We always hear that we live in a plugged-in world, but I think that it is difficult to comprehend exactly what this means until you put yourself in a situation where you are unplugged. I chose to start my 24-hour period on Friday night at around one in the morning, and I immediately had a problem because I use my cell phone as an alarm. So I had to go on a search throughout my house to find an alarm clock. I found out that only one out of the four girls that I live with even has an alarm clock.
When I woke up the first thing that I did without even thinking about it was reach for my phone, it was off of course and I decided to leave it in my room for the day. Throughout the rest of the day I continued to reach into my pocket to look at my cell phone out of habit even though I was at a barbeque with good majority of the people that would have called me anyway. I never realized before how often I did this. The interesting thing is that I started to notice that everyone around me was always checking their phone even if they knew that no one had called.
I never cracked in the whole 24-hour period and I was surprised how little not being able to use the other new media affected me. I never felt like I really needed to check my e-mail or facebook, though this might have something to do with the fact that I chose to be media free on a Saturday. I did realize how much attention I pay to my cell phone and it’s a pretty ridiculous amount. I found out that I’m really connected to that tiny little piece of technology. I depend on it a great deal more than I would ever have admitted before this assignment.