being unplugged: a reflection of how technology has taken over my life

As part of my ENGCOMP 130A class, we were challenged to "unplug" ourselves from the internet. I decided to do this during Thanksgiving day because I thought I'd be busy enough interacting with others to keep myself occupied. After 8 hours, I failed this challenge.

A recount of my internet free day

I almost failed the challenge the moment I woke up. This was not a good sign. I have a habit of checking my phone for notifications, emails, and random scrolling online as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning. Sometimes, I would stay in bed for a few minutes as this would be my method of waking up. My phone screen is the very first thing I see.

So, this unplugged day, I woke up and glanced at my phone to see one email notification. Then, I dropped the phone in alarm as my brain awakened and reminded me that this was supposed to be my unplugged day.

I was staying at my boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving. Being an international student with no home to go back to during this holiday, my boyfriend's home had became a pseudo-home for me. The first thing I told everyone was that I was supposed to be unplugged for the day. Partly because I wanted to complain a little bit, but also for them to remind me that I shouldn't be going on my phone.

The first thing we did that day was to go pick up my boyfriend's brother from the airport. My first real challenge was not being able to go on my phone during the car ride. Most people were on their phone, or casually chatting while scrolling. I found myself staring out of the window, not knowing what to do when I could not join the conversation. I wished I had my phone.

I spent the day battling my urges to automatically check my phone whenever I had nothing to do. I realize that I am very reliant on casual internet surfing to occupy myself, and once this is taken away... I didn't know what to do with my attention? I had thought that this challenge would make me interact with people more and "be present" - but it didn't feel that way. You feel disconnected when other people around you are scrolling on their phones. Maybe to truly connect, everyone else needs to be off their phones too.

Other things I found challenging:

• Not being able to check the time on my phone because I don't own a watch

• Not being able to look things up mid conversation (we've become accustomed to access to instant information, everywhere)

• Not being able to take photos with my phone!

• Not knowing what my friends are up to during Thanksgiving Day

• Not being able to text my friends "happy thanksgiving" or reply to messages

Some things that I found to be nice:

• My average screen time went down for the week (haha)

• I've become more observant to my surroundings (and as an oblivious person, this is a nice change. I notice more things now)

• I'm less distracted when talking to someone or focusing on a task

Caveat: I did play video games with my boyfriend and his brother on their Nintendo Switch to pass time though (we played Smash) - although it is technology, it is technically not the internet, so I was okay with it. If this was actually off limits, then I would actually miss out on a very big bonding and socializing opportunity. What do you guys thinks? Does this count as the internet?

Why I failed

I failed when Thanksgiving Dinner came around, which was roughly 8 hours after I woke up. There are two main reasons:

1. I wanted to take pictures of the food - I'm very big on documenting things in my life and not being able to document thanksgiving dinner was really bothering me.

2. So many of extended family and relatives were coming and I was nervous. To distract myself when I was not talking to anyone, I needed to go on my phone.

Is social media my primary news source?

The short answer is yes. Like I mentioned, I missed not having access to information instantly. The world's knowledge is accessible through a simple Google Search with the internet, and it seriously helps a lot in facilitating conversations. Regarding social media specifically, I use it mainly to keep tabs on what my friends are doing, and I can't help wondering what everybody's thanksgiving day looked like.

I guess I didn't miss not reading "proper news" for just a day, as sometimes I'd go several days without looking at a legitimate news source anyway. However, by not going on Facebook or Google that day (or even not listening to The Daily), I practically shut off all of my news sources. The only piece of news I heard for that day was from a conversation between two family members regarding Hong Kong and China - and this was not an update or an objective recount of the subject matter since it was more of a friendly debate on the topic.

There are several pros and cons about having social media as a primary news source.

Some of the pros that I've identified are:

• Knowing what news are relevant in your social circle

• Exposure to different things that you may not be aware of (so you are not actively searching for it) and thus broadens your horizons

• Being able to hear instant feedback and opinion on the news that you are reading/watching (from comments section, how people responded, etc.) to inform your thought process

• Ability to instantly share and participate in discourse, spread awareness on an important piece of news, etc.

Some of the cons are:

• Potential to be stuck in an echo-chamber, as your friends most likely have the same viewpoints as you do

• Sporadic, unsystematic way to receive news leads to sporadic information flows

• Fake news online! (requires high media literacy to be able to differentiate which ones are legitimate and which ones are to be ignored)

• Social media tends to blow certain topics out of proportion, ignoring other relevant news that are ongoing as well - and these popular topics are very short-lived. Social media's attention span is very short. One moment, it seemed like only this one protest matters... and the next day no one talks about it.

Overall...

It was an interesting experience, but nonetheless I have to admit to a level of addiction to social media and the internet. Breaking away from a habit was hard - not having your phone around you was hard and uncomfortable. I also felt like I couldn't perform my daily tasks in the most optimized way (I couldn't do homework, look at the time, contribute to conversations, etc.)

Is social media bad? Should everyone be unplugged? At heart, I believe that technology and the internet have advanced our lives in ways that we don't even realize. Although there are some merit in putting down our phones for once (maybe at the dinner table), unplugging yourself for a whole 24 hours prohibits us from effectively doing our daily tasks more than it helps us.

I think what we need is some moderation on internet usage. Like my position on most topics, one extreme is no better than the other extreme. If used well, social media and the internet can be incredible tools to improve our quality of life.

I probably will stay plugged to the internet, and I think I am okay with it.