Recently, for a class assignment, I was instructed to go 24 hours with no media use. I’ll tell y’all how 24 whole hours without a cellular device went. I started at 10 p.m. Thursday night until Friday night at 10 p.m. Now, starting at night was the key to my success, because sleeping for nine hours really kept me occupied.
Waking up without an alarm clock felt liberating. Who knew that I could rely on my own mind and body to wake two hours before class; just enough time to get ready and study for my test? There is something about not having to hear an annoying noise in the morning, and having your full hours of sleep. I would use the word refreshing.
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The hardest challenge I faced before class was not being able to check the weather to see what was appropriate to wear outside. For some odd reason, my watch was full two hours behind, so not knowing the time was a tad bit uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure after the 10th time I asked someone, people started to get annoyed.
About 13 hours in, I thought that going to Memphis would fill the void in my life. It took me a while to decide whether or not to go there without a phone, because it is pretty dangerous. I made an adult decision to not go alone, because my phone is my GPS and no one wants to get lost in Memphis.
It felt good not to hear GroupMe go off every minute or to get an overdramatic text message. It felt even better to not have the urge to keep up with everyone's life on Snapchat, but to instead focus on my own life. You don't know how much time you can save when you aren't busy scrolling down your Instagram timeline every two seconds.
Eventually, the feeling of something missing goes away, but it took over 14 hours. One perk of not having to carry a cell phone everywhere is having to only keep up with your keys.
By the time I got back, the need to check social media went away. I even felt like I wanted to get rid of my cellphone because, for once in my life, I was stress-free.
Now I challenge you all to go one whole day without your cell phone, and see how much you can truly enjoy your own life without the interference of others.
