Yesterday I went 12 hours without using any technology- which for me is mainly my phone, laptop, and the internet. It wasn't too bad, except that I had a paper that I could have been working on. And I really like having my phone to stay in contact with people. I'm not really a tech-savvy kinda girl and as "connected" with technology as most people. But even on my level I like having it around.
Exhibit A: The clock! Surprisingly this was one of the problem I encountered. The clock in my car has been "off" recently- as in too slow. So when I adjusted the time in the morning I also added a few minutes. When I found myself feeling like I was running close on time, I wanted to check my phone for the exact time...and couldn't. I had purposefully turned it off and left it. I love having the correct time via satellite. And then, throughout the day I had to check the clock on the stove because I didn't have my phone carried around with me.
This is one of the things I took care of while NOT using my laptop or the internet to work on my research paper. I guess if I really had to I could have gone to the library and hand wrote my findings- but it could wait til after my 12 hours to be finished. If I had worked on my paper instead I probably would have addressed THIS in the evening or today- I couldn't have taken it much longer. And while I was straightening up I wasn't listening to Pandora or checking things on the internet.
My favorite part of my tech-free day was spending time with these girls- my youngest sisters. We played inside and then came out and went for a walk. They love for you to spend quality time with them and get down on their level, especially the older one. If I hadn't gone without technology this wouldn't have happened yesterday- I would have been working on my paper or I would have been somewhere else.
I love spending time with the girls, it was nice to have my school project set aside to spend time with them. It's been busy lately, so it was nice to not have those distractions and not be able to make plans with friends to do anything else.
The Phone. No, it's not a smart phone. It's just a regular, get the job done. My challenge today was not be accessible. I wanted to be reachable if someone needed to contact me- and I wasn't; not without driving over to my house and hoping I was home or contacting someone else at my house. This was my biggest issue with going phone-free. But it ended up being just fine. It's important to me to be able to be reached. If someone needs me I want to be there. For example, I have a friend that I usually help with math, I couldn't contact her to check if she wanted to meet and I wouldn't know if she had contacted me. It was nice though to not be in the mind set of making plans and going somewhere. It was nice to just stay home and spend time with the girls. And, honestly, if someone really needed me, they would have found a way to contact me. I survived 12 hours of the day without the phone- and everything was fine. I wouldn't want to go everyday though, because there are times when you are needed- of course they could find someone else the majority of the time, but we have responsibilities and relationships that require dependability and accessibility. In today's society this is done via phone, messages, emails, and social networking.
Finally, around 8:45 I was able to turn on the laptop and I eventually began to work on my paper. And I finished it before 12. Technology is important, in today's society we are expected to be reachable and we expect that of others. We are able to constantly connect with those that are not around us. We are also able to access information and tools easily. Our school work is planned around it. In the classroom we need to consider the technology that we expect students to work with- and challenge them to use new sources. We typically research online, use word to type a paper, and submit it online or print it out. We can access our classes online. There are other sites and media representations available to our students- virtual interactive posters, for example. We can allow students to use such items to keep them engaged and interested. However, we also need to keep in mind that not all students may have the same access. Teachers need to be accessible as well in ways students are use to. It's important to maintain a balance between our tech world and the real world around us. We don't have to be constantly connected.
