One day last month, I chose to do the unthinkable: I decided not to use any electronic devices for 24 hours. I picked a Friday as the day to “cut the cord” and put my smartphone and laptop in my desk drawer at home. It was a tough choice but I had to do it for 2 reasons. One, because my English professor insisted and two, because I was very curious. The latter convinced me to do this experiment.
As soon as the alarm rang, I switched my phone off. Didn’t read any messages, like any pictures or update myself with any current affairs. I left to college rather optimistically and took the bus. I found an empty seat. Now I was all comfortable and cozy but I felt that I was missing something. Surprise! Surprise! It was my phone. I usually listen to music whenever I’m out alone in public but all I can hear now was noise. Now that I had nothing to do, I decided to peak outside the window and all I could see was chaos. Parents driving their kids to school, motorcycles overtaking each other, a man running to catch the bus. I “survived” my journey to college. Although “survived” is a little bit of an exaggeration.
Now that I reached college I never had the need for my phone. I like talking to people and connecting with them. With my friends around there was really no need for a phone. Classes commenced as per the schedule. During lunch my friends and I would normally game but I couldn’t join them as I left my phone at home. An idea sparked, I convinced my friends to play basketball. Quite frankly we had a really good time. All our worries and thoughts just vanished during the match. It refreshed us and we had a very good bonding session. What generally is a text message was now a verbal conversation. One of my friends wanted to make basketball an everyday thing.
The last hour came to an end and as I was walking to the bus stop, I admittedly wondering about the messages I was missing, who called me and what people were doing that day. The task was half complete, I might as well complete it. I desperately needed my phone as I took the bus home. The journey felt like a lifetime! It was very frustrating. I finally reached home. I did nothing but sleep to kill time.
My ultimate focus was to complete the experiment and I successfully did. The next morning when I switched my phone back on, my notifications flooded! I even received a message which read “ Hello !! are you alive?! “. This experiment didn’t just fetch me content for my blog post rather it made me realise many things. The first being our addiction to the smartphone. It’s a pretty obvious one, isn’t it ? I was restless without my phone. I just wanted to feel my phone and not necessarily using it. Smartphones are the ultimate time suck up of our daily lives. I’m glad that I convinced my friends to play basketball, it was something different, an intake of fresh air.
I also realised that its important to periodically cut the cord. After playing basketball. I could physically feel the relief from being untethered to my smartphone. It almost felt like freedom. I wasn’t beholden to the people texting me, calling me or updating their social media platforms. I could hear my surroundings instead of the monotonous sound of my Redmi ringtone. As with exercise, eating healthy and getting enough sleep, I reminded myself of how good it felt to live in the moment.
Albuquerque's Blog 