In my digital marketing class this week, everybody participates in the digital detox experience. This experiment tests how long we can avoid technology for 48 hours. After I finished it, I learned many valuable lessons about it.

Growing up in a society with technology has many significant advantages because they do everything for us. Nowadays, phones are the most powerful force that connects us to many people. We depend on them to contact our friends and family, research, entertainment, etc. It is impossible to put my phone down for the same reason. Living a day without my phone is more challenging because my life would be useless.

As a student, my life depends on my laptop and phone to complete my work and communicate with my classmates. I also use them for at least 12 hours daily to complete my daily tasks and entertainment. There is no part of my life where I thought about letting them go and trying to live without them. The digital detox experiment is a perfect opportunity to evaluate how I live with the dependency on technology. During the 2-days experience, my routine drastically changed because I completely cut technology and only used it to complete my assignments. It involved waking up and opening my laptop to write my paper. The first day was the hardest because I didn’t know what I should be doing except doing my assignments. 

After that, I was tired and wanted to use my phone but couldn’t. Instead, I headed out, looked for quick snacks, and rest. It was challenging to live without technology because I always depended on them to survive. The time of the day when I noticed the impulse to check my phone was during the afternoon and before bedtime. But later in the day, I decided to head outside and drive around to relieve the boredom. Then, I spent time with my parents and friends, something I never thought I would do because I’m constantly busy. 

On the second day of the experiment, I felt hopeless because technology is my source of entertainment and fun. I was having a hard time navigating and finishing my day. But those feelings don’t last long as I have to find new ways to spend the day. I read books, cook, and converse with my parents. I focused more on my work and completed it on time. I got used to the day, which slowly became a new habit.

After the experience, I have learned a lot about myself. Reconnecting with nature is the biggest lesson because I started to go outside more often and engage with more people. It helped me to balance and control how to manage my time correctly. I realized that I could do many great things and could find many ways to have fun without using my phones all the time. I rarely went on social media during those days, positively affecting my mental state. Additionally, I got to go to bed on time and didn’t stay up late. I also realized my excessive use of social media can be described as addicting, and it wasn’t healthy.

I think this experiment showed me the sad reality of this society: people forget how to have fun. I realized I have missed out on many things that could potentially make me happy instead of just depending on my phone all the time. The world has a lot of things to discover, and it can be exciting to find out that on our own. Everybody should think about digital detox and go outside to find the beauty of our world.