Recently, my first year seminar professor challenged us to not use our phones or social media sites for 24 hours as an experiment, encouraging us to make more eye contact with people around us. I was excited for this day without technology as I had a very positive experience this summer not using my phone for a full month when I was backpacking in Wyoming. The day began with me setting my alarm for practice with my watch, a device I had not used since I had been in college. Throughout the day, it was hard to coordinate where to meet my friends for lunch and how to get in touch with my teammates, however, the action of leaving my phone at home made me feel less caught up in responsibilities and better equipped to enjoy the present. In class today, we talked about our experiences and everyone seemed to agree that their day was more engaging and meaningful when they weren’t distracted or worrying about their duties to technology. In general at Middlebury, I found I have used social media sites less and I also take less pictures because 1) I am too busy and 2) I think my friends are far more interesting than the screen of my phone.
