Day 7, Sunday November 20th

 Today is the final day of the week without digital technology. I must say I am excited and relieved, I’ve felt disconnected from everything this week. I had a hard time talking to anybody or meeting any of my group members.  This morning I woke at 11:30 am. I did not get up right away; I wanted to sleep in as long as possible. I got out of bed at 2:00 pm. I decided that I would turn on my cell phone at 7:00 PM. I figured that 7:00 pm would be a good time to end the project and start talking to people again. For the whole day I didn’t go out, I just stayed in the house. Sitting around, reading my book, talking to my roommates, and bouncing a ball of the walls in my house. It was boring but eventually 7:00 pm rolled around the corner. I excitedly turned on my cell phone, my laptop, and started blasting music on my speakers from my iPod all at once. I’ve gotten a lot of messages from friends that I haven’t been in contact for a week. People were asking if I was even still alive. And what happened to my cell phone? I was even asked by my friend denzil if were even friends anymore.  For 2 minutes incoming missed calls, and old text messages started coming into my phone, and I received a ton of notifications. It made me feel relieved that this entire time people were still trying to connect to me. It’s amazing how much people depend on digital technology to the point, that we depend on it to stay connected with our friends and family. I called my house to talk to my mom and dad. They said they had tried calling my cell phone many times. My dad was worried that I may have lost my cell phone, or gotten into some serious trouble. I explained to them my situation and they quickly calmed down.  I spent the rest of the night catching up with all the people who texted me, and calling people back that had left me a voicemail. I also was able to scan and e-mail my material for a group project that was due Monday at 7 pm to my group partners.  This was the end of the week going without digital technology. It was a very interesting experience, and I learned a lot from it.

Day 6, Saturday, November 19th

       Today was probably the hardest day of the week without technology, because it was the weekend. I had no obligations to go to school. So I had no excuse to be anywhere. I felt like a socially disconnected looser. I woke up at 10 am, but lay in my bed till 1. I had absolutely nothing to do without a TV, Xbox, computer, or cell phone. I took a shower at about 1:30 and poured a bowl of brown sugar frosted mini-wheat’s. I decided to put on my sweater and go for a walk around the neighborhood. I figured I could get through Saturday by going on a long walk and hanging out at people’s houses that were walking distance away. I walked to Stefan’s house at 259 Glenridge. I walked inside, and he was chilling in his room watching online TV show’s and drinking a few beers. I asked if he had cards and he said that he did. I suggested we play some cards, and ask if his roommates wanted to join. We got Stefan’s roommate Stephanie, and Eugene to join. We spent 3 hours talking, drinking, playing poker, blackjack, bridge, and crazy eights. It wasn’t too bad. At around 5:15, we stopped playing cards. I said my goodbyes, and left the house. I walked further down glenridge and decided to stop at saeeds house. Saeed was a good friend of mine from first year. He lived in an apartment building on the 14^th floor. Saeed was studying with his roommate sohaib for an upcoming accounting exam. They said it was okay to hang around and talk a little bit, because they also needed a little break.  We caught up on things that have been happening recently, as well as the good old times on Brock campus village residence. We chilled for about an hour and a half. I decided that it was enough, and it was time for them to continue their studying.  I left and walked the long way home, going down glenmorris, around the Penn center back down Glendale again. I got home at around 9:30. My roommate and her friends were in the kitchen pre-juicing for going out. They asked if I wanted to go, I declined their offer.  I was tired from walking around all day, so I just decided to go to bed. I lay in bed for a few hours, I read a bit of making ideas happen, and drifted into a sleep. The next and final day of the 7 day project was coming the next day.

