Going without technology for 24 hours
In today’s generation, it’s pretty sad how badly we all rely on technology, for instance, everyone in today’s generation can’t even go to the bathroom without their phone because they're so addicted to there phone and social media which I’m also guilty for I’m very well aware that I am always addicted to my phone. I thought it would be an interesting and fun experience to go 24 hours without technology and then write about it.
I feel like this will be an experience that will be hard and tough and annoying but I also feel like it can teach me to get out of a bad habitat and pay more attention to people. I’m gonna write down how I’m feeling on a notebook every hour besides when I’m sleeping.
Friday, March 15th the day I go 24 hours without my phone and social media I really don’t want to do this because it’s spring break but I’m doing it for a good grade and I didn’t know what else to write about besides this.
11:30 Am: Today I got woken up at 11:30 by my mom and sister because they wanted to go to my grandpa’s house so we could go visit my uncle who’s in town and help my extended family rearrange my grandpas living room. Usually, when I wake up I check my social media but today I didn’t really think about checking my socials because I was to busy and worried about getting dressed and doing my makeup. My boyfriend is in Texas visiting his family and he was busy so I wasn’t really worried about wanting to text him. The night before this challenge I made plans with Matt and Emma to go get ice cream at 8:00 pm so I’m excited about that.
1:48 pm: It’s been a couple of hours and I’m at my grandpa's house with my Aunt Linda, Uncle Scott and his friend, my Uncle Johnny and my sister and mom. The reason there’s so many of us is that we are rearranging my grandpas living room and he had a ton of big furniture for us to move so it took everyone’s help to help move it. So far I haven’t worried too much about my phone but there have been parts where I get bored and want to check my phone but I do good and don’t check my phone. One thing I really want to do though is text my boyfriend Diego but I can’t do that and it really sucks.
3:00 pm: So around this time we got done rearranging my grandpa’s living room and we are all super hangry and ready to eat, so we decided we are going to go eat at Zarda’s BBQ because my grandpa lives in overland park so we were really close to a BBQ place and it sounded good. So far I’ve been pretty occupied but so I haven’t thought that much about my phone all I know is I’m super engaged in every conversation because that’s my only form of entertainment for today. All they talked about was basketball and it was super boring and at that time I really just wanted to whip out my phone but I didn’t.
5:16 pm: So we got finished eating at around 4:30 and we went back to my grandpa's house to gather all of our stuff. My sister is in town from K-State and she really wanted to go spring clothes shopping and since my grandpa lives very close to the mall my sister and I decided to go. At the mall I was pretty busy and more worried about clothes and finding cute stuff then I was about worrying about my phone so the mall was a good choice of entertainment because I didn’t even think twice about touching my phone. The only thing I do miss about my phone is talking to my boyfriend but what’s new.
7:45 pm: We just got home from the mall, we spent a good couple of hours just shopping. My sister bought some cute shorts and cute spring shirts and I just bought a jean jacket and a yellow shirt. The mall was super fun because I was doing something I actually enjoy so it was pretty easy to forget about my phone. Matt is still supposed to pick me up at 8 to go get ice cream and it’s weird because this time I actually have to watch for him to see if he’s arrived instead of getting an “I’m here text” which is the much more convenient.
11:30 pm: I just got home from hanging out with Matt and Emma. Matt picked me up around 8:13 and we went to Sylas and Maddie’s and it was very delicious. I got cookies and cream with espresso chip because it’s my favorite ice cream flavor. While we were sitting down to eat our ice cream I felt very weird and out of place because they were both scrolling through their phones and texting there friends and it was very hard for me not to give in to temptation and check my phone but I didn’t. I probably annoyed them both with how much I actually verbally talked because I was the only one without a phone.
12:55 AM: I’ve been super bored this last past hour all I did was play with my dog and try to entertain myself but it was super hard to find interest in anything. I felt like this was the hour it finally hit me that I couldn’t be on my phone because it was the longest, most boring hour of my life. All I want to do is text my boyfriend because I miss talking to him but I can’t so I’m just going to try to go to bed so tomorrow can come faster because that’s how bored I am. It’s weird because usually before I go to bed I watch YouTube but tonight I obviously can’t so I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to actually fall asleep.
Next morning review: I woke up late again today because it’s spring break and why not I can finally go on my phone and text Diego and do my normal morning routine and go check my social media which felt absolutely amazing. The night before it took me what felt like 40 minutes to actually fall asleep because I couldn’t tire myself out by watching YouTube. Overall this experience was definitely a challenge. In some parts of the day, I felt a little disconnected to the world which is pretty upsetting because it just proves how addicted teens are to their cell phones. I never really noticed how addicted I was to my phone until I did this challenge so it kind of opened up my eyes to a problem. Overall I found myself listening to others a lot more and paying attention to what was going on around me because my head wasn’t buried into my phone. I was apart of a lot of conversations which was nice because I actually talked to people in person instead of on my phone. I wouldn’t do this challenge again at all but I really enjoyed the experience because I think it’s pretty cool and eye-opening to see just how teens really are addicted to their phones.
