Our Hero of the Week is Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, for its inspired and innovative scholarship offered to students who are willing to go without a smartphone. The “Unplugged Scholarship” for undergraduates awards not only the financial help to attend school but also the opportunity “to reclaim what it means to be human.”
The idea was born from a group of Franciscan University alumni, fundraising to support young students who are willing to imagine a future that is less dependent on digital media and much more equipped to build relationships and be present with the world around us.
Scholarship recipients give up smartphones for the entirety of the undergraduate period. Even though it seems impossible at first, the enterprise has met with huge enthusiasm. A pilot group of 30 scholarship recipients and an even larger number of volunteer participants (almost 50) have joined the “Humans Engaging Reality” group to share their experiences and challenges.
This is an utterly commendable initiative by Franciscan University of Steubenville that is committed to educating “the whole person” within an environment of faith. Ideas like these are breaking new ground and can foster a future generation of society that will be less susceptible to the many forms of mind control the digital age has facilitated.
As related reading, please take the time to read this article on Substack by Emanuel Pastreich that provides an excellent description of the dangers the “digital corral” and smart grid are posing. Here, the smartphone (and the digital media at large) are correctly identified as a “silent weapon for quiet wars.”
“This weapon is aimed at the intellectual classes as a means of destroying their minds from within.”
It may well be the reason why, after three years of rallying, the freedom fighters are still not making progress. To make progress, we ultimately need young people and a new generation freed from addiction to their own digital enslavement. Franciscan University of Steubenville is actively helping in achieving this.
Related Solari Reports:
Control & Freedom Happen One Person at a Time
The Economy of the Energy Body with Ulrike Granögger
Related Reading:
Innovative Scholarship Confronts Crisis of Smartphone Addiction
Homepage of Franciscan University of Steubenville
A Solution to Student Smartphone Addiction
Imagine a world without smartphones by Emanuel Pastreich
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars: An Introductory Programming Manual
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