Human Interaction

IExamen One: Letting go Hurts

            Like many other students, I chose Sunday to detach myself from my cellphone. I went out to breakfast with a suitemate, and left my phone behind. Many times on the walk to Boulder alone my hand subconsciously itched towards my pocket- only to realize my phone wasn’t there. After a quick panic attack, I remembered my dear iPhone was safe in my dorm, awaiting my arrival home.  This cycle repeated more times than I’d like to admit. However, at breakfast, something miraculous happened…my suitemate and I bonded. Not only had I spent the weekend in her room after being sexiled, but also I didn’t have my iPhone to obsess over. Rather than checking my iPhone every minute to see if my friends had reached out to me, I was talking to my suitemate Emily, and finding out she is a very funny person, and even more sarcastic than I. While walking around campus, I found myself looking around, observing what was going around me, rather than staring down at my phone. I said hi to the people I knew from my Messina group and various classes, rather than being oblivious to their existence.

            Furthermore, the experiment inspired me to try to swear off my phone for a week. I told my parents, siblings, and a few friends to Facebook me in case of emergency (my parents were concerned, then thrilled when I told them I thought I was too attached to my phone), and threw my phone under my bed. I wanted to see if anyone would notice I was missing. I went out again with my suitemates, as I was still sexiled, and this time it was without my phone. I very quickly got out of the habit of touching my pocket to check if my phone was there. I spend all of Sunday with my suitemates, and we became closer than we had all semester. I had never spent that much time with them, partially because I was too busy lamenting being separated from my friends and wondering what the boy I like was doing. To be honest, I had never spent that much time without my phone either. Eventually, I gave up on the whole “no phone for a week” thing.  I am too much of a blabbermouth to not talk to my friends, and update them on all the things that happen at school, or with my roommate. I read through all the texts I had missed (hundreds, only due to the fact that I have been forced into an unbearable amount of group messages). Surprise, surprise, no one had noticed I was missing. My ego was hurt. However, being detached from my phone did help me greatly. I am now able to go places without it, and I can last an entire class without catching up with my friends in the group message. I know my mom will be thrilled, because she was seriously convinced I was addicted to my phone. I now am in agreement with her, but I’ll never admit it.