iExam #1

I woke up on Saturday September 30th at 10:00am from the extremely annoying sound of my alarm clock. I had to be at a lunch an hour away at 12pm so I set an alarm a little early knowing the first thing I would do in the morning is check my phone for about 20 or 30 minutes. I checked to see if I had any calls or texts and then begin looking through Facebook, twitter, Instagram and other social medias. Going through my phone in the morning isn't something I look forward to or have a great time doing but it is more habitual and a feeling of self obligation action than anything. I bet a very high percentage of kids with social media and smart phones scroll through snap chats and such every morning not necessarily because they think it is fun, but because it has become a habit. I room with two other guys and this morning we all got up at the same time, and each one of us looked through our phones for no less than 20 minutes. As bad as it sounds, we are addicted. Past studies have actually concluded that checking twitter is more addicting for some people than nicotine with smokers. It is hard to comprehend but it is true and sad and I believe technology has brought a great deal of good into this world but also holds us back from of the natural good.

After scrolling through our phones in a robotic manner, we get up and because none of us are morning people, we still have a stale, salty look on our face expressing that we do not want to be up nor talk. We dressed in an attire that is not fancy but not sloppy, showing that although it is not a lunch at a 5 star restaurant we want to present ourselves well and show we are properly dressed for the occasion. Once we are dressed we go to the car and begin to drive and play music. That is when our mood changes. The music begins to lighten us up and we are jumping around, dancing and singing. One of us is pretending we are the singer holding an invisible microphone and screaming at the top of our lungs while the others are of course the guitarist jamming out as if we actually knew what we were doing. Then we get to my friends house where we are having lunch and meet a lot of our buddies there. Knowing I had this paper, I really mad sure to observe and analyze peoples behavior, communication, and technology encounterment. As we arrived, my friends parents welcomed us with a big hug and smiles. Their welcoming attitude exemplified their appreciation for coming. They began asking how the first month of school has been. While they were talking they both used hand gestures to assist their conversation. The hand gestures help communicate emotions such as putting their palms up in a confused manner or if they lost their thought they moved their hands in a circular motion as if it was helping them regain their thought. It was interesting to observe the little things that a lot of people do that we do not notice unless we are paying close attention. I thought of Donald Trump while they were talking with their hands because he excessively uses hand gestures. For the most part, throughout the lunch my friends did not have their phones out. However, every now and then someone would pull out their phone and check it. Typically after someone finished talking or a joke was just laughed at by the group and there was a couple seconds of silence. It is as if we use our phones to escape moments. Whether it is awkward silences like an elevator or escaping human interaction. To ease the awkwardness we may go on our phone or pull out our phone when we do not want to talk to someone. Anyways, time goes on and we were not on our phone much but definitely here and there. While we were not on our phones we had a great time. Telling stories, laughing, joking, and throwing the football.

Eventually lunch ended and we went back home, however, before we started driving, I told my friends to jump in on this "project" with me because the ride back is when I was going to turn off my phone for the drive. At first they were not fans of turning off their phones but finally they agreed. I also had to break the news that we are not going to be jamming to the radio because that is going to be off too and their reaction was not too happy as their palms went up and eyebrows went down. So we begin our drive with no music or phones. In the beginning, a bitter feeling seemed to flow within the car and little conversation; mostly just observing the outdoors. Although we took the exact same way there and home, it felt like I was driving on these roads for the first time. As if I have never seen any of the signs, restaurants, or exits before. We were too busy jamming out that we did not even notice our surroundings. Now we were actually taking time to check everything out and it is awesome. I do not really appreciate the world I have before me too much. The trees and flowers that that I take for granted everyday looked beautiful. The sky did not have a sunset but it was the perfect baby blue with scattered fluffy white clouds. The setting looked like a faultless painting; I was just realizing it even though those trees have been there the whole time along with the restaurants and the sky. After our sight seeing we talked and laughed and hung out for the remainder of the ride and it turned out to be very fun. All three of us caught ourselves picking up our phones and habitually checking it even though it was off, it felt as if we were missing something.

I liked the fact that my phone was off too. As helpful as phones have been they cause a lot of problems too. People will often say things over texts that they would never dare say in person. Face to face communication is the best communication out there no doubt about it. Phones have also made this generation lazy. In my house, if I need to talk to my brother who is upstairs I will call or text him rather than just walk up stairs and talk to him. It is easier for sure, but lazy. Another lazy thing people do is the way they use grammar. Words like okay, because, or what are shortened to ok, bc, and wat. The hardest part about communicating through technology is that you cannot see a persons emotions. They can send emojis to attempt to replace their facial or emotional expression but it is not the same as face to face.

Finally I turned my phone back on. A sense of relief was released but when I checked it, I noticed I missed absolutely nothing. A text message here and there, a snapchat, and a few tweets but nothing important. When the music and phone were off, I was able to absorb my surroundings much more. The company in the car, the outside, and my emotions.

The big lesson I learned through this process is that taking away technologies like phones, music, laptops ect, makes one feel emotions in their purest form and I was more observant without my phone and music being a distraction. By saying that I mean, face to face communication can express a lot more feelings/emotions than texts or music. During the lunch, we laughed the most when we were telling stories. During the car ride, we felt joy from just looking out the car windows. If you look back at the hardest time you've ever laughed, or cried, it won't be from a scene of a movie. It will be from another person doing something in person. Whether it is them slipping on ice and you laughed so hard your stomach hurt or just a simple joke, technology cannot create the feelings in their purest forms. It was a good experience and honestly I recommend for people to block out technology every now and then for a short time period and see how they like it.