Day 5 Friday, November 18th, 2011

       This morning I awoke with a hangover, I was very dizzy and my mouth was dry. I had passed out on the couch in my living room.  I had awoken from being shaken by my roommate Megan. She was checking to see if I was okay from the charades of last night. It was good that she did as well, I had a 9: AM seminar to get to. I didn’t bother changing my clothes on account of I had no time. I quickly brushed my teeth and made a quick trip to the school. I made it in time for my media industries seminar; I then went to comm. 2P90 from 10-11. I had not done the reading the seminar, so I tried my best to listen to the gist of what people were saying. I would then always just give my thought or opinion on what I had just heard. I always speak my mind, no matter what. Even if people think I’m wrong, or naïve it does not matter to me. Who’s to say that someone else is more right than me, what makes someone right. Everyone has their own sense of justice. So I make it a point to say anything I can in a seminar, or open class discussion. I’m also not afraid to challenge the status quo, or someone else’s opinions. If I am told to shut up, I will just speak again. At 11: am seminar was over, and I was free for the rest of the Friday. I decided to just go home. When I got home all my roommates were out, so it was just me. It was very lonely and a little depressing having a house all to you.  Ironically I would have been happy to have the house to myself if I could call some people up. I lay in my bed for a few hours, till finally I decided to go for a walk. I walked up the street and went inside a friend’s house. Although maybe I shouldn’t call them friends more like acquaintances. People who I just go to see when I’m bored, or having nothing else better to do. They were all sitting in the living room playing NBA 2K9 on the play station 3. I thought it would be okay if I just sat down and talked with them, as long as I did not play the game. As time went on it was 9 pm at night. I was really tired from the night before so I decided to go back to my place and cook up some pork chops and potatoes.  After I ate, I went to bed in my room and slept.  A new day was around the corner.

Day 4 Thursday, November 17th, 2011

        At this point in time this in time the experiment is getting really unbearable. I have not been able to contact any friends, and have been unable to go out partying.  It is really starting to get on my nerves. Thankfully Thursday is my least busy day for school. I only have one class that’s from 10 am to 11 am called media industries. However I did not make it to class this morning, I woke at around 11. I have an essay that’s due for November 21’st for organizational culture. I needed to start gathering sources for this essay. I headed down to the library, thankfully I had already printed out the instructions for the essay. So I knew I needed at least 5 academic peer reviewed sources. Instead of using a library computer, I got the librarian to do a search for academic books on companies conducting unethical business practices and sweatshops.  She gave me the book id on a piece of sticky note. I got the 5 books I needed and wrote down the sources, quotes, and page numbers that I would need later. Other than that I went home. On my way home I was walking down Glendale to get to my house. I saw one of my friends Jeff walking down in the same direction, I waved and said what’s up.  He was heading down to the mall to get some food. I had nothing else to do so I decided to accompany him. We went to the food court and he got some Greek food. I wasn’t hungry so I decided not go get anything. He had to go to school, so he caught the bus back to Brock. I lived nearby down Glendale so I decided just to walk home. At this time it was around 4pm when I got home. I boiled some Kraft dinner and ate it. After that I slept on the couch upstairs till about 7 pm. My roommate Megan came home and woke me up. She asked me what I was doing and I said nothing. There was nothing to do. I decided to go to my room and lay on my bed. Then at about 9 pm, my friend Hans and Jenna show up randomly. They said I was not answering my phone, so they decided to just show up. I lied to them and told them I lost my phone. Hans was planning on going to kahunaville that night, which is a bar right next to the Penn center. He invited me along and had a 750 ml bottle of Bacardi and proclaimed that the drinks were on him. I could not decline. I had not been out in days, and really wanted a chance to see everyone at the bar. We all drank at my house, and I got really intoxicated. We walked from my house to the bar. I ended up staying there all night till closing. At around 2 am, my friend got me home and the night was over for a new day.

