This Friday, I went backpacking with the mountain club for the night. We left from behind Proctor at 12:10 and quickly left areas of cell phone service. My phone, which was already on low battery, proceeded to die. Until the next day around 3 in the afternoon, I was media fasting yet again! What I thought was interesting, though, was the difference between this week and last.

Last weekend, when I ran around Burlington in a cow suit while everyone I was with remained connected to the digital world, I was an outsider. The experience wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, nor was it extremely difficult to be without technology, but there was a marked difference between myself and the people around me. People who knew that I was fasting from digital media kept forgetting not to text me or show me a YouTube video. In this way, I stood out from the crowd.

This weekend, on the other hand, not only was I fasting from digital media, but everyone I was with also participated in the “fast”. Since there was no service wherever we went, we pulled out the paper maps, turned off the cellphones, and limited ourselves to the technology of our backpacks, a stove and a few flashlights. It was not an intentional or planned event, even, it just happened! I think that is one of the best things about backpacking and camping – letting go of our cell phones and the internet. It reminded me also of something Nancy Baym said in her book Personal Connections in a Digital World: technology only takes away from a relationship when the people involved disagree about the usage of technology. When one person sitting at the lunch table wishes everyone else would stop using their phones, there is tension that could hurt their relationships, but if that person is just as content as the others, nothing negative happens. Conversely, when a group of people agree not to use technology, they are similarly compatible.

I am the type of person that loses my phone for 2 hours without even realizing it. I think it’s rude for people to text when we are spending time together, and I think that the presence of computers in the classroom takes away from discussion. This is one of the many reasons, or maybe they just go hand in hand, that I like spending time outdoors. I recognize the extensive benefits of technology and am not denying the fact that I rely on it for most of my schoolwork, but for me, to stay in touch with myself, I need to leave that realm every once in awhile. It was nice to reflect on the difference between this week’s fast and last week’s  – one was purposeful and intentional, and one was merely accidental.