If any of you watch TV (which I know all of you do; like, I gotta be joking, right?) you’ll certainly have seen those AT&T commercials featuring Mark Wahlberg imploring the necessity of technology in the Information Age.

“Food, water, Internet,” Wahlberg says as he points to visual representations of each. “We need it to live.”

While obviously meant to be humorous, that simple sentiment often doesn’t seem too far from the truth. Nowadays, virtually everything has become automated and digitized, from shopping to dating. Banking is done online. Listening to music is done online. Even ordering food is done online. With the near ubiquity of the Internet (and the devices we use to power it) in our daily lives, it’s not hard to imagine a world where Marky Mark’s statement is a reality.

Of course, things weren’t always like this. In fact, even I (in my long and illustrious life) remember a time before the smartphone, WiFi, social media, and the constant buzz of information that has become the norm in the here and now. I was young, but I still remember a time before streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, when I could lose myself for hours reading a book or riding my bike or just goofing around with friends. Now, it seems I’m stuck in the same, cyclical, binge-watching daze as everyone else.

That is, until, I decided to spend a week without my phone.

That statement is a bit erroneous. I didn’t just wake up one day and say to myself: “today’s the day I get rid of my phone!” My phone broke, and in order to have it repaired, I shipped it south to Plano, Texas, where Samsung informed me it would take approximately a week, round-trip, to get the phone, diagnose the problem, fix it, and send it back.

Frustrated, but not really seeing any other option, I stuck my phone in a cardboard box and dropped it in the mail.

The change I experienced as a result was significant.

I’m not going to sugarcoat things. I wasn’t magically enlightened the minute I put down my phone. All of the secrets of the universe weren’t suddenly revealed to me. I didn’t automatically become one with nature.

But I did notice some things pretty quickly. My attention span seemed to increase dramatically. I could focus on more tasks for longer periods of time. I didn’t get distracted so easily. I also found myself less drawn to the general clamor that accompanies social media. Sure, I could still check Facebook and whatnot on my computer, but by removing the ease of access, I had also removed some of the desire to do so constantly. I would check Facebook and Messenger maybe once or twice after getting home from work, watch the evening news during dinner or listen to the radio, and then go about my day. The world moved on. I didn’t get stuck in a daze.

I found myself with a lot more time. It’s amazing how much time “just checking Facebook” will eat out of your daily schedule. It might seem like a quick thing, but add up all the little times you look at your phone to see a notification or answer a text message during the day and it’s actually a pretty significant amount.

So, what did I do with this time? I reinvested it. I got projects done around the house. I wrote. I wrote A LOT more than I was able to with my phone. Every time I took my break at work, instead of instantly going to my phone to check Snapchat, I whipped out a pen and napkin and wrote notes or small scenes for the next novel idea I’ve got going on in my head.

That’s not to say there weren’t drawbacks. There were. Sometimes being able to contact people on the go would’ve been very convenient. The power to send a quick text to a friend when plans change on the fly is something that I sorely missed when I didn’t have my phone. I was either tethered to my computer or my friends were left in the dark, neither of which was really a fun option.

And admittedly, there were times where I felt that I was missing out. Friends would post things on social media and I wouldn’t be able to see it unless I took the time to scroll through my feed at the end of the day. What if there was something big or impactful or whatever that all the guys would know about, but I wouldn’t because I didn’t have my phone?

At the end of the day, there were pros and cons. Given the chance, would I live without a smartphone permanently? Probably not. For better or for worse, the world in which we live in necessitates it. I need to stay connected for work and for school at the very least, and so I might as well stay connected with friends too.

But this weeklong, forced experiment has also made me reconsider some things, such as the idea that I “need” a phone and the Internet that can be accessed with it. I don’t. There are bigger, better, and brighter things going on in the world that I can devote more time and attention to. I can focus on my writing, on my family and friends, on life more than I do and on the digital world less.

While this revelation might not be anything profound in the greater arena of the debate over phones and our modern dependence on technology, the personal revelation that I’ve seen has been rather eye-opening.

Live without a phone? No. Reduce the amount of time I spend staring at an endless black screen? Absolutely.