Let me start out by saying this, This blog assignment was entirely impossible. For this blog, as a class we were instructed to go a day without technology. Tragic. This meant, no internet surfing, no checking email, no facebook, no twitter, no cell phone, no computer, no TV, no iPad, no iPod, no Pinterest, no Netflix, nothing we did could involve a communication technology. We were then asked to reflect on our day and talk about what we did instead of use our technology. We were told that it was okay if we slipped up, just try and recover. I reccomend that people try this, it will open your eyes on just how dependent we are upon technology in our every day lives. I started this assignment yesterday afternoon, and I feel as though I have been through enough pain and torture for one day so this is me reflecting on my experience.
Normally, my day ends with me watching Netflix, and checking my email to see if there are any pressing issues that can't wait until morning. For me this was really difficult to avoid. Netflix, is a diehard habit, I seriously use it to watch an episode of something before I go to sleep everynight. Without Netflix, I slept an extra hour last night, which was very convenient and well needed I must say. Also, I didn't check my email. This was difficult because I had assignment due today that required me to email some of my group members. I tried to resist, but eventually slipped up and checked my email. I didn't want to be that one group member that isolates themselves from the rest, not cool. After that, I got my self back together and put away all my technology for the night read a little bit of a magazine and went to sleep.
In the morning, I have a ritual. Wake up, check facebook, shower, check twitter, get ready, check email, go to work. It's the same every morning and it's sad. I say this because breaking that morning ritual left me with spare time to eat breakfast, which I don't normally have, and it left me feeling disconnected. Checking facebook means knowing what is going on during the day, what people are doing, who I can make plans with later. I feel as though my generation relies so heavily on that, that we don't really know how to get in contact with people other than using Facebook. There was a time like 3 years ago, where I deactivated my facebook for 5 months. I had no social networking contact with the rest of the world. I was fine, it was actually really nice because you didn't have people posting stupid stuff for you to read and you didn't have people all up in your business if you posted something. It was nice to be without it, because it meant I wasn't being bombarded with other peoples lives constantly. Now without it, I feel like it is a severe bump in my day. I have family that I keep in contact with, and friends who I don't get to see everyday, but I get to message them on Facebook and have a converstation with them through that communication outlet.
Another thing I do in the morning is check Twitter. I'm not a big TV watcher, so I don't really know whats going on in the world through that communication outlet. However, I do follow things like CNN and USA Today on twitter, who are constantly posting what is going on in the world and even in local communities. I feel like without using Twitter today I missed out on some news, a few good jokes from Funny or Die, and some inspirational quotes to ponder during the day. In the scope of things, to me Twitter isn't as big of deal as Facebook. Essentialy, I realized it is something that I have to look at and kill time when I have time to burn. Yes, today it was inconvenient that I didn't have access to it, but overall I think I could survive without it.
The computer...no. I can honestly sit here and type to you that my day as a college student and an employee is damn near impossible without a computer. These days, all assignments are required to be typed and a large portion of them are required to be turned in using the internet (just like this one). Without a computer, I am unable to look at my assignments, check grades, do homework, turn in assignments, check email. There are a whole slew of things that I need to do to be successful on my computer. Without it, life proves to be very difficult. However, I will say (that except for work where I had to use a computer) that I didn't slip up on using. In my spare time I didn't reach for my computer as much as I reached for my phone then reminded myself that I couldn't use it. I think it's because what while I need my computer, it is not as portable and convenient as using my cell phone.
Today being at work proved to be entirely difficult. At work we have to use computers to do our job. On top of that, my boss decided that today was a great day for me to do research on a project and to explore the internet with my iPad. I thought this was ridiculous, but did it anyway because I have to work to actually get paid. This was my slip up for the day, being at work. Doing this made me realize that my job, is impossible without a computer. We can't do anything without them. On top of that, we are constantly finding better ways to improve our business through researching on the internet. If we didn't have these technologies we wouldn't be able to function as a company. I think this is really important to realize because a lot of people take for granted just how easy having a computer makes your life. I honestly can't imagine a time before we had computers and what we did instead.
Overall, I will say that truly disconnecting from technology for a day is a stretch, and very difficult to do in this day and age. Without it I found myself sleeping or reading a magazine but there were a couple of times where I reached for my phone but knew I could not look at or do anything in terms of using it. This blog experiment has however made me realize that we often times take technology for granted because it is so readily available. There is so much more stuff I am capable of doing when I have access to these things as opposed to when I don't. I felt like I was lagging, that I wasn't on top of my game, and honestly disconnected because I couldn't reply to my friends text messages and I couldn't pick up the phone when it was ringing. Also, I realized that not having this technology can cause people to worry. What I mean by that is, they may grow concerned because they don't hear a response back from you. People can start to grow very worrysome when they aren't responded to almost immediatly these days and technology has made us this way.
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