Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype, and many more applications are used to contact people daily. Connection is almost always live and communication is never ending with my technologically savvy generation.
3 weeks ago 7 of my closest friends and I planned out a full day of fun and started it off by going to iHop. As we were waiting for our orders to be taken, I looked up from my menu and saw every single person on their phone, and some were even snapchatting one another - when they were right next to each other! I was so irritated. I decided right then and there I was going to do a social/communication experiment and I was not going to tell anybody.
The next week I decided for 3 days I would record how many calls, texts, and snapchats I received per day. On average I received about 6 calls, 26 texts, and 173 snapchats a day. The next 3 days, I decided to turn my phone off and did not use it for contacting and communicating with anyone.
The first day when I woke up, I already had 8 texts and many snaps. I decided to not check them and turn off my phone. Half a day went by and I had close friends asking me if I was okay and was concerned for my safety. Some of my classmates asked me if I got their text and that was about it. I also missed out on getting food with friends.
The second day my phone was still off and now some of my classmates in class were asking me if I was okay. My close friends were upset I would not answer the phone. My parents contacted my closest friends to see if I was alright, and my friends from home contacted my friends here at college. I also missed out on getting dinner and a movie with my closest friends, because I had no idea what was going on and nobody could contact me via phone.
The third day and the last day I had my phone off, I became a joke to my friends. Two days, and my friends joked about how I never answer the phone and how I decided to live as a ghost. One good friend sort of caught on and made an effort to walk across campus to my dorm and ask me if I wanted to join the group for some food and game night later in the evening. At game night my friends asked me if something was wrong. Then, in a joking and sassy manner, they continued to make fun of me when I told them nothing was wrong. I asked them why nobody thought of coming to my dorm or finding me. They told me they were either too lazy or it was too difficult to do.
The fourth day, I turned on my phone and had so many notifications that I wanted to turn my phone off again and not deal with it. Even though I was not "in the know" all the time, I felt a lot more relaxed and life seemed to be slightly more easy going. From there on out, I set some rules with some of my closest friends that we would try to put our phones away when we are together, and make a point to find each other on campus rather than just texting to talk. We are all a lot closer now.
I cannot believe how being so connected can actually cause subconscious stress. By not being on my phone for 3 simple days, it created a huge disruption in so many people's lives. More people than necessary got involved, while others were completely unaware of what was going on. A form of social chaos happened within my friend group and people did not know what to do. It disappoints me how connected we have to be to our phones and makes me sad how irrelevant human to human communication has become.
Comments