Over the Weekend - Disconnecting Myself

Prior to this weekend, I knew it would be nearly impossible for me to completely cut myself off from all technological forms of communication.  I couldn't ditch certain responsibilities that I had to keep up with over the weekend, like figuring out my living situation for next year and making announcements on our sorority's page.  So I decided that I would try to use my phone less and abstain from using all social media unless it was absolutely necessary.  I expected Friday night to be easy because I didn't go out so there was no reason to really use my phone or social media.  However, I was the only one of my friends that I live with that stayed in, so I found myself extremely bored and really wanting to use my phone to kill time.  I refrained from giving in until the next day.  Saturday morning wasn't too hard for me because I was busy, but I still caught myself reaching for it and almost opening up the social media apps a few times.  It felt kind of strange to stand and wait or even walk without looking down at something on my phone.  Even though I don't always use my phone when waiting or walking, it surprised me by how much I had to stop my hands from absent-mindedly reaching for it.  It seemed that I wasn't even making a conscious decision to check anything, rather, I was just going through the motions.  Later in the day when I had a lot of free time, the challenge became much more difficult.  I had to log on to Facebook to post an announcement, and as soon as I saw my feed full of Halloween costumes, I was hooked.  I scrolled the newsfeed for a while, and soon enough, I was checking Instagram to see even more costumes.  At that point, I decided to throw in the towel; the task of "disconnecting myself" had not even lasted 24 hours.
       It was kind of pathetic, but I would like to think that if it had been a different weekend, I could have lasted longer.  Last year I broke my phone, and I had to last a week phoneless.  Aside from having a lot of trouble meeting up with friends, I actually found a lot of aspects of it very refreshing.  I paid more attention in class, and I was not wasting nearly as much time when I was supposed to be studying.  Even though I was relieved to have a phone again, I felt like that week was a valuable break to have from technology.  After this weekend of attempting and failing to disconnect myself, I would like to consciously reduce how often I check my phone for social media updates or pointless texts.  I've realized how much time I waste on it when I could be doing more engaging, interesting, and worthwhile things.