says on page 94, “regaining control of it can also mean the discovery of new worlds and new ways of moving through them”. Through this process, I found the true value of technology and why I should not eliminate tech from my life completely. Similar to my technological discovery of semi dependence on technology, the people who lived in the communes which Odell depicted were also still dependent on the most meaningful aspect of society, the community. 

Writing IV: Escapes

To open these chapters from Odell, she talks about this idea of “getting away”. She mentions how difficult it is to be able to set things aside and essentially “do nothing”. To emphasize this, she talks about communes and get-away retreats that have been brought up through the testament of time. She opens up chapter 2 by talking about her own experience with a technology retreat, in which she was not even prepared for, and continues to talk about the communes of Epicurus in the 4^th century BC (Odell 35), and even with the hippie movement of the 1960s (37). All these retreats, for the most part, include dropping all of technology, getting away from your work, and rejoicing with those around you. The communes were built for hose who were tired of their lives and needed an escape. Much of these communes were set up in mountains or valleys or other places remote from civilization. Sometimes, getting away was the only thing that people needed to turn their life around.

Seemingly, this goal of getting away from the drama was always unfortunate for the most part. From the beginning of time, the movements of getting away from society and doing your own thing was never stable enough to withstand the complications that came with it. Jenny Odell brings up a statement that Robert Houriet talks about when commenting on the reasons for the failure of these communes:

“Facing disorganization and frustration- unfinished geodesic domes, crops gone wrong, arguments over how to raise children, and ‘the phenomenon of the unlabeled jars’- the atmospheres of naive optimism eventually gave way in some places to a more rigid and less idealistic approach.” (44)

Conflicts arose in almost every commune over issues much like those stated by Houriet. “Politics” arose. The members of the communes could never seem to agree on how to go about day-today life. With that, people left the communes and they fell apart.

Inherently, people are all unique and not a single person has the same ideologies to another. The practices of these communes normally involve an individual to always get along and agree with the neighbor that is next to them. This was somewhat impossible through a long period of time, which is why they could never work out. For instance, when Woody Ransom tried bringing up his won commune with his friends, he originally let them all sit back and do their own thing. But, as time passed, the commune needed some type of productivity to stay alive, and when Woody looked towards those that were around him, they were not there (50). He then went on to start another commune, but this one brought him out as a dictator. More specifically, “members (then) lived in a modern house with regular appliances, worked 8 hours a day 6 days a week, and kept strict visiting hours” (51). This was no way to live, especially for one trying to escape reality. Based on what is seen, the theme that the communes turned into something that they were made to escape is pushed through the reading. For Odell, a subtle and short retreat away from work was good for her. However, the communes throughout time seemed to do the opposite.

              In a way, there is a parallel between this vision of the communes and the way schools are running right now. For a lot of people in America, school was used as an escape from some of their conflicts with themselves. Whether it came to kids with special needs, kids with a rough home life, or kids fighting depression, school was a major alternative. Unfortunately, schools are closed in a lot of places so that outlet is gone. Just as a lot of the communes fell apart as Odell talks about, this situation regarding schools can be seen as similar. Just as communes changed, schools are too. My hometown school just recently cut out its School Based Youth Services (SBYS) Program to cut down their finances. This school is home to over 1600 students and a large majority of them went to SBYS to cope with all their struggles. It is the only getaway that some students have. Much like how the communes became counterproductive to what they were trying to accomplish, schools like mine are following the same path. The escape that was supposed to be provided by the communes was not always successful and now the escape that school provides is falling apart as well.