Ryan Jackson

1 in every 8 people are addicted to their phones, according to results from experiments performed at the University of Derby.

The date was Wednesday, May 27, and I, just a humble high school student closing in on graduation, attempted to do the impossible: make it an entire day without using my phone.

Once you’ve picked your jaws off the floor, think about it for a minute. We’ve all been beaten to death with stories of how smartphones are slowly but surely chipping away at our social abilities. While I’m uncertain about the validity of that, I am certain that I, and many of my classmates, spend more time on our phones than Kim Kardashian does looking in the mirror. Twenty-four hours without even glancing at a text is unfathomable. With that in mind, please enjoy a recap of my pathetic journey without a phone.

6:45 AM: The alarm on my phone goes off, and I blindly reach over to shut it off. So maybe technically I didn’t go completely phoneless, but it’s the last time I used it for the rest of the day. Better that than trying to set an alarm on my clock radio from what appears to be 1987.

7:00 AM: Since today is a late start and my muscle definition is starting to resemble Steve Urkel’s, I decide to go to the gym to work out before school. I normally listen to music, but since all of my songs are on my phone, I am instead encouraged to work out by pump-up artists like The Fray over the gym radio.

8:45 AM: I arrive at school and tell my friends about my little experiment. The response? Utter disbelief and a chorus of name calling to tell me how foolish I am for not using my phone. Nothing beats a strong support system.

8:55 AM: Towards the beginning of my first period class, I look around the classroom and perform a quick tally. Of the 19 other kids I see, 14 of them are on their phones. Sure, it’s early and it’s morning, but my eyes open. With just a couple of days of high school left, we don’t spend it talking to one another and valuing each other’s company, but instead are stalking each other on social media. I’m not writing this article to preach about the holiness of a technology-free lifestyle, but we’re surrounded by interesting people every day. To not cherish them is a great opportunity wasted.

10:45 AM: I’m finally in a classroom with a computer in front of me. I need to get in touch with a couple of people, so I resort to email and Facebook messaging to contact others. Not my preferred method of communication, but it needs to be done.

1:55 PM: It’s towards the end of gym class, the time I usually spend catching up with social media and my texts on my phone. I can see the curiosity about why I’m suddenly so talkative on my gym classmates’ faces. My technology-free day has taken me from social media aficionado to social aficionado.

3:15 PM: Baseball practice begins, an hour-and-a-half-long sanctuary free of phones. But before we begin, everybody raises eyebrows at me because I haven’t seen the daily viral Vine my teammates are talking about. When I tell them I’m going phone-free, they look at me like my dog passed away. The concern they have for me is hangly thick in the air of the dugout.

4:45 PM: I’ve reached my low point: my craving for news has reached the point to where I try (unsuccessfully) to access Instagram on the computer.

5:30 PM: Correction: now I’ve reached my low point. While I’m up in my room, I see my turned off phone on my nightstand. I seriously consider holding it. Not doing anything with it, just feeling it in my hands. It’s time for a long look in the mirror and reevaluation of my morals.

8:00 PM: Spending the evening without my phone at this point is more relaxing than stressful. I’m able to get things done that I usually don’t get around to — seriously making me question how much better school would have gone the last four years if I was phoneless.

11:00 PM: As I crawl into bed, my day without a phone has drawn to a close. I feel equally proud and disappointed with the day; it makes me happy that I completed the challenge, but I feel disheartened it was so difficult. I know more and more technology is our inevitable future, and it will be embraced as we go along. But spending a day phoneless made me realize that we don’t use phones to make our lives easier, we use them to make our lives happen.