A Personal View on the Life Without Technology for 24 Hours
When I first heard of my assignment, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get away. I am always felt annoyed by my friends looking at their phones when we were having dinner instead of having a real conversation. However, when I actually do it, this 24 hour is surprisingly challenging for me.
I started my 24 hours without media Saturday morning and prepared it in advanced. I told my friends, family and boyfriend that I am going to complete this assignment and would be “disappear” in next 24 hours. I arranged the meeting place and time with my friend in advance so I would be able to find them without my phone.
On the Saturday morning, I woke up by my cell phone since I do not have an alarm clock. I felt so hard to fight against my instinct to turn off the airplane mode, which used to be my first thing in the morning. I want to turn on my phone and look through my Facebook and Wechat so badly, but I cannot. I went to the arranged meeting place on time, but all my friends are not there yet. Suddenly, I felt extremely anxious and insecure – I did not know what to do and feel lost my self-establishment both inside and outside the media. I did not know how long have I waited since I did not bring my phone, but this is the longest time I have ever waited in my life.
As soon as my friend get there, my insecurity disappeared. My time finally return to a normal pace. We want to take the Uber to take some street-style picture. but I cannot use Uber since I did not have my phone. My friend cannot split the fee with me either. This is very inconvenient, and I realize media does play an important instrumental use in my life. I do not consider photography as medium because for me it is a form of art, just like painting, as long as I keep the pictures in my camera. Weirdly, I felt happy and fulfilling with my friends and not even realize I did not bring my phone with me. But there is moment that they are all looking at their phones and I feel I am the weirdest person in the world.
Although I said that I felt tired of social network and media at the beginning, I actually overestimate myself. When I am alone, I feel extremely lonely and disconnected. I felt I lost my mediated existence and lost part of my identity when I cannot use media. In addition, I felt inconvenient because I cannot use Uber when I need it, and cannot look up a restaurant before we going to eat it. During last 24 hours, I came to the realization that media play a significant role in my life. It has many instrumental uses, help me stay connected and is already became part of my identity. Social media does have instrumental use, and many negative comment towards them are because people are abuse it. Many setbacks of media can be prevented if we use media properly, and that is why we need to become media literacy.
