Can you imagine living in the 21st century without easy access to the internet? Not having Netflix at your fingertips? Having to actually socialize with people in person?
For the past three weeks, I have been without a laptop. This may not seem like a big deal, but living on campus necessitates the use of a laptop. Access to online course materials, the ability to order books online, and the use of time-killing activities such as Netflix or using Spotify were completely absent from my life for 21 days.
Before I give my revelations on life without a laptop, I must share the story that was my former laptop.
What happened
This laptop was old.
Like, when originally purchased it had Windows Vista on it, old. It had been updated to Windows 7 shortly afterwards, but this fossil was a little outdated as far as laptops were concerned, weighing about 5 pounds and not having HDMI output. Last summer the Z key stopped working. Not using this key very often, I let it go. Three weeks ago, I tried to turn it on, it whirred loudly, the screen turned plaid, and the computer shutdown, only to turn on two days later for 10 minutes with now the T, E, Z, and caps lock keys not working. It would then immediately shutdown forever. All bookmarks lost. All documents lost. Which is a little devastating in and of itself, especially for me since I have been writing research paper starting on it.
What I learned
1. Human interaction is kind of nice
I found myself constantly bored and yearning some kind of interaction or conversation to keep me occupied. Usually on the weekend I would stay holed up in my room only leaving for food, or staying up to the wee hours of the morning watching TV. This labor day weekend, I texted people to eat dinner, talked to fellow RAs at the desk, and it was kind of nice.
2. Way better sleep habits
Without the burning light of the laptop screen keeping me up any and all hours of the night while I wasted hours binging Netflix (not gonna like though, low key happy I can finally finish Stranger Things), these past three weeks I've been going to sleep at reasonable hours and waking up way before my planned alarms. Even having enough time to do my make-up, which is something usually reserved for going out or special occasions when at school.
3. Computers labs on campus are the real MVP
There are so many resources on my campus that I didn't even consider until I had no other options. I mean, I always spent a lot of time at the library, but always using my own laptop. Without it, I was able to see all the different programs that were readily available to all students on PCs and Macs.
4. Taking things for granted
I'm going to be honest, I totally took having a laptop for granted for the past four years. Always having the option of going on it on a whim, or just the knowledge that you weren't cut off from the world at large. Sure, I did have my Smartphone still, but I also don't have the patience to use it as far as in depth writing or actually reading articles for school is concerned.
