My Relationship with Technology: Unplugged for the best?

My Relationship with Technology

I don't even know where to start with this. Technology is so fundamentally ingrained in our culture and lives. I’m writing this blog on an electronic computer while listening to music with wireless headphones connected to my mobile phone which has more computing power than NASA did when they put a man on the moon. Today, I probably spent 90% of my time on technology. I worked all day on a research paper that was due in a week, I arranged a song on my music software, I went to my friend's movie premiere that they edited, I wrote another paper, I played D&D on my laptop, I scrolled on TikTok… 

Initially, I wanted to say that technology is so ingrained that it's hard for me to have a bad opinion about it, but I quickly realized that I was wrong. Recently, I have been growing irritated with how much time I’ve been spending on technology, specifically social media on my phone. The other night I was laying in bed until 4 in the morning scrolling aimlessly on social media. I would go from Instagram to Snapchat, to YouTube, to TikTok over and over again. I couldn’t get myself to put down the phone. No matter what I did I just had to see the next video, the next funny clip, the next distraction.

Not only has it destroyed my sleep schedule, but it has also effectively ruined my time-management skills. Just discipline as a whole. That night I was up till 4 I got so frustrated that I completely deleted everything off my phone. In one fell swoop, I just deleted everything. It felt so weird. I was unplugged. My phone seemed suddenly very bare. No notifications except for texts, phone calls, and emails. No mindless scrolling. To some extent, I felt empty.

I noticed a couple of things the next day that shocked me. First off, I was bored. I would get back from class, hop on my bed, and open up my phone, and then… nothing. There was nothing to do. I felt oddly irritated. It took everything in my power to not redownload youtube and watch my favorite content creators. I wanted to see what funny videos my friends sent me. But I was determined to not fail this self-imposed rule. I did something that I have not done, I kid you not, in months. I reached down under my bed and pulled out a book that I have been meaning to read since last semester. It was a collection of Stephen King's short stories. I actually cannot remember the last time I read in my free time. It was nice. 

I spent the next half an hour engrossed in the story. I raved to all my friends about the treatise I had just read. (side tangent: the story was this gripping tale of a man who was paralyzed by a snake bite and the doctors thought he had passed away. The entire story comes from the perspective of this man who is trapped on an autopsy table trying to collect all of his strength to alert the doctors before they slice into his chest with medical shears, I won't spoil the ending). I could not put this story down; I laughed, I almost cried, and I was frozen with a feeling of unimaginable excitement and fear that I have never gotten from a phone ever. It was refreshing.

The second thing I noted from deleting all social media was realizing just how hooked to it I was. I can't tell you how many times I picked up my phone to check to see if I had gotten any DMS or snapchats. I had been conditioned, no I was addicted to my phone. Every five minutes I would reach into my pocket to grab my phone. Every time I sat down I would pull it out. Every second of my free time I would feel this urge to check all my apps. Wow.

 It’s been a couple of days since I deleted them all and it’s slowly getting easier, but in certain ways, it’s also getting harder. Sure, I’ve read three more short stories and I’ve gone to bed earlier, but being unplugged has its downsides. I think back to the reason I got social media in the first place: keeping up with everything that is going on. Everything and everyone is using social media to communicate. That throws a big wrench in this whole “unplugging” plan. There are two main options. I can either decide I don’t care about missing out on certain events and work harder to hear about things, or I can redownload those apps and try to be more disciplined about it. As of right now, I am not ready to get social media again. It is too much of a distraction, especially during finals.

I had a large digital profile. I had two active Instagram accounts, I followed scores of people on YouTube, I had all my friends on TikTok, and I had a bunch of snap streaks. It’s going to be hard to go cold turkey, but I honestly love that the chord is cut. Social Media has had a massive impact on our society and culture. Not all of that is bad. Not at all. It has connected so many different people. It created a space for niche communities to come together and grow. But the good comes hand in hand with the bad. People, including myself, have become obsessed with technology. Everyone that I know uses social media daily, if not hourly. They are designed to keep you there, to keep scrolling for hours, and boy did they succeed.

Suicide of young adults and kids has skyrocketed, especially among young women. People are depressed, lonely, anxious, and just sad. Is that solely because of social media, of course not, but it would be ignorant to claim that it has no effect. We, as individuals, have to know ourselves and our own limits; only then can we proceed with caution. Social media has immense potential for both good and bad. I have enjoyed being unplugged and I hope that I can continue with this as long as possible.