Over the Weekend- Disconnection

As it was Halloween weekend, I found it impossible to spend the entire weekend without a cell phone. I tried my best to use other forms of communication when possible, but when I was at freakfest or in other crowded places I had to make a few texts or calls. I sent a total of 12 texts this weekend (2 to each of my parents included) and made five phone calls (2 of which are from freakfest). I also think I used the pay phone option (a friends phone) to send two additional texts and calls. I think this is a pretty good result when asking a 19 year old to lose his cell phone for the weekend. I thought the toughest part of this assignment was the feeling of being unaware what was going on with my friends and where everyone was. When I woke up Sat/Sun morning I couldn’t just check the “groupme” or text a friend asking what they were doing. I had to go knock on all my friends’ doors to find out what they were up to. Since I live in a house with all my closest friends I never had to make any big trips to meet up with my friends. However, walking up four flights of stairs to knock on someone’s door that actually happens to be elsewhere is no fun regardless. Another main struggle with this assignment is the disconnection to all my social media sites. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc were all gone the entire weekend. Since I have never being a huge television watcher, social media is a large part of my time-wasting entertainment. I found myself looking for things to do more often then when I have my cell phone. Therefore, I ended up spending more time conversing and watching television then I did with a cell phone. It was nice to take a break and have more conversations with my friends but sometimes when I found myself watching excessive TV, I thought it kind of defeated the purpose of the assignment. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience that made me realize the dependency us teens have on our cell phones.