The Weekend Without the Network

Before 5 pm on Friday, I tried to communicate with as many people as possible.  First, I posted to Facebook that I would be gone for the weekend.  Then,  I Skyped with one of my dearest friends for my last hour.  When I noticed that there were only 10 minutes  left, I called my Madison friends and made plans for Friday night.  Then, I logged off.

It wasn't even a minute later that I reached for my phone to check Facebook.  To stop myself from doing this, I talked to my roommate for an hour and then went to my friend's hall.  We had dinner and watched a movie.  I before I left, we discussed what we were going to do the next day.

When I got back to the dorm, my roommate had already gone home for the weekend.  That meant that I had limited social interaction until 6pm on Saturday.  How did I deal with this? By watching every episode of BBC's Sherlock on Netflix.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  That's breaking the rules!  No it isn't.  There was no networking function on Netflix; therefore, it is not breaking the rules.

After watching Sherlock Saturday afternoon, I went over to my friend's room again.  There, we watched another movie.  After we watched the movie, I returned back to my empty room and went straight to bed.  Normally, I would go online for an hour and talk to one of my friends, but instead I got some sleep.

Sunday, I watched Sherlock and worked on homework.  I did, however, have to break the rules.  My parents planned to visit, but they did not know when they would be in Madison.  They sent me texts to notify me when they were coming, so I had to read them.   I did not, however, send any back. So although I did read the texts, I didn't communicate back.  I went out to dinner with them at 5 pm, so I didn't actually go online until 6:30-7:00.

When I went online, I had 17 notifications, 1 message, 6 snap chats, and a handful of emails.  Most of this was junk, and I didn't really miss out on anything.  However, I did miss talking to some of my friends who are going to different schools.

Overall, it was nice to be away from my social network, but I think the video sites, such as Netflix and Hulu, are my distraction.  If I did not go on this sites, or watch my DVDs, I would have been completely bored.  I don't think I would have been productive, because I would find some other way to distract myself such as reading or drawing.  So in the end, it isn't the technology's fault for my distraction, but my own.  I may use my technology everyday, but it is my choice to use it as a distraction.

I did make a vlog about this weekend.  To see it, click here.