Reflection

In many ways, I felt liberated by the detox exercise. I switched off my phone for the entirety of the 8 hours, which liberated me from charging it. I was able to leave it on my desk while I was out of my room, which liberated me from carrying it around. And then as the first moments of victory faded, I began to experience the withdrawal. 

Withdrawal

With hindsight I would say that the withdrawal symptoms of technology are easy to overcome, yet they are scary because they are unexpected. Quickly after I put my phone aside, I started experiencing impulses for distraction – there was no music that I was listening to while I was preparing breakfast, there was no series (my usual choice is Archer) playing in the background – and I felt restless. After breakfast I played the guitar for 40 minutes and slowly I had to acknowledge that my thoughts cannot be hushed away easily. I let them sank in, and surprisingly my restlessness diminished a little. 

Potential 

From then, my day went more or less okay. I cleaned my room and I met some friends – which was also a bit weird, since I had to physically walk over to their place to get human contact. There was no “what are you up to?” but only a straight up visit. My trips to Ghana and Cuba came to my mind. During these trips, I was also walled off of the internet and had to “survive” without being connected. As an effect, my J-term class in Ghana got really close to each other, since to we started coming up with ways to  kill the boredom. I wouldn’t say that our bonding over football, conversations over dinner and other games is solely the effect of being disconnected, but I believe that it contributed.

The start of questioning #woke

What this assignment achieved (most likely by design) is that it made me question how I am using technology and what I am using technology for. After reading “The Machine Stops” and “Reclaiming Dialogue” I realized how my habits actually influence my individual growth. Technology is not yet serving us and our experience of life is impacted. Using technology shouldn’t mean that I or my environment is always connected. More about this in class. 

Journals