Disclaimer: I tried to plan out my day so that it wouldn't be as
hard to not use technology. I kept my reading assignments for today. Planned
out lunch with my friends yesterday. Turns out, it is still hard. Regardless of
what I had planned where I didn't need technology, I still normally would have
used it in those situations.
9:30am Woke up, I usually
check all of my social media and email, but instead I didn't. So that was
different. I am home at my parents’ house and in the mornings usually look
through the paper. But today I actually read a lot more of it because I didn't
have anything else to read when I was "waking up".
10:30am I was watching TV and
I found myself during commercials itching to use my phone and go on social
media. So I actually had to listen to the commercials.
11:00am My friends and I were
in a group message about where we were going to eat, and I just called one of
them instead of responding to the messages
11:20am I wanted to look up
what time a restaurant opened. Instead I pulled out the phone book (I was
surprised to see my parents had a phone book) and called.
Random thought #1 I think it's more
difficult to not use the Internet or helpful apps rather than not using social
media. I look up EVERYTHING on the Internet on my phone
Random thought #2 Any little bit of down
time I have that I'm not doing something I pick up my phone, and then remember
I am detoxing.
12:00pm I am going on the
river all day tomorrow, and I was going to check my phone to see what the
weather was going to be like. I instead checked the newspaper to see if her
weather was in there, and it was! Sunny and 84 tomorrow in Dubuque, IA if
anyone is curious.
1:30pm I went to go get
something from my dad at his work and I was going to text him telling him I was
on my way then I realized I was texting and I just called him.
2:30pm Mistake #1 I use an app on my phone to track my spending so
I can attempt to budget. after I checked out and target I put the amount in my
phone and then realized I was using my phone for more than a phone. I didn't
event notice it. I think sometimes we use technology without even notice it.
3:10pm I am watching lecture
from this morning and it is much easier to listen when I am not distracted or
tempted to use my phone. I always know my phone is distracting, yet I still use
it all the time.
3:45pm I am a person who
can't have any notifications on their phone. Right now I have 7 emails and 1
snap chat and it bugs the crap out of me that I have those notifications on
there. It isn't the unknown that bugs me; it's just the notification. Maybe I
have OCD?
4:40pm Mistake #2 I sent my first text
of the day. My boss texted me, so I decided to respond, rather than calling
her. It was only a small detail and I only sent one text and the conversation
was over. These are times texting is extremely convenient.
5:45pm one of my friends
called me to go out to eat tonight. He told me the place and then I usually
would have gone to the Internet to look up the menu.
I
went out with some of my friends and it was really easy to not be on my phone.
That is one thing that I have gotten better at over the past year is not using
my phone when I am with other people. One thing that bugs me about our
generation is when we are constantly on our phones in social settings. Not to say
that I am not guilty of this, but it is something I have gotten much better at.
I
realized that I missed using the Internet on my phone and computer the most. I
didn’t check social media the entire day and that didn’t bother me at all. At
the beginning of the day, I thought not checking social media would have been
the hardest. I use Safari on my phone to check or confirm EVERYTHING. I guess I
am happy that I could live without social media, for at least day.
