A Day Unplugged - Blog #3

A Day Unplugged

When I first read the two options for this blog, I immediately knew I wanted to do 24 hours with no internet because of how heavily I rely on internet. I wanted to see if it would really be a challenge, especially during the semester. I have done this plenty of times before, especially over the summer when my family spends time in North Carolina away from all cell-service. When taking on the task of going 24 hours without internet, I realized it was going to be much more difficult than I expected at CNU. I decided that I was going to go a day without my phone while on spring break and take the day to enjoy the presence of my friends, the beautiful place I was, and just have a day of unplugged and undocumented fun. The reason I decided I would struggle to do this too much at school is because of all the information I get from using the internet that helps me get through every day.

On a daily basis, I wake up and see if there are any important notifications on my phone however, I will not check social media for at least half an hour to get ready and get myself in a positive mental state for the day. Typically, after that I check my daily workout plan online and then go to the gym and use Spotify for music during my entire workout. After that, I’ll check my social media, scholar, and any often a few news sources. When I started examining that this is how I spend every morning at school, I realized so much of my world here is online and so much of the information I utilize is online, taking a whole day off would be difficult. Not to mention I have studying, senior seminar, tweeting for this class, and any other school work that also uses the internet. This is why spring break was the best option for me. 

I decided that I would take on this task on March 2^nd, my second full day in Cancun, Mexico. I decided that this would be best because by the second day we all were aware of how to get around the resort and were all settled in. I had already realized from the first day that I was using social media to “present myself as having a ‘perfect’ life” (Vega-Castaneda, 87) and kept on picking up my phone to Snapchat or post Instagram stories. I realized pretty quickly into the trip that showing off wasn’t what I was there for, I was there to enjoy my time with my friends. 

On March 2^nd I woke up around 9:30 and got ready with my roommate, I kept my phone on the table we had in our room and didn’t touch it in the morning. When I first woke up not using my phone was not a problem for me because I am used to that. After taking about half an hour to get ready my roommate, Mackenzie, and I went down to breakfast, and I left my phone in the room. Although she had hers as well as all of our friends, I didn’t use them or ask to see anything. At this point in the morning I didn’t feel different at all and was just having fun catching up on the night with my 8 friends. However, after breakfast we all went down to the pool area and immediately most of the girls pulled out their phones to start scrolling through social media and seeing what our friends in other cities were up to. This was when I started to get a little bit of FOMO (Fear of missing out) however, there were enough distractions that it was not that large of an issue for me. Around 1 p.m. the resort started doing games and activities that we all participated in and this was the first time I really wanted my phone, I wanted to be able to record some of the funny activities for memories but soon realized that I don’t have to record something to keep it as a memory. At this point, I think I let myself actually have more fun because I wasn’t worried about capturing the perfect moment and also wasn’t scared of having something happen to my phone if it got wet or anything. It was at this time that I felt really present. 

 

After this time of us all playing, laughing, and having fun I realized I hadn’t felt that present or laughed that hard in a long time. I think by about 2 p.m. all of my friends realized that I was serious about not using my phone for the day and it appeared that some of them tried to use theirs less too. It was pretty exciting seeing all of us have real conversations and laugh together instead of talking about what everyone else was doing. This whole afternoon made me realize that Scheinbaum (2018) statement in the article, A Framework for the Dark Side of Social Media, that “consumers may be engaging too much with digital platforms…” (pg. 5) was completely true. 

After being outside all day, which is one of my favorite activities, not using my phone got a little harder. When we all went upstairs to get ready for dinner and the night I had a strong urge to tell my friends at home about my day or see the pictures my friends had posted but I knew it could wait. Once the whole group was back together I completely forgot about my phone again and was back to enjoying the moment. I realized that if I had done this experiment at home or by myself it would have been much harder because I am a person that craves some type of social interaction throughout the day. Although I felt much more relaxed, free, present, and happier during this experiment I could tell that I would have gotten anxious if I was by myself doing this. 

By the next morning I could tell that I had had an amazing day the prior day and that for the rest of the trip my phone was something I didn’t need by my side. I’ve even noticed this to be true since being home and that I just let the notifications come without reacting to them quickly. Taking a whole day away from internet and social media was difficult but once I started I really did forget about my phone. I realized that my generation really does rely on internet for nearly everything, even topics of conversation, social interaction, and so much more. Taking a step back from internet is hard but it made me worry so much less about appearing to have that perfect life or day and allowed me to just enjoy where I was and really feel present. I think that this is something I want to challenge my self to do monthly just to remember that internet is not and should not be what my world revolves around. 

References: 

Scheinbaum, A. C. (2018). The dark side of social media. New York, NY: Routledge. 

Vega-Castaneda, L. & Castaneda, M. (2019). Teaching and Learning about Difference through Social Media: Reflection, Engagement, and Self-Assessment. Routledge, 86-103.