Well I didn’t quite make it until 5pm! Being unconnected was
a more difficult task than I originally thought, and I wasn’t even completely
disconnected like the video we watched in lecture. I like to think I’m not
dependent on my phone or obsessed with social media, but I had a hard time staying even somewhat discounted. This led me to
think I am a bit more dependent than I’d like to be (so I am going to try to work on that!). It’s almost just a habit to
check Facebook or Instagram when I’m waiting in line for coffee or taking the
bus. I accidentally checked Facebook 6 times without even thinking about the
assignment, just because it has become such a habit for me. But I was able to only use my computer for homework and limit my texting though.
I still ended up communicating with people via text messages
– if someone texted me, I would respond but I tried not to send out unnecessary
texts. For example, sometimes when I’m in my room but I have a quick question
for my roommate down stairs, I’ll just text her, rather than walking around the
house. So I realized the convince of texting but also how it limits our
social interactions. It would have been VERY hard to completely not text this weekend, mostly because it was Halloween weekend so meeting up with friends would have been impossible without communicating through texts.
The media I missed the most would probably be Instagram. I
love taking pictures and looking at others so it was the hardest to not look at
it over the weekend, especially when people were posting pictures of their
creative costumes! Instead of looking at my phone or being on my computer, I was
more productive with doing my homework and I also did more chores around our
house when I needed a break from homework and would usually just check Facebook or something.
One of the old school resources that I used was a dictionary
(versus using the web to look up definition or maybe check spelling). First, it was hard to actually
find a dictionary (besides in the library) but one of my roommates surprisingly had one. So when I was
reading for my classes, if I needed to look up a word online, I just
used the dictionary. I would definitely prefer using an online dictionary!
After doing this assignment, I want to challenge myself to be “disconnected" more. I want to limit the amount of times I look at my phone when I am physically with friends or family. I want to be more conscious of how long I'm on Facebook or Instagram, when I have other important things to do.
1 comment:
Madeleine, looks like you did a good job at disconnecting! I think your reference to hard copy dictionaries is interesting, as the cross from hard copy to the web is something our generation has experienced. I remember having to grab a dictionary to look things up in grade school (back when we knew less words too, ugh!) and hating it. I remembered being angered when my teachers wouldn't let me just look up the word online, teaching us to do it the hard way when the definition was at our fingertips. I guess what I'm trying to say is that after your experience this weekend, do you feel like we should all disconnect more? Or is disconnecting moving backward in a not so good way?
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