Last week I decided that I would turn off my phone for 48 hours. I thought email on its own was not very challenging and the internet was a no-go because I spend most of my spare time on the internet. I think this is from living in Germany for a year without television and using the internet for entertainment and communication and to keep our sanity! I didn't have internet for 2 days and I had the 2 most boring days ever.The television in my student accommodation has only got 3 fuzzy channels so I rarely watch it and our Dvd's don't work in our Dvd player so really without the internet I would be pretty bored there too.
I also have more college work then I have ever had in my life at the moment so I need my email to keep up to date with work. Some of our lecturers send us notes through email because we are not set up on Moodle (after 5 weeks of college). So my phone was the only choice if I wanted to test myself. I think I am one of the only ones who did give up my phone. I think it's because some of my friends rely on their phones more then me.
On Saturday night I was in Dublin and the battery went on my phone. My charger was in Dundalk so I had no choice but to live without it on Sunday. I was working all day and then when I got home I wasn't feeling well so I went to bed quite early-I didn't really notice that my phone was off. I went back up to Dundalk on Monday morning and plugged my phone into the charger, left and went to college. That's when I was in eBusiness class and realised I already had over 24 hours of "phone fasting" done. That made it easier for me to complete the fast. I got home in the evening and looked at my phone- it had turned on automatically. It said on the screen that I had 4 texts and I really wanted to check them but I didn't! I turned it back off. All day I kept reaching into my bag to check my phone which was annoying cause there was nothing there but it was just out of habit. I had no way of telling the time either as I don't own a watch and usually use my phone. I couldn't set an alarm so I relied on my sister to wake me up on Monday morning.We went out on Monday night and I didn't have my phone with me and apart from my handbag feeling empty I didn't mind too much. I knew I wouldn't be on my own. I came home that night and after 46 hours I turned my phone back on, so technically I didn't do 48 hours but I'm happy with 46 hours.
I better admit though I didn't lose all contact with the world because I used Skype both days to talk to my friends from Egypt. So I don't know if thats called cheating but I made some calls, maybe without Skype it would have been harder but it was easy enough to live without my phone. I think if I gave up everything I would have cracked up I cant even imagine the world without the technology we have. Nearly everything I do is by technology and I think a lot of my generation are brought up using the internet and email.
