https://www.instagram.com/48hourchallenge/
I was first introduced to this by Venetia Falconer (https://www.instagram.com/venetiafalconer/) and Max la Manna (https://www.instagram.com/maxlamanna/) (the creators of this challenge). They would post about how they would turn off their phones Friday night and then back on again Sunday night. It really intrigued me every time they did this because I felt like it was something that I had to do (and once something gets into my head I’m kind of obsessed with doing it). Most people spend a lot of time on their phones and I definitely felt as though I spent too much time on mine. This is my last year of university and I do not have time for any distractions, so I thought what better time to do this challenge than now. So, I did my own offline 48 and this is how it went.
Disclaimer: I used my laptop during the weekend but it was strictly for school.
Friday Night
I started off this challenge by texting my family and letting them know that I wouldn’t be on my phone for the weekend. I gave them my roommates phone number just in case there was an emergency.
I decided to start my challenge at 5:30 pm because that was when my shift started at work so I didn’t think I would miss using my phone while I was working. During my shift I didn’t really miss my phone at all which was nice but I also didn’t expect to miss it because I’m pretty used to working without my phone.
During my break I did think I would want to use my phone, but luckily there were people that I could speak to during my break, so I didn’t get bored.
After work around 10:30 pm, I remembered that I had forgotten to turn off my phone before work had started so I went to turn it off but then I saw a message from a friend. I quickly replied and made sure to say I wasn’t supposed to be on my phone but I was glad for their message. After that I quickly shut my phone off and didn’t look at anything else.
I went home and decided just to go to bed, so I went to bed at 11 pm and that was the end of my Friday night.
Saturday
I woke up, had breakfast and showered and then proceeded to edit an excel sheet for class. I got bored and proceeded to check a non-school related website, and within a few minutes I realized what I had done and quickly exited the website to go back to doing school work.
After doing my homework for more time, I was bored again. There was no one awake in my house that I could speak to so I just had to do my work and I couldn’t even call my family like I usually do.
Luckily, after about an hour of doing my homework, it was time to leave for my volunteer orientation that was on campus so I biked there. It was a pretty fun day and even during the breaks I didn’t really feel the need to use my phone because I was among really friendly people that wanted to talk, so I wasn’t bored.
I went home and luckily my roommate was there but she said that she was going to take a nap, so I was bored again (seems like a common theme). I decided to take a nap myself because I felt as though I wasn’t rested enough to do my readings.
After I woke up from my nap, my roommate and I decided that we would go downtown to get some ice cream and then go to our friend’s apartment to check up on her cat. We played with her cat, Terra, for a while because she is a cutie and I love her.
We then proceeded to walk around the legislature and I was a little sad because I wanted to take photos of cool things but my friend was nice and she took photos for me.
After all this, we finally went home, got some snacks and proceeded to watch Shrek. It was overall a very wholesome day.
Sunday
I woke up around 9 am without an alarm and proceeded to eat breakfast and get ready for work.
I went to work and throughout the day I was thinking about how I wanted to use my phone and I was ready for this challenge to be over. It wasn’t that I wanted to check my social media but instead, I simply wanted to be able to communicate with people that I don’t see every day like my family.
Luckily my shift ended at 5:30 pm (the same time the challenge was over) so as soon as I ended my shift, I was able to use my phone. The first thing I did was call my family and see what they did over the weekend. It felt very nice to be able to speak to them again and also to be able to tell them what I did on the weekend as well.
Sunday evening was when I did most of my reading and other assignments so I still wasn’t able to just be on my phone and relax (responsibilities right?).
This weekend was revealing to me in regards to my habits. I found that I wanted my phone the most when I was alone. I like to speak to people frequently and tell them basically every single thing that pops into my head, and when I’m not able to do that it’s hard. I also wanted my phone a lot when I was doing things for school. I often get bored when I’m doing my homework and this leads to me picking up my phone for a quick distraction. Without being able to use my phone, I simply had to go back to my work without the distraction.
Overall, this weekend was a good break away from my phone. I do not regret it at all and I believe that it is something I should do every so often. But perhaps instead of no phone, I will make sure not to use my phone for anything else other than for the essential communication that I enjoy. I don’t really have conversations with people over text so I don’t believe that it would be that much of a distraction.
Phones are a really great invention to stay connected with people but sometimes it allows us to disconnect with our surroundings and I think I would like to stay more present from here on out.