To Plug or Not to Plug
No Digital Day Reflection
At 8:32 pm on Saturday, September 22nd of 2018, my 24 hours of no technology commenced. For this No Digital Day assignment, I decided to cut out all forms of technology, including my cell phone, radio, television, and game systems that may have existed. Before I began, I thought a lot about how I predicted the next 24 hours to go. I knew I wouldn’t have the comfort in checking on my friends through their Snapchat stories and would probably experience some withdrawal symptoms of not being able to send messages to my Snapchat streaks. I had a feeling that it would be odd not communicating with my friends and family back home in Cincinnati and that I might get lost a few times around campus due to my lack of a GPS. From Netflix binging at night to using my phone as an alarm and checking the time, I didn’t know if I was mentally prepared to unplug.
While I was wary about unplugging, I was also a little excited. I knew that not having my phone to get me out of things would push me to become more talkative and aware of my surroundings. When walking around campus, I was excited to focus more on the buildings, architecture, and signs, instead of texting a friend. I’m not entirely sure why I felt like I could only take in my surroundings when I didn’t have my phone on me, but nonetheless, it got me to think. Instead of using my phone as a way to avoid awkward conversations, I’d have to face it. As for schoolwork, I had to plan ahead as pretty much everything is based online. This fact is nerve-wracking as some professor’s schedules could be thrown off completely due to a certain website or internet router being down. This exemplifies how we need technology to function and that we usually don’t create backup plans for when technology is down. Fortunately, I have printed textbooks which allowed me to get ahead on my work instead of delaying it during my day of no technology. In the end, I noted that we often see our phone as an outlet to enhance our experiences while in reality, it could be more of a distraction.
Before unplugging, I told my friends and family that I would be taking a day without technology and that I wouldn’t be responding until the next night. My friends mainly questioned why I was doing it and why I wouldn’t just cheat and keep my phone on. Because I wanted to actually experience and note how bounded I am to technology, I didn’t want to cheat. Reflecting back at their responses, it substantiates how digital devices have such a tight hold on humanity and that it seems ridiculous to some to even part with devices for just 24 hours. This reflects the idea that many are too dependant on devices to live normal day-to-day lives. In addition to telling everyone that I would see them later, my cousin agreed to keep my Snapchat streaks alive while I was gone. Keep in mind that my highest streak is 937 days of communicating daily so naturally, I couldn’t let that end. Finally, at 8:32 pm, I unplugged.
Thirteen minutes after sliding the power off button on my iPhone, I turned my screen back on. I was laying down in bed thinking about life, since I didn’t have social media to scroll on or a random television show to watch, when it hit me. Wait, I have two-factor authentication on my Snapchat account and my cousin won’t be able to keep my streaks alive. Snapchat will send me a text message with a verification code when she logs in then I won’t be able to see the text and forward it to her so that she can successfully log into my account. Oh gosh, let’s restart. Though stressful, I was glad that this moment of realization came early in my twenty-four hours so that I could easily restart. I couldn’t imagine realizing I needed to send her the code when I woke up. If so, I would’ve had to add another eight hours of being unplugged for a simple forwarded message. After a couple of minutes of pre-damage control, I unplugged again at 8:48 pm.
After twenty minutes of pondering the meaning of life and consciousness, I fell asleep. Around fifteen minutes later, thanks to the clock in my room, I was woken up by my neighbors’ door repeatedly opening and closing. Remembering that there was a hall get together that night, I decided that I had nothing else better to do and made myself look a little more presentable. I’d talked with my friend that lives on the floor below me about the get together earlier that day and I knew she was going. Because my phone was off, I had to leave my room, walk down the stairs, and actually knock on her door to see if she was in there. Thankfully, she was. We went down into the basement together and mingled with our hall mates. I was a little nervous at first about not having an easy way out of awkward conversations since I didn’t have my phone, but decided to make the best out of it. Early, in the beginning, I noticed how many other people stayed in the corners of the room on their phones and avoided conversations. I suppose their presence in the basement was merely enough. I did meet a decent amount of new people and made some new friends that I probably wouldn’t have if I had my phone. Thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the basement at all if I wasn’t doing my No Digital Day and would have probably been talking to my friends back home instead. Being disconnected engendered me to see the patterns of those who were connected. One thing that I did detest, however, was not having my phone to check the time. There isn’t a clock in our basement and I had left my watch upstairs in my room. I had to keep asking my friend what time it was and at one point, she told me she didn’t like unplugged me. As I knew that it was mainly a joke, I found it very interesting that someone who doesn’t have their own technology has to rely on others which could easily get tiring. During this hall mingling session, I also realized that instead of having the constant underlying stress of remembering not to sit down my phone and leave it somewhere or drop it, I was stressed that I’d lose my Husky Card and not be able to get back into my room without using the mobile app to unlock my door. Luckily, I never lost it.
