Blog 3

I Unplugged and I'm Not Sure How I Feel

This past Sunday I chose to completely unplug from the Internet for the purpose of this blog. I decided on Sunday because I knew it was the only day after spring break that I could effectively complete the assignment. Also, after spending a whole break around people, I thought it would be nice to have some alone time, away from the others and the fast-pace and globally-encompassing Internet. 

We got home from the beach Saturday night and I warned the people I was with and sent texts to my family that I’d be taking a break for a day. I did this because my Dad likes to send me text messages throughout the day and he gets worried when I do not respond within a few hours. I woke up on Sunday and after a good stretch, I went to reach for my phone. However, I knew this would be the first thing I tried to do so I put all my devices in a drawer the previous night. It felt weird reaching out and my hand just hitting my nightstand. Immediately after, I remembered what I had unplugged, let out a sigh, and got out of bed. My morning routine went well, just showered and brushed my teeth. It was not until I was making breakfast that I wanted to be scrolling through my phone or answering Snapchats. This is when it hit me that I might lose some of my snap streaks if I forgot to answer people the night before.

I usually go to the gym after breakfast but hesitated when I realized I would not be able to have my phone. At the gym, I use Spotify to play music and I have my workout planned out on my phone. Instead of driving to the gym I belong to ten minutes away, I went downstairs to use the one in my apartment complex. I made this decision because I felt like I’d be less inclined and distracted that I didn’t have my phone if I was by myself and I knew they played some music on their speakers. I changed up my workout and did little to no cardio because I had no music to energize me, and replaced it with sets on the weight machines and cables.

After the gym, I went back up to my apartment and ate some lunch, thinking about what to do with the rest of my day. After some debate, I decided to go grocery shopping, since I had just come back from break and the inside of my fridge looked very depressing. I found a piece of paper and wrote a checklist for what I needed to buy and was on my way. I felt like my mom when she would have her sticky note grocery list, along with her coupons that she had cut out that morning. 

I went back home, put my groceries away, and was back to figuring out what to do next. I spent the next hour or so cleaning my apartment and doing some post-spring break laundry. Even cleaning felt different without using my phone to play music or take mini breaks to look at notifications. This is when it really started to become a sad reality of how much time I spend looking at my screen. Apple will always send me an alert at the end of the week on how much screen time I averaged a day and I always found the number hard to believe, but after unplugging for the day, my mind has been changed. 

I made dinner and caught up with some textbook readings for my Monday classes. Thankfully I have late afternoon classes on Monday and not setting an alarm on my phone or my Alexa was not an issue. Monday morning I was very eager to jump out of bed and turn on my phone.

My thoughts on this experience are both positive and negative. However, my negative thoughts only stem from having to switch up my routine and my lack of human interaction with the people I look forward to hearing from. I live off-campus in an apartment by myself, so I was not able to walk into the living room and be greeted by my roommates or go to the dining hall and see people there. This lack of interaction is originally what I was excited for, but ended up being something I missed the most. I never paid much attention to using my phone as a means of communication, until it was taken away. That feeling of being alone was weird and definitely not what I predicted it to be. 

On the other hand, I am very happy I was able to use this assignment as a reason to unplug. I had

always thought about it but never had a driving force to make me ignore my oppositions. I accomplished more than I expected to by forcing myself to have no other distractions via my phone, laptop, television, etc.. It was nice to start the week with a clean apartment and a fully stocked fridge, as well as finish some class readings. It made me feel like I utilized my Sunday to the best that I could, instead of laying in bed on my phone or sitting on the couch watching mind-numbing reality television. That being said, those are both activities I jumped back to engaging in. 

Overall, this experience showed me how much technology and engaging in social media has taken away from the feeling of being present in the moment. I think the fact that I had any negative thoughts shows the influence technology has on my everyday life and the dependency I 

have on my screen time. It showed that taking a break from social media is healthy and necessary for “engaging too much [on] too many platforms … could be unhealthy or … an early indicator of social media addiction” (Scheinbaum, 2018, p. 5). The word addiction is scary but it is experiences like these that open my eyes to how easily the Web 2.0 generation can be victims of social media addiction.

References:

Scheinbaum, A. C. (2018). The Dark Side of Social Media. New York, NY: Routledge