The challenge was simple: Go a full 24 hours without the internet. The idea came about while I was talking with my friend Tyleak. He told me how he had watched a couple of YouTube videos about how our smartphones change our bodies and why it’s important to take “smart phone vacations” every now and again. As a result, he was planning on taking a week long smart phone vacation. He offered to send me the links to the videos if I was interested. Of course, at this point I was very interested.
Here’s a few things I learned from these videos (I’ve included the links to both at the bottom of this article for anyone who’s interested):
- There are more people in the world with access to a smart phone than there are people with access to a working toilet
- The average American spends roughly 1/3 of their waking hours on their cell phones
- Cell phone usage can affect your body both physically (neck and back problems, nearsightedness, etc.) and mentally (cell phone usage can speed up your perception of time and make it harder for you to fall asleep)
- 93% of young adults use cell phones as a way to keep from getting bored
I watched the videos through, told Ty what I thought about them, chatted with him for a bit longer about how crazy it is that we’re so dependent on our phones, and promptly deleted all of my social media apps and renamed the games folder on my phone “Do Not Touch." It was 10:30 at night, and my 24-hour Internet vacation had begun.
The first ten or so hours were fairly uneventful; I painted my nails and watched TV with my family- both activities where I usually ignore my phone anyway- and eventually went to sleep. It was the next morning that proved to be eventful. I hit my alarm, picked my phone up from the bookshelf, and immediately tapped the space where my Instagram app usually resides.
Except nothing happened.
I stared at the screen, confused as to where all my apps had gone. It took a moment for my brain to remember. You gave up your Internet for the day, genius.
Internet vacation, right. I dropped it in my pocket, got dressed, made breakfast, and stretched across the couch to watch TV. I made it through a full episode of NCIS and was about halfway through a second before I found myself reaching for my phone again. The notification screen was empty save for a text from a friend, but that didn’t stop me from going to hunt for my deleted apps anyway. I stopped myself before I could tap the Safari app. Come on, Jabria. It’s not even noon yet. I sighed, silenced the phone and flipped it to the opposite end of the couch, and refocused my attention on the TV. I was bored again before the next commercial break. Ok, no problem; just go grab your laptop. Get some writing done today.
So I got up and hunted up my laptop form my bedroom. I didn’t even go to pull up Word when I logged on; my mouse immediately went to Google Chrome. I shut the laptop and hunted up a notebook and a pencil; if any writing was getting done today, it would be done the old fashioned way. I sat there, pencil in hand, and stared at the blank piece of paper. And my mind went was as blank as the paper.
“Son of a…” I cursed under my breath, chucking the pencil across the room. It was just past one in the afternoon.
I pulled on a pair of sandals and grabbed my keys; clearly this wasn’t going to work if I was just sitting around the house.
I didn’t really have a clear destination in mind when I got in my car. I stopped by the mall and did some window shopping. I rode by my great-grandparent’s house and talked to my Papa for a while. I went to the public library for the first time in a long time and picked up some books. By the time I made it back home, I was starving. So I fixed lunch, I ate, I read a couple of my library books and, at some point, I found another pencil and got a little writing done. I was genuinely shocked when my mom walked in from work; I didn’t realize it was as late in the day as it was.
“Where’s your phone?” she asked me, “I’ve been calling you all day.”
I frowned. “It’s in my…” I went to pull my phone from my pocket, then remembered where I had tossed it that morning.
I grabbed my phone and looked at it. I had a handful of unanswered text messages, multiple missed calls from her and other people, and a couple of game notifications. “Oh,” I replied simply, “Sorry.”
I slid my phone into my pocket and started back into my book, but it was time for dinner. It was my great-grandmother’s birthday, and she wanted to go out to Texas Roadhouse. And what Nana wants, Nana gets, even if it means sitting outside and waiting for almost an hour to get it.
I’m not quite sure when I opened Safari on my phone. Caught in the daze of the evening heat and the drone of the country music drifting from the restaurants’ speakers, I opened the app and pulled up Facebook. I was in the middle of my scrolling that it dawned on me what I was doing, and I glanced up at the time.
8:30. I was exactly two hours short. I stared at the time, sighed heavily, and started to redownload all my social media apps. A voice over the intercom called our party to be seated then, and I spent the rest of the night hanging with my family. I didn’t touch my phone again until I was lying in bed.
Even though I didn’t make my goal of going a full 24 hours Internet- free, my vacation wasn’t a total bust. I became more aware of how often I get bored during the day and how most of my Internet usage, whether on my phone or laptop, was to alleviate that boredom. Instead of spending my day laying across the couch scrolling through the Internet, I had to find different ways to keep myself entertained. In the process, I got a lot done that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. And while I’m nowhere near ready to do like Ty and give up my phone for an entire week, I can see myself taking these little vacations more often.
*Below are the links to the videos Ty showed me. I highly recommend checking them out”
