I got my first cell phone when I was nine years old. At this point in my life, the only people I could text or call were my parents, my sister, and maybe one or two other friends that had cell phones too. I’ve had probably six different phones since then, each one more advanced than the last and more capable of connecting me to the outside world. I have always somewhat viewed my phone as an extension of myself. I use my phone as a calendar, a tool for information, and of course for communication. When a professor for one of my classes challenged us to go without technology for 48-hours, obviously I was a little concerned. I hated the idea of being disconnected from my friends, not being able to manage my Gatepost duties, not being able to listen to music, and not being able to check my works Facebook page. All of these things were a part of my daily schedule, and I knew it was going to be weird to have to cut such big chunks of time out of my day, but I did end up successfully completing the challenge. I did not experience any big revelations or even really enjoy my time away

I’d like to note, when I got back from my 48-hours away, I had 58 text messages, 55 emails, 11 Facebook notifications, 46 notifications from other messaging apps, and 5 notifications from other apps. Some of my friends were monitoring me, making sure that I actually completed the challenge. One of them saying as I was checking the calendar on my phone, “Your days aren’t up yet! Isn’t that cheating?” but then went on to say, “It’s not like he would know if you actually did it, I would cheat.” So while she was ensuring that I completed the challenge, she also knew that she wouldn’t be capable of doing so and would probably just fake the entire assignment. The Editor in Chief for The Gatepost, the school newspaper I write for, asked for my email when I first told her about the assignment, in hopes that she could work out an exception for Gatepost because Facebook messenger is essential to how we communicate with one another throughout the week. In order to get around this, I had to communicate important Gatepost obligations through my roommate or one of my friends to make sure everything was getting done that needed to be done. I realize that this is a little bit of a way of going around the assignment, but I had to do so in order to make sure that the paper went to print on time and that my section was running smoothly. Giving up my phone essentially meant abandoning my responsibilities, which wasn’t feasible at the time.

At the end of the second day, my roommate had to keep walking to my boyfriend’s room because she needed to talk to me. We are very close and usually communicate throughout the day, especially when we’re struggling and need a pick-me-up. She was very frustrated, saying, “Jesus Christ Allie, when do you get your phone back? 4 hours? I can’t live like this anymore!” I think she was a little more irritated by the entire assignment more than I was.

My reaction to the assignment was a little more laid back. Most of my frustration came from not being able to listen to music. I listen to music literally all the time. In the shower, while I’m doing homework, while I’m working, and not being able to do that was the worst part. I’m not a fan of the quiet, I get distracted too easily by small noises or other people when music is not playing. Another thing that bothered me was not being able to text people. I had a seven hour work shift, and forgot a book to read and wanted to text someone to bring it to me. I got a good grade on a test that I was stressed about, and I wanted to be able to text my boyfriend about it, because I wanted to feel his pride in me, and not being able to do that put a bit of a damper on my day. Most of the time, when I was alone, I wasn’t having some great existential reflection on my life, honestly I was thinking about how I could relate things to the paper or just singing songs in my head.

My biggest problem was definitely being disconnected. As soon as I got my phone back, I texted a bunch of people, I scrolled through all of my social media apps and called my mom. Being able to communicate with people who I’m physically unable to have contact with other than electronically is part of the reason I rely on my phone so heavily. My mom, sister, and best friend all live over an hour away and I only get to see them a few times a semester, so texting and calling is essential to our relationships. If this challenge had been any longer than two days, I would’ve most likely given up because I would have missed talking to them too much. Talking to them so frequently is what prevents me from getting homesick and without that instant communication I felt isolated and upset.

Without the constant distraction of my phone, all I really found was that I would find other ways to distract myself. If I was doing my homework and wanted to distract myself, I would sit and color for an hour. If I was lying in bed and couldn’t sleep, I would read or obsessively plan out the next day. My point being, that although cell phones may make distracting ourselves more accessible, if I wanted to distract myself I could do so (and would do so) without my cell phone.

Immediately after the 48 hour period was up I tweeted, “All I really learned from my 48-hour technology ban is that I listen to music constantly and I really despise the quiet.” Clearly, that was not all I learned, but that was my way of telling the 323 people who follow me that I completed the challenge and that it wasn’t what anyone expected it to be. I hadn’t even fully formed my thoughts on the challenge before thinking about sending this tweet, but I did it anyway, as to receive instant gratification from my followers in the form of likes. After I had thought about it for a few more days, however, I did form more complete thoughts, and reflected back on the experience deeply and meaningfully. While my tweet was expected to generate a reaction out of people, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t think about it before I sent it. If anything, I thought about it more. 140 characters is not a lot of space to share your thoughts, so I wanted to ensure that I conveyed the thoughts I was intending to convey, and wording it in such a way that produced a certain shock value.

After 48-hours, my biggest takeaway is that those who write about their distaste for technology have clearly never gone without it. You can say that technology causes people to be lonely, makes people distracted, and makes self-reflection a thing of the past, but who says that taking away technology will change these things? Because in my experience it didn’t. Technology is likely a piece of the problem, but it is also being used as a scapegoat for problems that are much more deep rooted into society. Loneliness could be caused by a number of things, like increased awareness of depression, increased independence, and increased expectations on young people. Getting distracted has always been a human fault, and I personally don’t think that cell phones intensify that. Your susceptibility to distraction is based more off of your personality than it is on the things that are around to distract you. Self-reflection and contemplative thought are may be lost on today’s society because people are more analytical rather than philosophical. We are a society full of scientists and engineers, who like exact answers, not thoughts that never come to an actual conclusion. This challenge taught me that the claims made about technology are grossly overstated, and that often time people like to point out the negatives of technology instead of addressing the real problems.