I’m constantly connected to the internet. Whether its on my iPhone or my laptop, I am always “surfing the web,” reading my favorite blogs such as deadspin.com, tmz.com (don’t judge me), and barstool sports. I am also emailing a lot throughout the day. My iPhone is programmed to receive both my Gmail emails and my
12:00am: So I’ve downloaded all of my assignments from Blackboard and I’ve checked all of the blogs I like to read one last time. Time for bed. It’s my goal for tomorrow to sleep in as long as I can. The longer I sleep, the less time I waste thinking about the internet...
12:02am: DING! Great, my first reminder of my abstinence 2 minutes in… This is going to be a looooong 24 hours!
8:27am: DING!
9:01am: DING!
9:23am: DING!
9:30am: DING!
9:38am: DING! Ah c’mon!
10:45am: I’m up. Turned on Fox News to see what I’m missing since I can’t log on to drudgereport.com. Apparently General McChrystal is in big trouble with the White House over an interview he gave to Rolling Stone Magazine. I would REALLY love to be able to go online and read the interview.
11:02am: DING!
11:13am: DING!
11:29am: I just received a text from a friend saying he’s in town. Thank god he texted me instead of emailing me. He tells me another of our friends is flying in this week sometime too. I scroll through my phonebook and realize I don’t have the other friend’s phone number. Not a big deal because his number is on Facebook, or I could just email him. Or at least it typically wouldn’t be a big deal…
12:00pm: Since I can’t pass time by going online and reading my favorite blogs, I decide to get caught up on some television shows on my DVR. “Treme” season finale looks good (or at least I think it’s the season finale since I can’t go to IMDB.com and check).
1:30pm: It’s a nice warm, sunny day in
2:30pm: Finished reading the chapter but if I get out of the pool and go inside then I’ll just be tempted to get online so I float in the pool for another hour.
3:04pm: DING!
3:30pm: Luckily I planned ahead last night and downloaded all of my assignments for school, so now I’m working on my discussion board assignment for COMM 385.
4:05pm: DING!
6:00pm: Cabin fever is starting to set in. Head out for a friend’s house.
6:13pm: DING!
7:30pm: My friend and I get into an argument over where Tim Lincecum was drafted in the 2006 MLB draft. No problem, I can solve this easily... I’ll just look him up on Wikipedia.org. Crap!
8:15pm: “When does ‘Rescue Me’ come back?”
“Hold on, I’ll look it up…”
Crap!
10:30pm: I’m home now but still have an hour and a half left until I can check my email so I put on a movie and wait.
12:00am: Whoo-hoo! I’m now reconnected to the free world!
Reflecting back, I suppose the 24 hours of internet abstinence wasn’t quite as bad as I had envisioned. The constant email reminders were deflating and annoying at times, but there were plenty of distractions available. The one thing I struggled with the most was not having access to immediate information which I’ve grown to be used to. I love the constant access I have to the internet and its endless information. “Where did Lincecum get drafted?”, “When does Rescue Me return to television?”, “Who was the starting power forward for the New York Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals?” are all examples of daily questions/arguments I experience in which I would typically resort to my iPhone for answers. That is definitely a luxury I have grown to take for granted.
I was right there with you, in spirit. I really didn’t think it was going to be that hard, but I really felt disconnected and majorly inconvenienced. They say you don’t really know what you have until it is gone, they were right. This assignment was a definite exercise in will power, but at least you have a nice pool to distract you.
ReplyDeleteI thought your blog was really interesting to read because I could connect with how you felt. There were so many little things that I wanted to look up as well but then realized that I couldn't. It's nice that you were able to get outside instead of sitting and watching TV or something. It must have been super frustrating to know that you had received emails but were unable to check them!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you set your blog up. You gave everyone reading this a clear sense of what you did with you day without the internet. I'm pretty sure that all of our classmates realize how much we love getting on the internet to find out things, but since we were not allowed to use the internet for the day we had to find some other alternative to keep us busy. It is very stressful when you can't follow your daily routine which involves getting on the internet and doing whatever you normally do.
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