I started off the
weekend thinking to myself about how hard it was going to be to cut back
technological use, text messaging, and social media sites. I initially began at
5:00 P.M calling my parents, sister, friends, and relatives and telling them that
I would be “offline” for the entire weekend. I got the “Are you crazy?” “Why?”
and “That’s the dumbest thing ever.” But anyway I decided to ignore all of the
negative comments and on Friday I shut down my laptop, my phone, and anything
else that distracted me from achieving the goal of no technology for 48 hours. After
I did that I took a deep breath and tried to relax and take a break from all of
the hoopla that surrounded the Internet.
Ten minutes in I started
to feel at ease. I was just lying on my bed and a sudden rush of euphoria ran
through my head. My mind was blank and for the first time in a while my mind
wasn’t racing, it wasn’t thinking, it was just at rest. I fell asleep and at
about 9:00 P.M. I woke up feeling refreshed and energized. For some odd reason
though I had an urge to check my phone and computer. So, having been on no
technology for four hours I open my laptop and turn it on. I turned on my phone
as well and received several texts. I re-opened Facebook and received multiple
notifications. I realized that I COULD go without technology for a whole
weekend, but what’s the point?
In today’s day and age,
EVERYTHING is online. Okay, maybe not everything but, it is true that a good
chunk of your life is spent online. I couldn’t help myself but to dive back
into the online world and “surf” the Internet, and check my Facebook and
Instagram. I like being connected and almost feel a little lost without it. I
just didn’t WANT to go without technology, that’s the difference. So many
things and events happen online that one is almost obligated to join the online
community. After those four hours I had an insatiable hunger for being
“connected” and desire to get back on the Internet.
All in all, this
experiment made me become aware that it is very hard to disconnect for not only
a long period of time but for a short one as well. It’s almost like
disconnecting half of you. But on the other hand I do understand the importance
of why we did this and why sometimes we do need to disconnect and see what’s happening
in the real world while we are staring at screens for most of the day. Give
yourself a break and go enjoy life. As Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a
while, you could miss it.”
3 comments:
Nice blog Matt. I completely agree with your assessment. It's really difficult to disconnect from things like our phones and social media, and in some cases it really seems like there's no overall reason to. It seems like we're really missing out. But I also agree with your idea that we have to stop and "see life" for a while too, and that's really what I took out of it too. Good work, though I guess... bad work on staying off the technology, hahaha.
I found your analysis of technology nowadays very interesting. I also believe that we are becoming very dependent with the internet and technology, as we are living in a digital world. This technology makes our lives go by very fast, and I agree with the quote you used from Ferris Bueller. I agree with you that it's not whether we can go without technology, but the question is why should we? Technology is everywhere and it is not going to go away, so I see the point that we don't need to go without technology because it will probably never happen. However, I think that it is good to sometimes "disconnect" and see what life would be like without it.
I liked your post and found that my experience was very similar to yours. I gave up almost instantly and used my phone for text messages, calls, weather updates, and Instagram. I went without Facebook and Twitter but didn't feel very different once I checked it again.
Since so much communication and connection happens online, there really is no point to stay entirely disconnected. While I do see the benefits of limiting ourselves and taking a break from social media, I feel it is almost impossible to go entirely without our computers and cell phones. Not because we need to be on pointless websites, but we need to stay connected to organizations and other people.
You didn't exactly complete the assignment but it's okay..I didn't either.
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