Unfortunately, the timing of my digital media fast was not ideal. This past week was a very tough five days with three exams ranging in economics to spanish. In order to prepare for these exams, I stayed in last weekend. I was really looking forward to going out with my friends on Friday and Saturday night, but unfortunately my sickness didn’t allow it. I haven’t been feeling well the past couple weeks, but with my hectic week, my sickness seemed to progress and get a lot worse. Instead of having a great weekend, I had to lay in my bed for an entire day with no ability to talk to anyone or even watch Netflix. I woke up at 9am on Saturday and had to text my team captain and tell her I didn’t feel well enough to make our softball lift. I texted my friends and my parents to let them know that I wouldn’t be available for 24 hours and turned my phone off at 9:30. I then went back to bed and woke up at 2pm. I woke up and baked brownies and sugar cookies with a few of my friends and then went back to bed at 7. I slept until 9 and turned my phone back on to find 30 text messages and 12 emails waiting for me.
I was actually very surprised at how easy it was for me to not use technology. I would have liked to talk to my friends or watch TV while I was sick and laying in bed, but I did not even find myself tempted to turn my devices on. I think the hardest part about not having my phone was feeling like I was disconnected from everyone. As I mentioned before, the timing for this experiment was not ideal and I realize now that I shouldn’t have left it until last minute. A couple days ago, my great grandmother had heart surgery which failed. She has come to terms with the fact that this is her time to go and was transferred to a hospice house. I am pretty close to my great grandmother and my mom is very close to her. My mom is having a very hard time with the recent events and I felt bad not being able to be there for her. My biggest fear, however, was that I was going to turn on my phone to find out that she had passed away while I was digital media fasting. I would have felt horrible that I was unavailable. Although this is an extreme case, I believe it shows how important digital media is to us today.
Overall, I would say that the digital media fast was easier than I thought, but if I had to sum up the experience in one word I would call it inconvenient.