We all have that one day of the week that is just horrendous. You know, the day you have an 8 AM and a 5 PM class, with 4 classes in between, all spread out in a really inconvenient way both time wise and location wise. For me, that day is Thursday. I absolutely despise Thursday’s, and if you know me in real life, you know that literally all I talk about is Thursday’s. Even on Friday’s after it’s over, I still talk about how awful Thursday’s are. Basically, I have been perseverating on Thursday’s for the last eight weeks.
With that being said, for some odd and insane reason, I decided that I wanted to see if I could go for a whole week without using my phone (or Internet on my computer) during classes. I quickly scraped that idea, and decided I would just do one day, but to make it a bit trickier I would do it on Thursday. I know, something was seriously wrong with me when I decided that. I am in no way a social media addict, but when class is boring it’s hard not to want to be doing something else.
We all know that we really shouldn’t be on our phones or scrolling through Facebook and Pinterest on our computer during class, but we all do it. I have never come across anyone that hasn’t picked up their phone or opened up a new tab on their computer during a class for a whole 50 or 75 minutes. I knew this was going to be tough, but I was going to do it, you know, for scientific purposes of course. For the purpose of this article, I will be tracking my day here, which is technically not giving my full attention to class, but it’s different than being on my phone.
7:50 AM: Sitting in my 8 AM section. This won’t be that difficult because being on a phone during a section is one, way harder, and two, pretty rude.
8:10 AM: Okay, I never realized how boring taking roll is until I wasn’t distracted by my phone. No one updates anything during this time of day anyway, so why should I care, right?
8:50 AM: Okay, class over, time to check social media in between my next class at 9:30. That wasn’t too bad, but it’s just the beginning of the day. Optimistic yet worried.
9:30 AM: Second class of the day begins! This is the class where I usually do my best Pinterest-ing, and probably pick up my phone every 10 or so minutes (so bad, I know).
9:45 AM: 15 minutes in and I am beginning to question why I did this. I’m getting second hand social media from the girl scrolling on Instagram next to me, and the guy scrolling on Facebook on his computer in front of me. Internally laughing at myself for doing this.
10:12 AM: Literally. Everyone. Is. Doing. Something. Other. Than. Taking. Notes.
10:35: Class lets out early! That was the longest 65 minutes I have had in a long time. Time to check up on everything I missed in the last hour. Which, unsurprisingly is really not that much. Starting to realize at this point that I just look at the same things over and over, refreshing the page every five minutes when I go on my phone in class.
2:00 PM: Third class of the day is beginning. This class puts way too many words on the slide and everyone frantically types away and then sighs heavily when the slide changes and they weren’t nearly done. Sometimes though, we watch video clips and have a lot of discussions, AKA an excuse to distract yourself with social media. I was honestly hoping that we would have a lot of notes so I would have less time to think of checking anything. Today is not one of those days unfortunately…
2:20 PM: I don’t think I can do this.
2:25 PM: I have started cleaning up my desktop and organizing my folders. That doesn’t count, right?
3:05 PM: Whew, the notes picked up there for a bit! Didn’t even have time to think of checking anything. In other news, my fingers are cramping from typing so fast, and I realized I type with all of my fingers on my left hand but only my pointer finger on my right hand. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds.
3:05 PM (again): Why are the last 10 minutes always so brutal? Just sitting here holding my phone like it’s my lifeline. I’m weak and lame.
3:15 PM: Class over, thank god. Don’t have time to check anything, have to rush off to my next class across campus!
3:27 PM: Only have time to check Instagram and Twitter, which are the two main ones I check anyway. Definitely have more to scroll through than this morning. The worst is when you have to click “Read more tweets”. I handwrite my notes in this next class, so will have to stay strong and resist phone checking.
4:45 PM: Well, I did it. The notes move slowly in this class and I always check my phone when there is a lull in the notes. I left it in my backpack instead of on my desk so it would be less likely to tempt me. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t matter where the phone is, it is still incredibly tempting. To make up for this lack of media distraction I doodled for an hour and 15 minutes. Productive. And with that, my long day is over!
The take away? Class is really long and boring without any form of social media distraction, but I do feel like I took away so much more from my classes today. I retained more information and honestly didn’t miss anything by not checking social media during class. Will I do it again? Honestly, probably not, but I will lessen my time on my phone. It is rude to a professor and if it helps me have to do less studying and reviewing of my notes later, I’m all for it. I challenge you to spend more time doing what we are all paying so much money for instead of constantly double tapping, swiping, and scrolling.