I went from around midnight Friday evening to midnight Saturday evening without the use of my electronic technology. One of the biggest challenges was that my parents were coming up to the football game on Saturday so if they had really needed to get in touch with me it would have been super hard especially since I don't think they could understand my smoke signals that meant they needed to bring extra beer for tailgating.
This got me thinking about how surreal it is to be able to contact someone at almost any minute of the day, almost anywhere in the world. Not only can I call almost anywhere in the world but I can also Skype which allows me to see my cousins in Australia on my computer screen in REAL TIME!
Did I spell this wright? I was leaving a note for one of my roommates and all of a sudden I realized that if I didnt spell something right then it was just going to be wrong. I was going to have some red line pop up below it to show me that something was wrong.
Its crazy to think I used to use a house phone (sometimes in horrible colors) when I was a kid to call my friends or to plan trips to the park. I mean if you wanted to talk to some cute girl you had to call her house and pass the test when her father or mother answered the phone before you could speak to her. It almost seems life was so much more personal than today with all these messages on screens now that show no real life expressions but instead just say LOL or OMG even though I hardly laugh out loud when I use that as a response.
Since I was challenged with no technology for a day, I challenged my parents to do the same once they arrived for the football game.They left their phones in the car the entire time they were in Boone. Looking back on it now, it was so much more enjoyable to be without distractions while I enjoyed quality time with the family. We seemed to be way more engaged in conversation and attentive to what each person was talking about. We didn't have distractions from Twitter and Facebook updates. I guess you could say we were acting "old school".
Luckily I knew how to get us to the stadium for the football game because who knows how to use a map these days that doesn't show you your current position and give you turn by turn directions from Siri.
One of the biggest things I noticed was the fact of how much more social I ended up being throughout the day. I was engaged in all my conversations and was definitely more creative in the sense that I was really thinking deep about what people were saying and trying to give back in depth thought provoking ideas that resembled their thoughts. It almost seems that we use our technology to hide from life and personal questions by staying on our phones or computers until an awkward situatioin passes. Could this new technology be the death of our social skills?
Overall it was a tremendous experience and one that made me feel more alive. All these things we think we need and we think make us happier are actually just substitutes for the more meaningful things in life. I mean how much more enjoyable is it to see your loved ones actually laugh instead of LOL or smile to your face compared to :). So many times I feel people hide behind technology because they are afraid to go and try something in person but instead make up excuses that they are busy when they are just hiding behind a phone really not busy at all. Technology can be good for many things but if used the wrong way it really can compromise our full potential to be real human beings. We just cant let our dependence on technology keep us from living because life is meant to be lived and lived to the FULLEST!
Zeb King
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