I was very surprised the day before the fast, however I suppose I should not be. The quantity of people who were actively stressing and thinking about how they would cope without their phones and other electronic devices was staggering to me. I should not be surprised, however, because when I look around my classes during the day, many students have a glazed over look as they look at their phone, clearly not absorbing anything around them. In my opinion, most of them are doing superfluous activities on their phones, and those people are generally the people who are most clueless and most ignorant about what is happening outside of their lives.

I was anticipating to not make any modifications to the contract, however with a test after school that will determine the path of my college and post-college career, I decided that I needed to make an exception for my ROTC paperwork.

On February 28, I was busy all day, which made it easier to last all day without any technological interaction, however I think that given what I had going on after school, anything would’ve come as a welcome distraction, including the use of my phone. I had my ROTC PT test after school, and I was nervous going into it, which meant that if I had something to distract myself with in my down time, I would have been thinking about something else, and not my physical fitness test.

I was able to keep myself occupied even after my PT test, which I think helped, especially because I was happy about my performance, as it went much better than I had anticipated. I went running on the beach, which occupied an hour and a half–perks of having a year-round Crane’s Beach pass I suppose!

When I went home, I talked to my mom while making dinner (something I usually do anyways). After a while, since she knew I was without my phone and the thing that I had said I was missing the most was the feeling as though I did not know what was happening in the world news-wise, she gave me the highlights of the days news. Since I would not be able to see it, and she was copied on the email, she did tell me about a very important email that I had received. Since it was a college acceptance email, she felt as though I should know. While I didn’t see the email myself, I suppose that that counts as a slip up, but perhaps not since I received the information during a face-to-face interaction.

I think that I was able to last the entire 24 hours, due to the fact that I am already not on my phone 2+ days of the week. That being said, I think that this challenge might have been a little easier for me than it was for others.

Sadly, I feel as though the quantity of people who are so completely engrossed in their phones has reached a level where there is not turning back. Eventually, I think that there will be no face to face interactions, which will be rationalized by the ability to keep things under wraps more if it is written rather than spoken.

I am also surprised by the fact that my mom did not seem to mind that I was not going to have my phone while being out of her sights for 10 hours. She didn’t even text me, which I was surprised about, due to the fact that she and I usually chat during the day.

I think that that is also a reflection of the fact that constantly responding to messages and having ones phone on them is so that their ‘parents’ know where they are, when in reality, they use it for many things other than that. My mom always wants to know where I am, however without my phone, we were both fine, and there was a sense of peace on my part, knowing that she was not effectively right over my shoulder at every turn I took. Even she did not complain about not having constant communication with me about my whereabouts and when I would be home, I think due to the fact that that is how she lived as a child.

Cell phones and other technology was not as readily available when she was my age, and she grew up just fine.She grew up in what can generally be considered a better time, due to the fact that there was not as much connectivity. This meant that anyone who might have wanted to do you harm could not contact you through that technology, and they could not find your location from ‘pings’ from your phone off of the cell towers. With less connections, people are also not seeing stories of people who were harmed and thinking that could happen to them, which further perpetuates the belief that one needs to have their phone on them no matter where they go.