No, this is not a drill. I really went five days without a phone, involuntarily of course. Our phones are portals to the magic world of social media where all the juicy interaction happens, and without a phone, I truly felt lost.
We grow so accustomed to immediately knowing what is happening at every second of the day; who is stressed out about a test next period, who is ready for the Chick-fil-A they’re about to eat, who is fed up with fake people, everything.
I came to school every morning asking my friends what I missed the night before, I wanted to know everything. Of course they said I never really missed much, but how could I not have missed anything with everyone constantly tweeting, posting on their snapchat story, uploading on instagram, or changing their relationship status?
I never realized how much downtime teachers leave for phone use. During the first or last ten minutes of every class, look around… what do you see? Everyone immersed in technology, and me reading a novel or writing in a journal. It has become so normal for everyone to get on their phone and teachers just accept it now.
While having no phone I felt like I was floating in black space, completely disconnected from reality. I haven’t watched YouTube videos in days, that is depressing.
I usually give tips about how to survive going five days without something but if you’re like me and have to go without a phone, you’re screwed. Luckily for me, I love to read and I know a lot of teachers who will donate to the great cause of my boredom. Not only do you feel disconnected from the world without a phone, it’s so boring. I don’t know how many times I counted how many flowers were on the pattern on my ceiling, but it was a lot.
So if you’re stuck in the stone age like me, find a hobby, talk to your family more, or just do some deep inner thinking about what you want to tweet when you make your return to the social world.
And me? I’ll continue to defy odds and live without a phone. I might even start driving a car that uses my feet as the engine or change my name to Bam Bam. If you need to get a hold of me, address your letter to Bedrock. We’ll see how the next five days goes.