24 Hours Without Technology

Going twenty-four hours without technology sounded really difficult at first, but in the end it wasn’t as awful as I’d thought.

I started at around 9:30pm last night and was able to finish a book—for fun—and get to bed before midnight because I couldn’t procrastinate on my iPhone. I had to check my Champlain e-mail a few times for information on a project and I had to work Wednesday afternoon for a few hours and it required a computer, but other than that I was able to ignore the impulse to use technology.

As a society we have a literal addiction to technology. It was amazing to me how many people I saw with their faces hidden behind a computer screen, many on Facebook and a few doing something productive. Many people on campus own iPhones or Androids and spend much of their free time scrolling through the various apps both phones have to offer.

For many, the idea of functioning without an iPhone handy at all times is scary and impossible. It says a lot about our society today—that we are the first generation that will be unable to hold a conversation with someone we’ve just met, because we never learned how to converse with an actual person. Texting and Facebook do not require the common courtesies of everyday interaction, so when kids break grammatical rule online, they assume they have the same rights in an actual conversation. I admit that I am guilty of sitting with a group of people and staring at my phone, but I also know that I’ll be able to handle a conversation with someone if I have to, because my parents and family were strict about technology and cell phones—everything had a time and a place.

There are plenty of studies that detail all the terrible things technology is doing to the world, and while I agree that some of those things are true, it isn’t all bad. The hardest part for me was being unable to contact my friends and family when I wanted to share something with them—and it surprised me how much there was to share in such a short period of time. Twenty-four hours without technology isn’t asking a lot, and I discovered that I sort of enjoy the free time. It was relaxing to read a book just because I could, and it’s an art that, for me, always seems to be lost between e-mail and Facebook.

I’m sure you can guess this, but I’ve always been a pretty solitary person, content to spend a day on my own. This assignment was tough mostly because I was told I couldn’t do something, and of course human nature dictated that because I couldn’t use technology, it was all I wanted to use. But once I focused my attention on something else, it was easy to forget about, and it’s something I’d like to try and do to a greater extent in the future, just take a break from it all now and then. It was almost fun.