Let me begin with an honest opinion. I did not stay off my electronics for 24 hours. Do not get me wrong, I tried to plan a 24 hour period where I would have been available to stay off any electronics but the problem is, most of the time I had to use a phone, computer, or my television. I could have tried harder, but I will further explain my reasoning of not finishing this task later on, first I want to tell you a story.
For this winter break, my mom and I went to New York for New Years. I want to start off with saying that the 24 hour drive had my acne extremely irritated. When we got the city that never sleeps (technically we stayed in New Jersey and made our way to Manhattan through the PATH subway, really convenient if you ever decide to visit this state) the lights were everywhere, big screens everywhere you looked and for the first time I didn’t have the desire to be looking at my phone for every five minutes. Which made me come up with my theory: we are addicted (at least in cstx) because there are no new things to do. Sure we have restaurants, movie theaters, and at least three other sources of entertainment. But New York City was surrounded with new things to do, which of course, is not surprising at all.
On New Year’s Eve around midnight my phone had died (due to the path search for locations and the time that I used to take pictures) my mom and I stopped at a nice coffee shop because we felt like drinking hot cholate, this by far is the best hot chocolate I have ever tried, let me get to my point. I have never walked into a coffee shop, ordered something, sat down and relax WITHOUT looking at my phone, I understand that it was dead, but I did not feel the need to stare at my phone or wanted to.
I truly believe that many of the reasons why we have become so addicted to our electronics is due to the fact that we (at least here in bryan/college station or most small cities in the world) don’t have the form of entertainment that can make us walk away from the technology of today.
Now, the reason why I could not complete this challenge as I would have wanted to was due to the fact that I have gotten so used to the usage of technology in my school and my source of communication within my parents when I am not at home. Every time I drive myself to school my mom requires me to send her a text message to make sure that I got to school safely, same thing when I’m heading home. A text message or a phone call is our only source of communication when we are away from each other. In school I use my computer for my APUSH class for note taking, because writing really fast makes my hand cramp up and I cannot retain all of the information that he says in my head for too long, which is why I take notes with my computer making it faster and efficient for me. In half of my classes most teachers use their smartboards, which I say would count as a screen which uses technology as well.
As much as I would have liked to stay off of technology for 24 hours it was almost impossible for me, which tells me a lot about our society of today and how technology has taken a huge part of our lives. I’m kind of surprised that I wasn’t able to take on this challenge, and hope that I can be able to tackle it another day.
ALLISON'S BLOG 