The next morning was particularly odd. For as long as I’ve remembered, I wake up and check up on social media. On September 23rd, 2018, I didn’t. I remember sitting in my bed for a bit just thinking about how boring my day would be. Finally, around noon, I got out of bed and cleaned my room. As I started planning my day and deciding what I needed to do, a bunch of thoughts filled my mind. Should I straighten my hair? Is it supposed to rain? Would it be weird to knock on my neighbor’s door and ask if it is supposed to rain this week? I wonder what time the dining hall closes. Is the Stetson West Eatery even open on Sundays? In the end, I decided not to straighten my hair and decided to do some readings for my classes instead. I never did ask a neighbor about the weather forecast.
After hours of reading my Foundations of Psychology textbook and Introduction to Criminal Justice Textbook, I realized how productive I was without the distraction called technology. However, I also realized that technology aided me greatly. There were a few words in the textbook that I wanted to look up a definition to make sure I completely understand the concept, but I couldn’t as I don’t own a physical dictionary. In addition, there were some deep sentences in the psychology textbook that talked about life that I really wanted to share on social media. Lastly, my textbook talked about MRI scans which reminded me of a conversation a friend and I recently had. This made me want to share my new knowledge about how these scans work but I couldn’t due to the distance between us. At one point, I thought about writing what I wanted to say to my friends in a letter and mailing it to them but decided against using a stamp.
Eventually, I went for a late lunch/early dinner at Levine Marketplace. I brought Speak, by Louisa Hall, with me to read (since I couldn’t Facetime a friend back home while eating) and sat and stared out the window while I ate. I noticed the clouds looking a little dark and thought to myself, Is it going to rain? I wish I could read clouds. I didn’t even bring a jacket so I really hope it doesn’t rain. I remember in elementary school learning how to tell the t clouds apart and notice if they held rain, but I doubt that’s still taught today. The presence of weather apps and radio/television forecasts makes it seem like a skill that we no longer need to learn. After I finished eating and read a few chapters, I realized I left my watch in my room again. I looked around the dining hall and noticed that there were no clocks hanging anywhere near me. I never really thought about how analog clock sales probably decreased dramatically due to digital clocks. In addition, it is almost redundant to hang clocks in public spaces due to everyone having a phone and smartwatch. Furthermore, fewer people are capable to read analog clocks as this skill isn’t always taught in the classroom anymore. After however long, I got back to my room and my clock read 5:10 pm. I always knew that my perception of time was always off but I guessed it was around 4 pm when I left the dining hall. Obviously, this wasn’t so.
Back at my dorm, I realized that this 24 hours of no technology wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I’m not as dependent on my phone as I originally thought. I always told my friends that I was going to switch my iPhone to a flip phone instead and be more productive with my time. During this moment, I decided that I wouldn’t definitely do this until I realized how unrealistic it would be. At one point, I wondered if my friends and family missed my messages. I then wondered if I would come back to a ton of messages of people asking me where I was and why I wasn’t responding when I knew that in reality, I’d probably have two messages from random numbers. After doing more work for my classes, I thought about going outside during the sunset and walking around to take pictures with my Nikon and Polaroid. That is until it dawned on me that digital cameras and Polaroid camera wouldn’t have been used back in 1922 and that it wouldn’t have been wise to go out at night with no way of calling someone in case of an emergency.
Before I knew it, I looked at the clock and it read 8:30 pm. I decided to put on a charcoal face mask to treat myself for successfully completing my No Digital Day and reflected on the past 24 hours. I kept thinking that it was easier than expected and that I should do it for an entire week sometime during summer break. I also wondered if I only thought it was so easy because I knew I’d get my technology back and that I actually needed hours without distraction to stay on top of my studies. Nonetheless, I still want to repeat this for a longer period of time in the summer. While waiting for my charcoal mask to dry, I started to convince myself not to plug back in tonight and to wait until morning. At 8:50 pm, I went into the bathroom to wash off my mask and panic, fear, and regret filled me. My heart began to race as dreaded thoughts filled my head. What if something happened. What if someone died. I just lost a friend, I can’t lose another. What if there was an emergency and I couldn’t be reached. At 8:53 pm on Sunday, September 23rd, 2018, I plugged back in.
After checking all my messages and seeing that an emergency didn’t happen, relief filled my head. I kept thinking that it was so weird being back on my phone and that I should put it back down. While telling everyone that I was finished with my twenty–four hours, I noticed my fingers were cramping from not texting or typing all day. I ended up being on my phone talking to my friends back home, being on random apps, and watching Netflix until 1 am. I warranted my actions by telling myself that there was nothing else to do and that it could count as my reward for finishing all of my school work. However, I still felt guilty. My twenty-four hours without technology was definitely an experience but it made me realize that I wasn’t as bounded to my phone as I thought it would be. If anything, I probably would’ve been fine if I still lived back in my hometown when I could easily see my friends and family in person without worrying. This experience allowed me to see that while connected, we don’t realize how disconnected we are from everyone else. This is salient as if we never disconnect, we’ll never have this revelation from our own point of view. Contemporary culture has changed dramatically. Our way of life generally revolves around what we can do with technology which changes the way we interact with each other. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this time to get deep into my thoughts and I can’t wait to repeat it over summer break for as long as I can.