Growing up in the time that I did, my days were spent doing god knows what my child-like mind thought of. This ranged from playing dress up, playing outside for hours, and reading books for hours and hours. I was never really bored as a child, I was always finding something to keep me occupied.
That was until I got my first ever prized possession... my first phone. I had just turned ten years old when I got that phone for my birthday. My fun days of doing endless activities turned into sitting in wonder all day learning what my new toy was capable of. If I was able to track my usage on that phone, it would've been through the roof. As I got older and eventually got my first iPhone it just got progressively worse. Social media apps became a big thing and my number of friends increased (lol) I started texting and Instagramming like crazy.
How does my background with technology (that you didn't ask for) relate to Zomorodi, you might ask?
Well, it just proves that technology is one of our own worst enemies. Though technology is obviously very beneficial to us at any given moment, it also serves as our escape from reality. Usually, when I am faced with something unpleasant I turn to my phone for hours on end as an escape hoping I won't have to get said task done. Boredom itself almost seems like it isn't a problem (to me) anymore because I've gotten so used to being bored, especially during this pandemic known as COVID-19. While I've been stuck in my house during a two week spring break with nothing to do and nowhere to go, I avoided every task possible that was thrown at me by just sitting in my room on my phone until I decided to make an appearance downstairs for my midnight snack.
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| Alison |
While emails started flooding in from my professors about upcoming plans for online classes I realized I needed to get back into an almost normal routine that I would technically have at school and not be waking up at 2 p.m. every day. After reading Zomorodi and the other six challenges that were presented to us, it really made me think about my personal connection and habits that I had pertaining to each challenge. Initially, we were tasked to observe our own phone habits and record them for an assignment to which I noticed that my phone usage was basically most of the day. This, additionally, connected to the rest of the challenges. While I challenged myself to the second challenge I noticed that I was using my phone a lot in the most unusual places. I was on my phone for about 30 minutes straight while shopping at HEB and not even helping my mom, sorry mom. This is obviously a problem if I can't stay off my phone for 30 minutes. But, I realized that it's because I was BORED. Grocery shopping is not something I find pleasant, so I decided to fix that by finding anything at all to do on my phone. Again while attempting another challenge, number seven, I found that with my phone put away and nothing to distract me, my mind wanders and I am really able to sit and focus on important tasks that were previously put off. After I watched a pot of water boil, I sat down and was able to think more about my future and figure out a different major for myself and pre-plan my classes for next semester.
Bored and Brilliant really allowed me to sit and think about my technology usage and how it might not be that beneficial to me as I would like to admit and how it really isn't healthy. Contrary, this unfortunate time has actually proved to be quite eye opening and helpful. Though I did spend way too much time during my two weeks off instead of preparing for a whole new type of schooling, I was able to see how my phone habits are affecting me. I compared mine and my boyfriend's phone usage and was actually kind of surprised at the results. He usually isn't on his phone a whole lot during the day but his usage for the past 10 days was a total of 14 hours and 22 min on screen and 1 hour and 14 min off screen; as compared to mine which was 16 hours and 18 min on screen and 39 minutes off screen. 39 minutes??? Seriously? I am pathetic.
Overall throughout this challenge I have learned that I really, really need to change my habits pertaining to social media and perhaps spend time off and away from my phone doing something productive.
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