Everyone today is very used to always being connected to the outside world through technology. Just going down the hallway, you will see people walking around with their eyes glued to their cell phones. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Spotify, Pandora, and more, they are always looking at their phones.
I've had some friends of mine tell me they sometimes go on their phone when they are caught in an awkward situation where they don't know anyone to talk to. Or, without even thinking, they will find themselves watching their friends' snap-stories instead of actually talking with them.
And that's the thing nowadays. We don't even second guess it when it comes to hopping on our technology. What used to be going out to dinner with friends turned into going out to dinner to take a picture of our food to post on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook before eating it. Then staring at whoever interacts with it to tell your friends what other people are commenting on the picture instead of having a conversation with them.
The new philosophical question of today's age is: if a tree falls down in the forest and no one is around to take a video of it to put on their many social media accounts, did it really happen?
Due to all of this being the reality of our lives, I am taking this chance to "go dark" for 48 hours. What that means is, I will be living like it is 1995 again. That means I will be able to use my cell for making calls. That is it. Completely off the grid.
I will not be on social media or the internet at all from Nov. 23-24.
Now, this means that I will have to do a lot of preparation:
1. I must talk with all of my bosses to let them know what I am doing, for how long and what it entails.
2. I need to talk with some co-workers at my internship to let them know that I will not be reachable by any other way than phone calls during these days.
3. I need to make sure that I have all my homework that is due on those days to be done already and submitted for grading online ahead of time.
4. I need to let my family and friend know that I will not be reachable unless they call me.
5. Set up an automatic reply for email, groupme, etc.
Some exceptions that were granted to me:
1. If I want to take pictures during Thanksgiving, I can use my cell phone camera (not Snapchat) to do so.
2. If I have big research papers that I need to do, I can use my computer for only research on the the university library database.
3. I may check my email for one hour each day.
Honestly, I am pretty excited to do this. I am guilty of some of the technological luxuries that comes with having a smart phone at all times. One thing I am nervous about is if any of the people that I am in charge of message me in GroupMe, I will not be able to message them back. Or, if I need to go to a place on Thanksgiving that I haven't been before, I can't use Google Maps to get me there (I am so bad with directions).
Otherwise, I am excited to be able to unplug for a while. All this use of technology is pretty exhausting and I think this will be a nice break from all the chatter.
Check back in next week to see how it went!
