48-Hour Blackout
Reon Chang
News Literacy
48-Hour Blackout
When I first heard of this 48-hour blackout assignment, I was so irritated I wanted to throw my pen across the room. What was I going to do without any updates for 48 hours? I can barely sit through a 4-hour class without checking my phone let alone 48 hours. I'm a social media addict. I love keeping myself updated so I can just know what's going on. As someone with anxiety, one of my biggest fears is not knowing what's going on in a conversation. So this assignment sounded like absolute torture and not to my surprise, it was.
Preparation was the only way I got through this assignment. Some might call it cheating, but if I was going to go offline for two days, I needed to make it as painless as possible. I chose to start this project on Saturday, September 1st at midnight. And in order to keep myself in check, I deleted all the apps I would be tempted to check: the apple news, twitter, instagram, etc. Luckily for me, that weekend I had to go up to Boston and help my friend move. Unluckily though, I had a four hour drive from New York City to Boston. Thankfully, I downloaded many books beforehand so I had something to do during the drive - I ended up just sleeping. The rest of the day consisted of moving really heavy boxes and building Ikea furniture. And let's be honest, building Ikea furniture requires a lot of brain power, so I had no energy left to even worry about not being in tune with the rest of the world. By the end of the day, I was so exhausted I didn't even bother checking my phone (or charging it for the matter), and just ended up passing out on my friend's couch.
Since we got all the important stuff done on the first day, the second day was not as busy. And because of that, I got bored quickly. I realized I have a habit of going on social media whenever I'm bored. It's like my body goes on auto-pilot and every time I'm bored, I just open twitter or instagram to see what everyone else is doing with their lives. Thankfully, I deleted all those apps so I couldn't go on it even if I wanted to. But it was a bit disturbing to me how much my fingers automatically went to the "social media" folder on my phone every though I knew that those apps weren't there. However, what surprised me was that I realized what I missed the most was actually posting about my own life and what I was doing. There were so many moments that I wanted to capture and send out to the world, but I couldn't. It's easy to catch up on news if you missed it for 48 hours. The articles will still be there when I get back online, but the moments with my friends up in Boston - once they're passed, they're gone. Looking back at it now, I don't know why I didn't just whip out my camera and recorded to save for later. I guess I'm so used to sending things out in an instant, that the second option didn't even cross my mind.
Once those 48 hours were up, it was pure bliss. I was finally able to catch up on everything I missed, and more importantly I was able to send out videos and thoughts out to the world again. I realized that I relied on social media and updates too much - but honestly, I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.
News Literacy
48-Hour Blackout
When I first heard of this 48-hour blackout assignment, I was so irritated I wanted to throw my pen across the room. What was I going to do without any updates for 48 hours? I can barely sit through a 4-hour class without checking my phone let alone 48 hours. I'm a social media addict. I love keeping myself updated so I can just know what's going on. As someone with anxiety, one of my biggest fears is not knowing what's going on in a conversation. So this assignment sounded like absolute torture and not to my surprise, it was.
Preparation was the only way I got through this assignment. Some might call it cheating, but if I was going to go offline for two days, I needed to make it as painless as possible. I chose to start this project on Saturday, September 1st at midnight. And in order to keep myself in check, I deleted all the apps I would be tempted to check: the apple news, twitter, instagram, etc. Luckily for me, that weekend I had to go up to Boston and help my friend move. Unluckily though, I had a four hour drive from New York City to Boston. Thankfully, I downloaded many books beforehand so I had something to do during the drive - I ended up just sleeping. The rest of the day consisted of moving really heavy boxes and building Ikea furniture. And let's be honest, building Ikea furniture requires a lot of brain power, so I had no energy left to even worry about not being in tune with the rest of the world. By the end of the day, I was so exhausted I didn't even bother checking my phone (or charging it for the matter), and just ended up passing out on my friend's couch.
Since we got all the important stuff done on the first day, the second day was not as busy. And because of that, I got bored quickly. I realized I have a habit of going on social media whenever I'm bored. It's like my body goes on auto-pilot and every time I'm bored, I just open twitter or instagram to see what everyone else is doing with their lives. Thankfully, I deleted all those apps so I couldn't go on it even if I wanted to. But it was a bit disturbing to me how much my fingers automatically went to the "social media" folder on my phone every though I knew that those apps weren't there. However, what surprised me was that I realized what I missed the most was actually posting about my own life and what I was doing. There were so many moments that I wanted to capture and send out to the world, but I couldn't. It's easy to catch up on news if you missed it for 48 hours. The articles will still be there when I get back online, but the moments with my friends up in Boston - once they're passed, they're gone. Looking back at it now, I don't know why I didn't just whip out my camera and recorded to save for later. I guess I'm so used to sending things out in an instant, that the second option didn't even cross my mind.
Once those 48 hours were up, it was pure bliss. I was finally able to catch up on everything I missed, and more importantly I was able to send out videos and thoughts out to the world again. I realized that I relied on social media and updates too much - but honestly, I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.
Comments
Post a Comment