The idealization of cellphones is superior than that of actually using a cellphone. Unlike many people I wasn’t exposed to the internet up until the age of 12. Life before owning a cellphone felt carefree and actually enjoyable. I’d always thought that life just got more serious. 

Recently, I’ve noticed that any time that I don’t have immediate access to the internet, life feels delightful. I made the decision to challenge myself to one school week with no cell phone, thanks to some help from my journalism teacher, Mr. Battaglini. 

The thing that really inspired me was an article that I was assigned to read for my AP English class. The article is titled “Could You Ditch Your Phone for a Week?” In this article some college students gave up their cellphones, and some went as far as to give up other technological devices, for a week. 

After the experience, a lot of these students mentioned that their life changed after this and they managed to do a lot of stuff without their cellphones. 

These students noticed how dependent they were on their phones – from messaging friends to doing the laundry, but most of them found the exercise beneficial.

Preparation was easy. The only thing I really did was let my friends know. I have a small group of friends so I didn’t really have to inform many people. “You’re not going to be able to pass it, you’re too addicted,” said junior Alyson Marin. 

While this wasn’t a very supportive thing to say I was genuinely thinking similarly but I’m glad to have proved myself wrong. “It was a really brave thing that you would give your phone up for such an extended amount of time,” said senior Jay Cardenas.

The only other person who wasn’t a friend that I informed was my mother, but this wasn’t until after I had already turned in my phone. 

At first she was surprised since she didn’t believe that I could stay without my phone, mostly because almost everyone in our household has a cellphone, tablet, or other type of device, and they are always on one.

The one other thing that I felt the need to do was to log into Spotify from my school chromebook. One of the main things that I use on my phone at school is music, which I only listen to when I’m assigned individual work, not when there’s actual teaching in class. 

There were many beneficial things that I noticed happened both during and after the no-cellphone-challenge.  For example, I noticed I was actually working a lot on missing work. I’m not sure, but I think I caught up with two weeks of missing work in 3 days. 

Not only this, but I also caught up on sleep. Usually I’d be going to bed around 12 AM and waking up around 6 or 7 in the morning. During the week of this challenge, I’d been going to bed at 10 or 11 PM and waking up at 6 AM. 

The key thing that was really noticeable was my attention span. Without anything to distract me, I feel like during class I would actually absorb the information being taught. 

The attention concept didn’t apply only to school related subjects. It also made a difference in my personal relationships. Anytime that I was part of a conversation, I would actually have a lot more to contribute.   

The most important thing that I did during this time was schedule taking the SAT, which I’d been putting off setting up my date for weeks.  Without a phone I had a lot more free time which I used to secure my spot. 

With all sincerity I’d have to say that this challenge was pretty simple. My main challenge was finding a way to wake up that didn’t incorporate any electronic devices. 

The only thing that I thought of was getting someone to wake me up, and I had the perfect person for this task – my younger brother. 

He usually wakes up around 6 and heads to one of the upstairs bedrooms to find someone to sleep with. I would usually get woken up by his knocking, so I thought that this would be my solution to my waking up issue. 

 However, it didn’t work to its full extent. I overslept on the final day of the challenge. I had less than ten minutes before I had to leave my house. Apart from this obstacle I had no other issues with waking up.

There were instances where I felt like I was missing out. For example, during the last two days there was a video uploaded by a student, which included photos of multiple teachers stating opinions that the student had of them or their classes/clubs. By the time I got my phone back it had been taken down.

Plenty of my classmates were talking about the video and. I felt especially left out in these conversations. This wasn’t the only thing that I feel that I missed out on. 

On Friday, there was a VAPA celebration that was in preparation for a whole week. I got to attend the performance that folklorico hosted in the Mullins during 2nd period. Two of my friends were performing. They were on two different levels so I watched two different performances. 

The only thing that I feel that messed up my experience was not being able to shoot any photos. Both of my friends looked mesmerizing and I would’ve loved to have photos to capture the moment. 

I never really thought that I’d be doing this because when I first read the article I had negative opinions.

 I told people in my class group that I viewed the idea as something dumb, since it wasn’t needed. I also went as far as to say that the students [in the article] were scared as to why they organized a group of people to participate. 

After completing the challenge, I can say that my thoughts and opinions really did change. 

 This challenge did not go how I expected. I was really expecting to miss my cellphone more than I did. During the time that I didn’t have my phone, I noticed I was going outside on walks way more than usual. 

Not only that but I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid which was something I hadn’t done in years. I‘ve recently learned that many teenagers do this whenever they get their phones taken. 

The only thing that I learned from these activities was that I seriously don’t enjoy those types of books anymore. Something that I really wanted to do was get back into diamond painting; however, I was unable to find my old supplies. 

I sincerely would participate again if I wanted to challenge myself. I’d even recommend it to my friends. 

An electronic cleanse could do all of us good. While I still do not feel that this challenge is very necessary, I do feel that I learned from this experience. 

For example, I learned that I actually do not get as bored as I thought I did. I have been thinking that maybe my phone was the cause for all my boredom in the past. 

On that same topic I also learned that boredom is created by too much stimulation. I would say that the name fits the cause, this is called a digital overdose. 

The last thing I think I learned is that I genuinely do not need to be entertained 24/7. I ended up finding entertainment in my boredom. I realized that whenever I felt bored it was a way of my mind telling me that I was lacking interest in whatever I was doing at the moment and to get with the program.