On Monday July 13th, I decided to attempt the feat of no media for 24 hours straight! For kids of my generation this is an insanely difficult task. I love my iPhone to death as well as my laptop and TV. For this day, I told myself no Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or ESPN. I love all of these Social Medias and it was quite the endeavor to avoid them for 24 hours. I also had to keep from reading the newspaper. I didn’t read the newspaper often at home, but the readership program here at Penn State is very useful, and allows me to catch up on all the current local and national news. I was never really big on watching the news on TV, mostly due to the fact that unfortunately, it is really depressing. Another great thing about the newspaper is it offers a few Sudoku puzzles. I love solving these in my free time as it helps me keep my mind sharp. Also this means no reading my new Sports Illustrated Fantasy Football magazine or listening to my iPhone/radio. I thought that going without music might be even harder than avoiding social media because I listen to music 24/7. I am huge on rock and roll and love to listen to The Beatles or The Rolling Stones while working on schoolwork or walking around. All of these things had to be put on hold for 24 hours so I could experience what it is like to live without media.
It now came time for the hard part; actually getting through the day without these luxuries. At 12:00 midnight I turned off my phone and placed it across from me in my room. I went to bed not knowing at all what was in store for me in my media/technology free day. I very rarely use my phone as an alarm clock. I picked this leap specifically because I am interested in media and communications, but also because the time of the class allows me to sleep as long as I want. My first class doesn’t start until 12:45. On a typical day, I usually wake up when my roommate Andrew gets up or when I am awoken by the trash truck/thunderstorm. This is very rare and usually I just sleep until my stomach starts growling and it wakes me up or until I have slept as much as I can. Normally, I wake up around 11-11:30 ish. This gives me about an hour to get ready to go to class. I don’t normally go to breakfast so seeing the TV’s in the dining hall was not an issue. I took my time showering, getting dressed and walking to class. My Mass Media class was no issue because cell phones and laptops aren’t allowed in class. In my English 15 class however, we are allowed to use laptops/cell phones and most of the class does. I didn’t even bring my phone or computer because I knew how tempted I would be to check on my Philadelphia Phillies. As much as I wanted to see if Jonathan Papelbon or Cole Hamels got traded, I would have to wait until midnight. After class was another very tempting time to go back to my dorm and get on my phone or laptop. I went back to my room and picked up my camera case, as it was the day after Arts Fest. I walked back to return it to the ROTC building, and then went to The Mix to pick up a sandwich. I sat at my desk and red over my already written and printed out essay for my English class. I was very limited what I could work on because I couldn’t use my laptop. To accommodate for not being able to do much school work on Monday, I worked ahead during the weekend prior. As annoying and not fun it was to do a lot of work on the Sunday of Arts Fest weekend, I knew I had to work ahead because I really couldn’t do anything on Monday night. After that I decided to walk up to the Intramural building and play basketball. This is one of my favorite things to do on campus. I have met a bunch of friends that go as well, and we play basketball together. I played basketball for about 2 and a half hours. Exhausted, I walked back to my dorm. I ate the little food I had left in my dorm and then decided to shower. After my shower, I was exhausted from the gym and decided to go to bed “early”. Most people don’t really consider 11:00pm early, but I do. There wasn’t a heck of a lot of things to do so I decided to go to bed. I might as well catch up on my sleep because I was exhausted from a really fun weekend at Arts Fest. I woke up the next morning, probably the earliest I have all year (besides the 9:30 classes for guest speakers) and felt refreshed and accomplished. I had made it 24 hours (technically closer to 30) without using any kind of media/technology device!
Wow, what an experience it was to go 24 hours without media. It was very much so a drastic change from what I do in my normal day. It is kind of scary how much my generation (myself included) is addicted to our phones and technology. We become dependent and always need something in our hands to occupy us. It is crazy to think that even when my parents were growing up, the cell phone didn’t exist and neither did the laptop. Looking even farther back, my grandparents really only grew up with a radio, and maybe one single TV in the house as they reached my age. I wonder what it was like for them to entertain themselves on an average day. They probably look at us “Generation Y” and think we are missing out on important lessons and activities. Yes we do go outside but, they spent almost all day outside exploring. They also spent more family time then we do. I really hope that the future holds a decline in media dependence. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening. Going a day without media showed me that it is the way we should all try to live our lives. I’m not saying we need to get rid of technology for good, because that will never happen with teenagers and people in general. I think we need to spend more time interacting with people face to face, instead of over a text message or snapchat. You can build better relationships that way and can explore much more. When we don’t constantly spend all the time on our phones we can break our “personal bubble” and branch out. I enjoyed for once, not having the urge to grab it and go on a social media. When you really think about it, the things we do really serve no purpose. Teens love this new app called Snapchat. All it does is it allows us to take a picture of ourselves and send to our friends with short messages. Instead of taking pictures we could go and actually hang out with them. Instead of just seeing them on a little plastic screen, we can see them face to face. After successfully completing this exercise/challenge, I would encourage others to try it. It seems a lot more difficult and taunting then it really is. You learn a lot about yourself doing this and really see a whole different perspective on life. It gives you a more natural feeling and you don’t feel so tied down to technology. I hope I have showed you why this is a good idea and even hopefully convinced you to put the phone down and see what it is like without media and technology!
