Simon Blog Post #3

This past Wednesday into Thursday I spent 24 hours without any internet. Starting at 10

AM Wednesday until 10 AM Thursday I left my phone in my bag entirely and had no other 

internet capable devices in order to explore the effects of our constant connectivity. While this was a very hard exercise, I must preface by saying that I chose a day that made it much easier. This past week was spring break for CNU, and I was living in a beach house with 21 of my fraternity brothers. While this undoubtedly made my 24 hours easier it was still very interesting to see how even in this kind of scenario, I was still often wanting to use my phone. 

         When I woke up on Wednesday at 9:30 I knew that I was going to be doing this exercise today, so I told myself I would start at 10, so that I could spend the next 30 minutes indulging in all the internet that I could. I checked my snapchat first and sent a snap to all my streaks, I checked my Instagram, Twitter, and even Tinder. All of this I did while also listening to my music because the internet is how I listen to all my music now. Then, when the clock hit 10, I put my phone in my bag and I prepared for my day. 

         I immediately felt the absence of it as I hopped in the shower and had no way of playing music while I showered, so naturally I sang to myself.

It wasn't the same though and led to my shower being much shorter than usual. Maybe without the internet I would also save on the water bill. Who knows? After my shower I headed down to the beach with my friends and played some games and tossed around the football. At this point I was relieved to not have to worry about my phone. Some people would have to take breaks from the games in order to text or snapchat other people who weren’t there, but not me. I was living in the moment (shout out Dr. Bernabo). I also did not have to worry about my phone falling in the sand or getting in my way. I was cheating a little bit though because other people had speakers and phones on the beach playing music from the internet, so I wasn’t completely without all of its benefits. Since I was not being held back by my phone, I became exhausted pretty quickly and decided to take a break and lay on the beach for a bit. 

         As soon as I laid down, I knew this was going to be one of the hard parts. As I laid there, I just wanted something to keep me entertained. I started drawing circles in the sand and I realized that it was pretty ridiculous to need anything more than what was around me. I was laying on a beautiful beach with white sand and blue water. I had friends and drinks and what else could I need?

That’s at least what I told myself, and it worked for a bit, but as the day went on it only got harder. After a little more soaking up the sun and watching the waves I headed into the house to grab something to eat. I got in and made myself a sandwich with some chips on the side. As I sat there and ate, I once again felt the need to scroll on my social media or snapchat some friends back home. How ridiculous is that? That even while I was eating, I felt the need to multitask and be checking my phone. For some reason this made me think of the Andy Warhol video of him eating a cheeseburger, a very famous video in the video art world. I started to imagine if this was a more modern video if Warhol would be checking his phone while he ate his cheeseburger. If you haven't seen the video here it is:

After lunch I hung out in the hot tub with a couple of my friends and we just talked for a

while. At one point however we got into a debate about an athlete and his stats this season. As I was the one arguing for this athlete and I am a fan of his I wanted to prove them wrong, but without the internet I had no way of proving it to them. However, I vowed to them that I would look it up and prove them wrong and trust me the next day I proved them wrong. We also sat in that hot tub for over 2 hours, but that is beside the point. After the hot tub we spent a little more time on the beach hanging out and jumping into the ocean. After this we all went into the house to make dinner. 

         Little did I know that by putting 20+ people in one kitchen trying to make dinner was a recipe for a dance party. One of our favorite songs came on and the kitchen basically turned into a club. Everyone was running around, jumping up and down, singing and dancing, and of course I joined in. This wasn’t the only thing on my mind though. I wanted to get a video of this nonsense for my snapchat story. Other people had their phones out filming on snapchat and there I was unable to do the same. 

         As the night went on things slowed down as some people went out to bars and clubs and those under 21 stayed in and watched a movie. At this point I was wishing I could be on my phone due to my lack of interest in Toy Story 4, but I sat and forced myself to pay attention. Bedtime was pretty bad though because pretty much every night I wind down by getting into bed and listening to music and scrolling through social media for a while. Without this as a possibility my mind was wandering, and it made it much harder to get to sleep than I had anticipated. Finally, I was able to pass out due to pure exhaustion, and when I woke up my 24 hours was over. Once again, I indulged and scrolled through all my social media making sure I didn’t miss anything too important, I sent snapchats to all my streaks, and I hopped in the shower and turned my music on full blast. 

Overall it was definitely one of the easiest days I could have chosen to go without the internet, and somehow it was still very difficult. It was not all bad, just different. I enjoyed taking in my surroundings on the beach, living in the moment, and not having to take phone breaks. The internet has just become such a large part of our lives that it was almost a different lifestyle when I was without it. I think that this exercise added to my spring break experience though and is something I may try again in the future just for me.

Signed, Simon Robson