When I heard my professor tell me I would have to give up technology for a day, I thought "no big deal. I have gone 24 hours without my phone or internet before." However, when I realized I could not listen to music I realized this would be harder than I had originally thought. I decided to pick a day I did not have homework due, so I would not have to stress about getting on the computer to turn something in a might have forgotten about. This also happened to be the day I had nothing to do; this turned out to not be the smartest decision.
Last Saturday my roommate got up around nine in the morning, but I easily feel back asleep after she left, and did not get up until 10:30.
It was nice sleeping in, and not hearing my alarm clock go off for once, because of course my phone is my alarm clock. I then got up, and got ready for my day of doing nothing. I was about to take a shower, when I decided, since my roommate was gone I was going to listen to some music while I took a shower. I quickly realized this wasn't an option, and solemnly took a shower.
I could not use my phone on Saturday, but I wanted to go hangout with my boyfriend, Michael. That meant on Friday I had to coordinated with him what time he would pick me up and where.
I had a couple of hours before the designated time Michael and I had decided to pick me up. So I went to Trivette and got a delicious waffle, and some fruit. This was nice because I normally never have breakfast After my breakfast I went back to my dorm room and read my Bible and did a little devotion.
At this point I was constantly checking the time to see if it was one yet. And before too long it was finally one o'clock. I walked outside to meet my boyfriend and our friend, Jt. I walked out right before one and had to wait an entire five minutes! However, they finally showed up, and apparently they were hungry because we headed straight to a restaurant to get some lunch. While we were in the car, Jt wanted to listen to music, I half jokingly asked him to turn it off, but did not force him to turn it off. I was upset and could not decide if this was really "breaking the rules" or not. I did not want to listen to the radio because it was technology, but I wasn't going to make him turn it off. The three of us had a nice lunch, including numerous jokes by Michael and Jt about me not being able to use my beloved iPhone. Afterwards we arrived back at Michael's house.
I knew Michael would have homework to do, so I printed out the extra credit 4-2-2 that way I could do it on Saturday without using technology. For some reason I found it harder to concentrate when I wasn't doing the 4-2-2 on the internet. I thought this might be because this one was a little longer, or maybe because I knew I would have to type it out again the next day. However, I did get most of it done.
After I finished my 4-2-2 it was getting kind of dark, and I was getting super bored. Michael suggested I go shoot his BB gun behind his house. I did this and it was pretty fun. However, it did not take up a lot of time, and I was slowly getting more anxious for it to be midnight so I could watch something on TV. 
I started reading a book I had gotten a couple of weeks ago and never started. It was pretty good, but eventually I got bored with it, I'm not much of a reader. It also did not help that Michael was playing games on his computer. It was tempting to watch him play games, or pick up my phone and play games on it. However, I did not give in to that temptation.
I found some cards and started playing solitaire. As I was playing solitaire I remembered a time in my childhood when I loved playing with cards. I would play solitaire and other card games for hours when I was growing up. I loved it so much! I started thinking about why I never played card games anymore, and I realized it was because I was so consumed in technology. Getting on Facebook for thirty minutes is way more fun than playing solitaire. And if I was going to play solitaire, I wouldn't use real cards I would just play it on my phone. This made me think about how much I did not realize I relied on technology.
I really wanted to listen to music at this point. Since I could not listen to music with technology, I decided to take it old school, and play some music for myself. I cannot play the guitar, but I like making up songs, bad ones that is, on the spot. Michael's roommate's started to get back home, so I serenaded them as they came up to the door. The songs were pretty funny, so that was a good note to end the night on.
It started to storm so I sat on Michael's porch, where I was playing the guitar, and watched the storm. I couldn't get a good picture so I had to get one of the web (the storm didn't look like this, I just liked this picture).
I definitely enjoyed spending a day without technology, and I do want to do it again, but the first thing I did Sunday morning was watch an episode of The Office.
I ended up being a little more bored than I thought I would be. However, I did really enjoy doing this. I think this showed me how much I rely on technology everyday, especially days that I want to relax. I will probably try to do this again, because it was really difficult. And I also like to think I could survive without technology. This class is showing us how much technology is really influencing us. I think it would be good for everyone to do this regularly, maybe once a year. I think if people did this they would be more appreciative of what they have. And not get so upset when technology does not work as fast as they want it to.
I wonder if technology was taken away, what would people consider valuable? Now a days we are so concerned about our iPods, laptops, and cell phones getting lost or stolen, but what would be concerned about if we did not have those things? Would we be more concerned about our education and more diligent about studying, because that is what would be valuable? Or if technology was taken away would we even be so concerned about something? Would our lives be less stressful?
Because I did this for my CI 2300 class, I kept trying to relate this to my class. And I think as a teacher, I might try and have a day each week or month, where I do not use any technology. And I would see if I could teach my class in such a way that my students did not notice I wasn't using technology. I think that would be a good practice, so that if there was a time when something did not work, I would not freak out. I would have experience in teaching without technology.
Overall it was a really good experience and I'm glad I can say I have gone a day without technology.
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