I decided to do this on Saturday, September 21, 2013.
12 a.m. – This is when I decided to start the project and even though I didn’t go to sleep until a couple hours later, I put my phone and computer away. I did some late night cleaning and took a shower and went to sleep. I won’t lie; it was hard falling asleep because I felt like I needed to check my phone before I slept. I was pretty jealous of my boyfriend jamming out to his music while he was on Tumblr.
12 p.m. – I wake up on Saturday morning after an uneventful Friday. Of course I had no alarm set since I can’t use my phone. Itching to check my phone for any messages, Instagram, or Facebook updates, I proceed to put my phone in my dresser.
1 p.m. — I decide to get ready for the day and I usually have music playing in the background, but today. The only thing distracting or entertaining me was the view outside of my window
2 p.m.— Fortunately, my best friend lives above me in my apartment building so instead of texting or calling, I physically get up and go to her room and ask if she’s doing anything today. We decide to go eat lunch on beach drive
3 p.m. – Finally we are seating at our table and the first thing all my friends do is get their phone out and check Facebook or play Candy Crush. I didn’t bring my phone with me so I didn’t have the temptation. The conversation was kept to a minimum because they were all preoccupied with their phones. Of course, I asked my friend to take a picture of my food so I could post it to Instagram tomorrow, hehe.
After we ate our delicious food, we headed back home.
4:30 p.m.—I come home and the only thing I can really do is sleep, since I can’t use my computer, phone, or read. I decide to go to the pool with my friends and do some socializing.
5 p.m. – We are all at the pool (and since you can’t swim with your phone), we had a good time joking around and making conversation.
7 p.m. – It got chilly so we decide to go back up. By this time, my boyfriend is home from work so I can at least talk to him and not have the urge to break all my hard work by checking my phone.
9 p.m. – My boyfriend used his cell to call my friends to see what time we were all going to dinner. We plan to leave to eat sushi around 9:30 p.m.
12 a.m.—We are home from dinner and this time, I told my friends to talk to me instead of doing whatever on their phone, and it was a good old-fashioned dinner with conversation and laughter. It’s now the next day so I will now check my phone (finally!)
Over these last 24 hours, I’ve missed 2 calls, haven’t read 16 text messages, and had a total of 7 Facebook notifications.
To be fair, I did tell my family and close friends about this project but if I hadn’t, I feel like those numbers would’ve been higher. It’s crazy to think how much we rely on media. Not only is my phone always with me, but also it’s hard not to use my computer or music or even read a book. Our culture is completely submerged into media and I think it’s so in depth that there is no way of going back.
And now I’m going to sleep and about to play Candy Crush, hehe.