Post-Disconnect

Wednesday, January 24 2018 12:33pm

Well, this was not what I expected to happen to me. I was in withdrawal of my phone all yesterday, it started right away in the morning. I couldn’t even glimpse at it to see my notifications, like I normally do everyday when I wake up. As I waited for Mela, (the car), to warm up I stared outside at nothing. This is when I normally would be checking all my social media and seeing who posted what last night or what I was missing, maybe even check the weather. I drove to school in silence, that I’m used to, my sister’s car doesn’t have a radio. Then walking into the school I reach down to check the time, and guess what!? No phone, no time! This was the biggest challenge I came in contact with all day, I never knew what time it was! I would try to find clocks and ask people, but I literally just gave up and just went with the flow. A lot of my free time consisted of me finishing the difficult-to-read novel for University Literature which would be due today, I did end up finishing it and finding I understood it better when I didn’t have my phone to distract me. The biggest thing that I definitely underestimated was when I related this experiment to when I went to Montana, this was nothing like that! I loved the general idea of this assignment, but it would have been much better if everyone around was disconnecting as well. I found myself getting frustrated a lot of times just with my peers and noticing how much they could be interacting with one another instead of having all the focus on their electronics. People I was with throughout the day, in whom I had conversations with, often showed me their technology: like a picture, or a video, or something random. This showed me that we use this resource, (the internet), as somewhat like a prop. You can’t just talk about a food, you have to show the other person what it looks like, or google what’s in it etc. I admit I starting going insane when I got home and it was so quiet and my sisters’ called the house phone, I ignored it, then they called again and I pushed myself to ignore it once more. I rely on our new technological advances in our world so frequently; I almost forget I’m using the devices. I would do this again and again, it taught me so much and I told many people within my twenty-four hour span to try it out as well. I will relate my sleep last night to this experiment because I’ve heard many theories about phones affecting bedtimes and so forth. I had the most relaxing, stress-free, non-hesitant, good night’s sleep last night, it was refreshing and I think not watching television or being on my phone helped my brain to calm down. It was so rewarding being able to stop, take a day and kinda reflect on the people around me, and to reflect on myself. I never knew this would happen to me, I didn’t think I was some crazy person addicted to my devices, but now I know, all of us are addicted, even if it’s just a small portion.