Disconnected

I am pretty sure I had the same reaction as many as my classmates did once we hear about this weekend's assignment... "haha, that's not gonna happen," turned out I was very right. I knew right away that giving up technology for a whole 48 was going to be difficult, not just because I am addicted to my phone and computer, but because I know how much I rely on them. Every time I utilize an app on these technologies I am very well aware of it, and in the back of my mind I am extremely grateful I have them. So, doing this assignment was not at all an easy task.

As the hour approached, I prepared myself by surrendering my technology to my roommate, who was supposed to keep it all weekend. I thought it was going to be a good idea, but I now realize my mistake because I never actually turned them off. I told her to keep my phone with her at all times, since we are often together, just for emergencies, which of course happened very frequently. For example, Saturday. We had planned an outing to the mall with our friends, and while we were acquainted with the bus systems here from being here all summer, and knew how to read maps and paper schedules, we managed to get lost. Of course in a situation like this, it is easy to just ask a bus driver or utilize a very conveniently placed map from the front of the bus, but instead we had to pull out the phone to look things up. After that thought it went back into my roommate's pocket. It was weird the whole time in the mall though, because I just didn't have it look up Facebook, or Twitter or even just the time, even though I wear a wristwatch.

This outing was very interesting too, because my friend Karina also came along, and from our whole group of friends we are probably the most tech-addicted, so I challenged her to do the experiment with me, for just 24 hours though. She managed to do it, but just like myself we were both very antsy and inpatient during our "down" time, when we weren't really doing much, especially when we went to eat. Another thing was that she missed out on a sale at one of the stores because she didn't have her phone and the sale required her to text in a code, she couldn't. Of course, because my purchase was an emergency, and saving money was an emergency, I took out the phone again to send in the text, well technically my roommate did it. The good thing about this though was that we actually had a nice time shopping and actually talking to each other, I am pretty sure if we had had our phones during our shopping trip, we would have been more concentrated on that than on each other, especially since we had an event that night.

That night then, was when my experiment basically ended. We were required to check in with our org presidents to make sure we all knew what we were doing for the event, which required technology. After getting there then, we again had to use our technology to even further advertise the event by going on Twitter and Facebook, and messaging people to come. Although I did give my phone back to my roommate and she technically kept it until 3pm on Sunday, I constantly required it after then, so it was as if I had it the whole time.

I think one of the most difficult things about this experiment was the fact that technology is so intergrated in everything we do in life. From checking bus schedules, to keeping in contact with people for formal reason, to getting a discount at the mall, we are expected to have the technology to be able to keep up with everythin. Another thing was how much people around have and use technology as well. At one point I was confused because my roommate and I were watching a movie, and it was on her laptop, so I was unsure if it counted or not. So, I guess what I learned from this excersise was that not only is it stupid to think that one can live with absolutely no digital technolgy, because everywhere one goes it's there, but because everyone has something nowadays too. So even though I may not had had a piece of digital technology in my hands, someone else around me did, and by utilizing their for whatever reason, if basically like using one's own.