Day Without Technology
Lilly Drohan
Lazy Sunday
So this is me and my bed. We're best friends. I am a pretty lazy person sometimes and I knew the instant this was assigned that I was probably going to nap for most of the day. Luckily I didn't end up doing that but I did take a pretty good 2 hour nap. I also slept in till around noon because I had no alarm clock. I chose to do this day on a Sunday because what better day to be lazy?
Bathroom Cleanse
Once I got out of bed I really didn't know what to do with myself and I started to panic (which feels really silly typing now) I instantly felt a longing to look at my phone. I decided what better way to pass time than to clean? So I ended up doing a pretty deep cleanse of my bathroom. I still had my phone on my mind and I REALLY wished that I had some music to listen to. I just ended up singing to myself the whole time which I'm sure my roommates loved
Bathtime
After I cleaned the bathroom I realized that I hadn't put my bathtub to use in a while, and since the bathroom was all sparkly and clean, why not take a bath? I read a book and relaxed in the bath for a little over an hour and it was really nice. I tried to keep my head clear and not think about how badly I wanted to check Instagram or listen to Sam Smith. I was already feeling extremely detached from the world and my day was not close to being over.
Lonely Lunch
After my bath I made some lunch for myself and sat there eating it feeling pretty pathetic. I felt really weird. The more I tried not to think about how badly I wanted to listen to music or talk to my friends the worse it got. I particularly missed snap chat. My best friends and I communicate more through snap chat than we do texts or phone calls. I got sad thinking about everything I was missing (which also seems silly typing out) .
Yay American Literature
Luckily I am currently taking an American Literature class so I had lots of fun reading I could do. After moping about my phone over my lunch I got some reading done. I felt like I read a lot better without my phone on me. On any other day I probably would have been looking at my phone periodically while I was reading which can get really distracting. I felt that I read faster and had a clearer understanding of the material without my phone. I'll definitely be stashing my phone away where I can't reach it for my future reading assignments.
Netflix, I Miss You
After I did my reading I was probably at the point in the day where I would have watched an episode or two of something on Netflix. I missed Netflix a lot. But I tried to find something else to do!
You're a Wizard, Harry
I saw this craft on Pinterest a while ago and bought the stuff to make it but never got around to it. I was really excited when I remembered it. Unfortunately it didn't take up much time but I was really excited about it when I was done and I was really happy I finally found the time to do it. ( I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for this assignment). It's from Harry Potter if some of you didn't know.
Laundry Time
After my craft I decided to tackle some laundry I had been putting off. I also tackled my sisters laundry too just for the heck of it. (I live with my sister). This turned into a pretty long process because my sister is a pig and doing her laundry pretty much just turned into cleaning her entire room. At this point I was REALLY wanting to listen to music. Music is a huge part of my life and I pretty much listen to it non stop everyday. I especially like to listen to music while I'm cleaning so this was painful for me. I also wanted to talk to my friends. (I took my nap after laundry was finished)
Relapse
After laundry and my nap I finally relapsed. I realized that I had to call my mom to ask her a really important question. My phone was turned off and once I turned it on I got a lot of texts and snapchats but I DIDN'T LOOK AT THEM. This took serious strength but I persevered. After that I figured I already relapsed I might as well check my Email because I was waiting on an important one from a professor. Other than that those were the only times I used technology (besides lights and washing machines) and I was pretty proud of myself for that. It was tempting to look at my phone just once but I didn't.
Porch Time
At the end of the day my sister and I had some wine and Oreos and spent some quality time out on the porch. We had really great long conversation and my sister was really happy I wasn't allowed to use technology. She told me I seemed a lot more present and clear minded. I won't lie even during our porch talk I still really wanted to look at my phone, and my sister was playing music which kind of felt like cheating but at least it wasn't me! (Also we did NOT drink a whole bottle of wine in one night just FYI)
Conclusion
It was definitely harder than I thought it was going to be to go technology free for a day. I felt really detached from my friends and from the world. I found myself distracted by the thought of NOT having my phone which I thought was interesting. I missed music the most. I would hate a world without music and it definitely made the day a lot duller. Doing this made me realize that it will be very rare for children to ever go through a day without using technology. It also made me realize how dominant technology is in schools and how I will need to use it A LOT in my future as a teacher.