Day of Unplugging Review

Starting my Day of Unplugging my rules seemed quite reasonable to stick by, especially since I only had to do it for at least one day. No social or video media, or use tech that wasn’t necessary. I chose a non-school day to do my unplugging as the typical school day requires a sufficient amount of technology for different classes and assignments. The start of my day had me searching for something to do. Sad to say I was sort of lost without using some form of technology. I eventually found things to do, and hung out with some friends. The urge to use tech was very tempting, but time away from it helped me reflect and do things I wouldn’t have normally done having used it.

Remember reading, or how about board games, well these are a few of the things I ended up doing being away from tech. I can’t even say it was all that bad either. In fact, you would be surprised how much more satisfying it is to have a conversation face to face to with friends rather through texting. I made it a whole day without cheating or having to make any modifications to the rules I had set.

In the future I see myself setting aside tech a little more often as it makes you appreciate the things you wouldn’t on the usual day. I believe the busyness of our typical days makes tech an asset, but it also gives us a crutch that we too often use and rely on. Having this Day of Unplugging really can open a person’s eyes to see the full scale of how tech has become a part of almost everyone’s lives. 

Day of Unplugging

Going into the Day of Unplugging I was interested to see a breakdown of exactly what my usual day looked like in regards to my interactions with technology. How much time did I really spend looking at a screen or waste checking different social media throughout my day? Well, I found out by creating the table you can see here.

https://goo.gl/U0YxXN

On the usual school day most assignments in some way or another require technology to complete. The rubrics, PowerPoints, books, and homework in almost every class have some connection to technology. I’m sure I have had to use more tech in the past on other school days than on the day I chose to record my data, nonetheless it looks to be a good representation. A total of about 7.4 hours were spent using some form of technology that day. A little over 2 hours of this was done doing something I considered professional rather than personal.

Right away I noticed I spent a lot more time using technology on the weekend. Just over 13 hours of my weekend had some connection to tech. Almost none of it involving something “professional”. This is where I saw the full scale of how much tech I actually use, so I set out create my Day of Unplugging Rules for myself.

- No Social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, ...)

- No Video media (Netflix, TV, ...)

- Overall no necessary use of tech.

+ Recall some of the things you did that you wouldn’t have normally done having used technology.

+ How does the absence of technology feel when it comes to the flow of your usual day?

+ Having experienced a day without tech, what will you try to do differently in the future, if anything at all?

Evaluating my data and my rationales behind my uses made me realize that tech for me sometimes acts as a relief, or get away from my typical busy school days. I realized some of my uses of tech overlapped as I sometimes multitask as well, and I acknowledge that I could probably optimize my uses of technology to be more effective.