Ha, ditching my phone for a week? You're funny. But wait, you're serious? I know half of you who are reading are thinking this exact thing. You can't fool me!
On a more significant note, how exactly does one forget about their phone in college? Hard to imagine, right? Trust me, personally when I decided to do this two weeks ago, I thought my life was over for a minute. However, believe it or not, this may be what changes your perspective on the life you live and how you see the environment around you. We live in such a beautiful world, yet, when was the last time you decided to look up from that glass screen and actually say you lived in the moment? What happens when you finally decide to stop being one of the zombies living vicariously through their phone? There are just about five specific things that become drastically different in your life when you decide to finally put down your phone.
1. You wake up in the morning actually feeling refreshed. Who knew that was possible?
Before:
After:
Who knew it was actually possible to not have the urge to refresh Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and who knows what else aimlessly at 2 a.m. when you have to be up for your 8 a.m.? Let's be real here, no one is doing anything interesting or posting anything interesting at 2 a.m. on a Monday night so go to bed.
BUT, being a phoneless you, you decided to go to bed at 12 last night, leaving you to feel like Beyonce, you woke up like this, flawless.
2. You stop making excuses for not paying attention in class.
Before:
After:
We have all been there. Maybe you were catching up with the latest drama in your friend group and felt as if your teachers lecture is completely irrelevant. What is college anyways?
Without your phone, your teacher becomes interesting for the first time the whole semester and you notice he's kinda attractive. What have I been doing these past few months? Maybe I'll actually begin to pay attention..let's see how long this lasts.
3. You begin to admire the beauty of your campus.
Before:
After:
Maybe you're avoiding saying hi to people because who likes social interaction on a Monday morning? Or you really don't care that you go to school at the University of Tampa, where your tuition money is spent on foreign palm trees and landscape workers' salaries (if you haven't realized, they are ALWAYS cutting the grass).
Eh, who cares, you walk this campus every day and have taken many basic Instagram pics of the minarets and palm trees.
Well, the phoneless you now has the excuse to look up. Have you explored Plant Park? Sat on the docks and just taken a minute to soak in the Tampa skyline? Have you possibly made some form of interaction with friends between classes? This is your chance to really appreciate your parents for letting you attend such a beautiful school. Trust me, you start to get in your feels #blessed.
4. You hangout with your friends and aren't Snapchatting, Instagramming, Facebooking, every second of it.
Before: 
After:
Of course, who doesn't love a quality snapchat story? But how funny is it that we focus hanging out with our friends around making sure we have a "Snapstory worthy pic" or snapping a pic that is good enough to make it to your daily "1 Instagram post limit."
Ugh, everyone has to be jealous of my life somehow? You can't cut off Snapchat.
Being the phoneless you, you don't even know what Snapchat or Instagram is anymore and feel bothered when noticing how often people actually selfie in public. Instead, you hang out with your friends and decide to actually find out more about what is going on in their lives and for once, you have fun when you go out and live through experience instead of pictures. Hey, not a bad idea.
Goodness, who actually needs a phone anyways? People who see you out should just be jealous of your life anyways, because your flawless like Bey, right?
5. You know what it means to live in the moment.
Before:
After:
Carpe Diem what..? It's sad that living in the moment to people today means posting a picture on Facebook or Instagram. Or making a Snapchat story for others to view. Having a phone has made millennials believe that living is defined through posting things to prove they did something. I carpe diemed the crap out of today, i posted on all forms of social media.
Once more, being the phoneless you, you learned that living is noticing the environment around you, instead of focusing on what would make the best social media post. You become so surprised by all of the things you've learned through choosing to go phoneless that maybe another week wouldn't be such a bad idea?
If you do not want to take on going completely phoneless, next time you are walking from class to class or are even around people, see how many times someone uses their phone. What you will find will only open your eyes to how we live in a world where technology defines every single one of us.
Hey, for all that you know, maybe you could be the one who helps lower the statistic which shows over 92 percent of college students using their phones during idle time at either school or work.
