Day 1: The Morning After
You wake up in a daze, and roll over to grab your trusty electronic friend to help you remember the hazy events of the previous night. Feeling around your nightstand still half asleep, you are flooded by immediate panic to find your phone isn’t there. You wake your roommate up as you rip apart your entire room looking for your small black device. Why did I leave it on silent?! Then you have a brief moment of relief when you remember it’s probably in the bathroom again. Nope, not there. And then you realize: your beloved phone is lost forever.
Day 2: Complete Confusion
Rolling out of bed to the sound of—wait my alarm didn’t go off. You scramble around your room looking for a clock to see what time it is. Does anyone actually have an alarm clock anymore? 10:45 AM! You’ve totally missed your 10 AM lit class, but you still have to scramble to make it to your 11 AM. Walking outside you realize your outfit is makes absolutely no sense with the temperature since you had no way to check your weather app. It doesn’t even matter what you are wearing because you feel completely naked without your phone.
Day 3: Major FOMO
Having your roommate wake you up this morning, you realize what a good night’s sleep you got because you didn’t spend an hour checking social media before bed. Before you leave for class, you bug your roommates to give you their EXACT schedules so you know when and where they’ll be at the Bison, the lib, etc., since you have no way of reaching them. You quickly feel out of the loop from your friends’ daily shenanigans, and you are even coming to miss the nonstop buzzing of your group messages.
Day 4: Maybe This Isn’t So Bad
You are starting to get used to this whole “unplugged” thing. You feel free from the constant need to check your device every two seconds, although you still reach for it every once in a while. It’s calm, and your mind isn’t as cluttered. You even decide to go to the gym. But then you realize: YOU HAVE NO MUSIC. Does anyone even have an iPod anymore?Day 5: Phone Envy
Ok, screw the whole unplugged deal, this no phone thing is hard. You start to glance at other people using their phones and feel—what is that? Jealously? All of these people are using their phones like it is no big deal while you are here phoneless and detached. Your laptop has come to step in as your new best friend, and you find yourself wanting to check it as much as you checked your phone. You’ve even considered bringing it to the gym (still no music).
Day 6: Revelation
Walking to class, you find yourself actually looking around and noticing things that you haven’t noticed before. Everyone passing you by is mindlessly buried in his or her phones, but your mind is free to actually think and enjoy the walk. And then you realize how silly it is that you are always dialed in to a tiny little screen when there is a WHOLE WORLD out here to look at. Thinking back to these last couple of days without a phone, you recognize just how productive and clear-minded you have been because you haven’t been distracted by the world inside your precious device.
Day 7: Back on the Bandwagon
You check your laptop to see that you have a package notification! Forgetting everything you learned yesterday, you book it to the mailroom to get your package, which can only mean one thing: a new phone. As soon as you get your new device set up, it’s game over, and you are dialed right back in. You call your mom because, well, you haven’t talked to her in a week. Even though you are back to endlessly scrolling, you have a new appreciation for the technology that you hold in your hand, and know that sometimes it is good to unplug every once in a while … but only for a little.