Knowing that this would not be possible during the week as I had every possible reason thought up as to why I need to use the world wide web e.g. complete college assignments, organise kayaking events as I'm P.R.O. of the canoe club in UCD and just basically communicating with my peers. I allocated Sunday as my day away from technology. Unfortunately, this would not be the case.
As soon as I rolled over in bed and pressed the 'snooze' button on my phone around ten to ten on Sunday morning, I immediately launched into my favourite website, PostSecret.com
(http://postsecret.com/), which is updated each Sunday. It is a blog set up by a man named Frank Warren, who receives millions' of strangers' secrets from around the world and posts them online. Before I had even reached the end of the page, I was already wondering if I had many Snapchats from my friends or how many notifications I would receive on Facebook that morning. I had broken down and given into technology within five minutes and was even planning how I'd spend my next few minutes; surrounded by the internet. Feeling defeated and acknowledging that I had already failed a task that I was sure I could fulfil was certainly a major and unnecessary blow for a around ten o'clock on a weekend morning.
For the rest of the day, I felt the blow everywhere I went, even when meeting a friend in Dundrum Town Centre for a coffee. Everyone around me was using their phones; texting, exploring, posting, phoning each other. I had never been so observant of such constant-activities until that day. It seemed that although many people were in one another's company, they still felt the need to use a media device to check up on their 'virtual lives.' I mentioned this briefly to my friend, who became a little bit defensive to my statement as she thought that I was complaining to her about ignoring me. After I assured her, she simply replied that looking at our phones every five minutes has become such an integral part of our lives now in this day and age that it's almost like breathing.
I truly had never thought of technology in that way, let alone using the Internet and realising that she may definitely be right. It is almost saddening to think that we may be losing a bit of our humanity by replacing traditional ways of communication e.g. meeting up face-to-face, without technology interfering in any way. Or even looking up information. I still need to go to the James Joyce library nearly every week to take out a book but this is mainly to show my tutor's/lecturer's that I have the book in class. I haven't necessarily read it as I could simply look up a shorter and simplistic version online. It's the sad truth.
From now on, I may not be able to give up the Internet for an entire day but I'll try to cut back on my daily dose and actually do things the old-fashioned way. As I actually do like to go outside and explore; being an active kayaker for nearly all of my college career and contributing thoughts in my journal. What may have been seen as conventional in say, my parents' day, is now in fact, a novelty.
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