A Day Without A Life

Recently, I ventured to participate in a day without technology. It was certainly an interesting experience; mostly for reasons I expected, but also for reasons I had not forseen. The day was Tuesday, May 3rd and it started off like any other.
My alarm went off (because a certain teacher took away the clever idea of missing class because I couldn't use an alarm), turned off my phone and threw it in my desk so that I wouldn't be tempted to take it to class with me. The night before, I had let my mom know what I was going to be doing so that she wouldn't call SWAT to come find me when I didn't call her for the day but other than that, I told no one. I only had one class that day so I had a lot of time to waste and I figured the best way to spend it would be to sit under a tree and finish off a book I had been meaning to finish for months, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Once finished, I headed back home where I had dinner and spent quality time with my roommates.
The day seems deceivingly simple and it was indeed a wonderful day. But when I turned my phone back on at about 1am that night, I found about 15 text messages and there were tons of notifications on facebook, it was overwhelming. My boyfriend had sent about half of the text messages and seemed pretty irate that I hadn't texted back. Surely he thought I was ignoring him and on second thought, I probably should have told him about my day without technology but what can you do?
The day was the complete opposite of what I had been expecting. I had expected to be miserable without my phone, laptop, flat iron, iPod, etc., but I ended up being fine without them; it was the other people in my life that weren't fine with me not having them. Surely, if I hadn't told my mom, she would have thought something terrible had happened to me and my boyfriend ended up more miserable than I had been about the whole thing. What an interesting twist my day seems to have been after I've had the time to reflect on it. Is it just that we are dependent on these devices as individuals or has a whole new culture evolved, hindering us from being able to detach from devices and the emotions that are tied to them at all?

Futuristic Tradition

I'm proud to announce that I now have the honor of being the Vice President of Membership for my sorority, Tau Beta Sigma. We are a service sorority dedicated to helping bands and serving music as a whole. This thursday, I will go through the initiation ceremony to officially resume my responsibilities as Vice President of Membership. The whole process is very traditional and meaningful but the thing that surprises me the most is that technology has found its way into our rituals. Whole offices have been affected by the everyday advances in technology, their responsibilities warped into something entirely new.

My office, persay, hasn't been that effected. Rush events and education haven't changed drastically, after all. But offices like Secretary and Historian have been entirely transformed. The Secretary, whose job once consisted of taking notes and keeping attendance, now includes keeping track of all chapter going-ons, attendance, sending out a weekly reminder email, and much more. Basically all of these have something in common: a computer. Even for the election last thursday, the winning factor was the candidate's ability to make and manipulate a website. The Historian position also has been warped to include not only keeping track of the family tree and artifacts but also picture- and video-taking, scrapbook making, and electronically recording all historical information.

It's amazing how technology can find a way to creep into every aspect of our lives and change everything around, even century old rituals and traditions.

In Another Life

Who can be unique? Who can decide what unique is? How can a person be unique today, with everyone doing the same things, day in and day out?

When I roll out of bed in the morning, I fumble with my sleepy appendages, trying desperately to silence my screaming phone. Then I turn on my iHome, hoping music will rouse me. I check Facebook on my phone while I wait for my Chi to heat up. My laptop charges mutely at my bedside and I scoop it up on my way out the door. No one reading this has thought any of my morning routine to be strange, but what if someone had read this thirty, forty, or fifty years ago? They would be baffled, having no idea what a cell phone, Facebook, or even a Chi is. Isn't it strange that all of these things have become so integrated into our very identities that everyday existence begins and ends with them?

It's here, in 2011, that Facebook thrives. The generation of techies shares videos, photos, and experiences constantly over the internet. In any given hour, there are hundreds of updates to be sifted through by phone or by computer. It's ridiculous that someone thinks buying coffee is an important enough occurrence to share their purchase with the world. As I look around Dale Hall, everyone I see is on a laptop or a phone or listening to an mp3 player (save the one soul actually reading a newspaper). We are constantly plugged in, always needing the new and the now.

But how can we 'plug in to' one another when we are always attached to our electronics? I'm capable of being 'friends' with people I meet on football game trips that I'll never see again; I'm able to communicate with family from far away. And yet, I wonder at how this can de-personalize our relationships. We write on each others walls and 'friend' people we have met one time, but do we know one another well enough to come face to face? I know on more than one occasion, I have avoided or pretended not to know someone that I am Facebook friends with because I feel uncomfortable talking to them in person. If I am social over the internet but reserved outside of the technological world, it's because I'm not afraid to be myself in text but personal relationships are much scarier. Is this the epidemic of our generation?

Maybe all is not lost. I still have friends whom I hold dear, a close relationship with my family, and a healthy social life. So is Facebook more of a social aid, helping those who can't carry the whole weight of being a social butterfly on their own? I like to think so. If I seem overly critical of technology, it isn't because I don't appreciate it. I only take the time to notice the differences between the world today and the world sixty years ago, a time when chivalry meant something and children played outside all day long. But today, we have taken education to new heights and technology is improving life for millions around the world. All I ask is, is this a fair trade?