Weekend Activity

            From initially hearing about this week’s online activity to actually experiencing a weekend without a phone, I was rather surprised by how difficult it actually was to escape digital social networking. After my last class on Friday I nonchalantly turned off my phone and stored it in my desk drawer for the whole weekend Not having a phone is nothing new to me because there have been multiple occurrences when I have been phoneless, ultimately finding it extremely refreshing. Aside from casually reaching in my pocket and forgetting that I had left my phone at home, I wasn’t too tempted to check any social media sites for the first day. I live with most of my close friends, so it wasn’t too difficult communicating with them about the weekend’s plans when we all live in the same building. As the weekend progressed, I found it more and more challenging to escape the virtual world leaving it on hold for the weekend. Every room I walked into was discussing plans said on “GroupMe” and I had to secondhand hear the plans. It became relatively evident at the end of the weekend that this exercise could really only work for a weekend because one is essentially too removed from society to understand daily occurrences. The small details really caught my attention, which are usually so miniscule when in the presence of your phone. I almost never wear a watch and I immediately realized viewing the time in public is a necessity. I also felt like I had to constantly be with a friend who was still communicating with a phone just so I knew when and where to meet people. 

               I found the most difficultly at Freak Fest and returning back to my apartment where I almost always opened my computer to be bombarded with notifications. During Freak Fest I was cautiously making sure I didn’t lose my friends because then I knew how difficult it would be to find them amongst the thousands of people roaming the streets. It was nerve wracking constantly looking to make sure my friends were close by, which ended up taking away from the experience of the concert. On the other hand, while attempting a phone-less weekend wasn’t too challenging, the use of the computer was more difficult. No matter how many times I told myself I always found the need to open my computer at the end of the night to search the web. Upon opening my computer, I received all of the missed notifications from not using my phone directed straight to my computer. I had to intentionally remind myself about the week’s challenge and decided to hide it under my bed for the remainder of the weekend. The media I missed most was the social networking website Facebook and was uncomfortably surprised by how many times I log on. Without having twitter or Instagram, I realized that Facebook was my primary medium to connect socially with my friends. Instead of using personal digital social networking tools, I resorted to staying busy by occupying my time with friends for most of the weekend. For the most part I was able to avoid all media, aside from the brief times I had to step back and remember the assignment at hand. At the end of the assignment I was relieved to return to social media, but truly learned how social networking is consuming our society and reducing traditional interactions.