Last Wednesday and Thursday, I participated in a social experiment wherein I was told to be “off the grid” for two days. This wasn’t necessarily voluntary, since I’m taking a class called “Digital Anthropology” where we study the effect that the digital world has had on society. We’ve read books about Facebook and done readings on what emojis index, it’s all been very fun and interesting…
Until we had to do this assignment.
To preface this, I should admit that I am a person that is addicted to social media. Yeah, I Instagram a lot. Yeah, I’m on Facebook all the time. I consistently have a slew of unread texts. I will often pull my phone out and check it, just for the sake of checking it. It’s a bit problematic and I know it’s awful to be so reliant on technology, but I am, and I can’t help it. At the end of the day it’s a lot better than being addicted to crystal meth.
So here were the rules: no phone or computer for two days. No texting, no checking Facebook, no Snapchatting, no Instagramming. I was only allowed to use my computer for “academia” and emailing professors. I was only allowed to make or take phone calls in case of emergency. So because I was going to be off the grid for two days, I notified most of my friends, and my Jewish mother who would certainly freak out if she couldn’t reach me.
The first day, which was coincidentally Yom Kippur, was pretty rough. We had the school day off, but I was fasting so that compromised things. I tried to make all my plans in advance so I could only hope that people showed up when and where they told me they would. For the most part I was bored, I realized that I spend a lot of time on my phone, and it took a lot of self-control to stay away from my phone. I ended up napping for most of the day and doing homework for the rest, which was actually much easier with no distractions.
The second day was equally annoying. I started getting fed up with the fact that I couldn’t contact people, so I kind of broke the rules and let people call me. I ended up making lunch and dinner plans via phone calls, therefore feeling much like Cher from "Clueless." But I got used to the whole
no-social-media thing. I was tempted to see the texts and notifications I knew I was getting, but I had some self-control. Eventually that ran out, and at about 10 p.m. on the second night, I gave up. By the end of the whole thing I had 304 unread texts, 17 Facebook notifications, 11 Snapchats and five Instagram notifications.
To be honest, going into this I knew what to expect: this was going to confirm just how badly I am addicted to my phone. But what I didn’t really realize was just how much time a day we spend checking social media. We use our phones to fill empty time. When on a break, when bored, in between classes, we constantly check our phones to see what is happening, if anyone has contacted us, if anyone has professed their undying love for us. In a sense, there is this weird hope that we all have when checking our devices that we are going to receive something life changing.
But you most likely will not.
Our phones are quite parasitic. Cell phone usage came up in another one of my classes and my professor said it well: “We are always checking in with the outer world, when we should really be checking in with our inner world.” And it’s true. In those few minutes here and there of empty time I had, I spent it thinking about things, rather than meaningless scrolling. I could use that time writing a poem, or doodling, or listening to my favorite song, or planning out when I’m going to do my homework.
Anyway, I guess the moral to the story is try to limit yourself. It’s a weird concept that one device can connect you to the world on so many levels. However, at the same time, you are capable of forging many of those connections on your own! Yeah I survived the two days (kinda), yeah it wasn’t super pleasant, but it did make me think about how I don’t need my phone as much as I just really want it.
At the end of the day, I’ve realized my dependency, but I'm honestly never giving my phone up and going off the grid ever again.
