As of Wednesday, December 18th, I have been phone-less. My iPhone tragically drowned to death, leaving me isolated from most of my friends. I’m embarrassed to admit that these past few days have been nearly unbearable. I didn’t realize how dependent I was — I had become addicted to the immediate gratification of text messages and social media, and was thrown completely off balance when my constant stream of “socializing” was eliminated. I’m starting to slowly enjoy it though. I feel like my mind has slowed down, I’m a little more focused without the constant pressure of my phone wedged inside my back pocket. The truly important people can still reach me, and I have a lot less white noise in my head. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait until I have my own phone so that I can go back to all the clandestine activities that have been on pause since that fateful Wednesday (That was a joke). I guess I just didn’t expect to enjoy the silence so much.
The Arts in New York City
Professor Judell / MHC @ CCNY / Fall 2013
Too bad this happened during finals week…. Below is an interesting article that can be found on the following URL:
http://www.dailycognition.com/index.php/2007/07/21/young-man-achieves-amazing-technological-progress-to-take-school-exams.html
A school-leaver, who came to take an oral exam on English in Armenia, designed an original method to pass exams without any difficulties. The young man fixed wires to the collar of his shirt, attached tiny microphones to buttons and connected the secret system to his Nokia cellular phone.
Professors of the examination commission were amazed with the man’s invention. Some of them said that the young man had designed a miracle of electronic technologies.
“Every little detail in the device was meticulously thought-out. It is not ruled out that there was a group of professional specialists working on the system,” Armenian Minister for Education, Sergo Yeritsan said.
When the young man’s secret was exposed, the commission decided to listen to him anyway. It turned out that the man knew nothing : he could only say that he was keen to become a philologist to save his nation. The inventor had to leave with an unsatisfactory mark.
Sharon, I wholeheartedly agree with you. The peacefulness of my life since I stopped using social networking sites because of finals has been quite calming and relieving. Not as many silly or futile things are on mind and I actually have time to actually do things now. Although I have the ability to just re-activate my account I think I will relish in the serenity a little more. 🙂
This gives me the idea of perhaps taking a break from my own social media sites because it can be a bit overwhelming at times. The following article speaks of the high level of stress that comes with smartphones and social media sites:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/smartphones-cause-stress_n_1202924.html
HealthDay argues that smartphones produce “a relentless need to immediately review and respond to each and every incoming message, alert or bing.” This is the reason many people have phantom vibration syndrome in which they constantly imagine their phone buzzing. It may seem like a petty thing, but the stress of waiting for a text, checking on status updates, waiting for things to load slowly builds up. We can’t let technology take over our lives!!