Day 3 Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

                Today was the third day I had to go with digital technology. I’m having trouble falling asleep early. I usually watch TV, or listen to music as I start to sleep. Living these recent days with digital technology, I find that I have more time with my thoughts. Without people to e-mail, or talk to, I’m beginning to think about life, like what I want to do after university, or how much time I waste, how can I make my time more productive. It’s really funny how much time you have when people are not on their laptop, or cell phone, or watching television. I woke up around 10:30 am this morning, I have a mounted battery run clock at my student house in the washroom. I have not owned a digital watch for a long time now. In fact I think that watches are redundant now that your smart phones can tell time. I figured I was too late to make it to COMM 2P90, by the time I would get there it would be 10:40, and I figured that the professor would not bother marking me down for credit, thus my attempt to even show up would be redundant because I’d be wasting my time. This is because I felt that showing up at that late of time would have been a waste of my time, if imp not even going to get a credit. I got ready and headed to school at 11; to make my 1 PM class called comm 3P65 class called organizational communication. I was done at 2 and had a seminar for world religion to get to. I usually call my friend Ibraheim to quickly cram the readings before this seminar; I couldn’t call him because of no cell phone. So I just had to meet him in seminar, and do the readings as the presenters went over the topics. After the seminar I still had a class at 4 to 5 for world religion, but I decided to skip it and just head home.  There was a new episode of the Ultimate fighter, on TV tonight at 10, however I would be missing it. I didn’t really give it to much thought because I knew that I could , watch it at a later date online via http://www.tv-links.eu, which is a really good site for watching movies, or television shows online. Around 6 pm my partner for OBHR group named ashish showed up to my house. He just showed up to drop off the textbook that I lent him to do his journal articles. He asked me if my phone is still off, I told him yes. He said I couldn’t last, and I said I’m trying, I laughed and sent him on his way. It’s a good thing I’ve been keeping up with my journal articles before hand, otherwise it would have been harder to do it without my laptop. I cook up some noodles, and stir fry it with beef on my stove, I finish dinner and walk to a friend’s house across the street. We just sit and talk for about 2 hours. Till finally its 9:30. I head back home and do some readings for one of my classes. It’s now 11:30 and I’m really tired so call it a day. I put my readings away and head to bed. Its day four tomorrow, I hope it goes well.

Day 2, Tuesday, November, 15th, 2011

       This is the second day of me going out without digital technology. It’s starting to get really difficult. I have no means of contacting my partner for our group presentation that we have to work on for seminar for Friday morning. I again woke up late this morning, on account that I didn’t have my Iphone once again to wake me up on time. I walked all the way up to glendridge to get to Brock University for my 11 Am seminar for comm. 3P65. It was a boring trip up to the school, because usually I would have my headphones plugged into my 1^st generation IPod touch. It was a quiet walk up to the school other tan that it seemed like a normal day. I went to my seminar, as usual and left promptly after it was done. One thing that crossed my mind was if my parents had tried to contact me, I become worried, because really I have no other way to contact them at all. I figured I’d just catch my work partner for my seminar on Friday at Thursday morning’s class. I was done school for the day at 12 and went home. I lied down on my bed and picked up a book called Making idea’s Happen. It’s a book that my dad got for me. It’s all about what it takes to take an idea and make it a reality; I got through the first 2 chapters, in what seemed like an hour. I slept till past five. At this time it started getting dark, and I had no idea what to do with my time. I decided to go to the dollarama to pick up some good items; I walked down glenridge to the plaza, and picked up bread, and other food items etc. Since I had some extra time I decided to pop in on the computer store next store, I asked questions about the Logitech pc speakers. I was thinking of upgrading my speakers soon. I left the store after and went home. This day really felt lonely, I didn’t see that many people I knew at school today, and besides my roommates, I didn’t really get to interact with much people today. I’m starting to feel really disconnected at this point.

Day 1 Monday, November 14th 2011

      Today was the first day of my week going without digital technology. It was a tough first day and I felt really disconnected from everybody. The started off in the morning when I woke up at 10:11 AM already late for my 10 AM comm. 2P90 class. I was unable to awake on time, because I usually have an alarm set on my iphone, which will remain off for a week. I packed my notebook, instead of the usual laptop I would carry with me to take notes for school. Then I rushed to school to make it for comm. 2P90, I had arrived to class at 10:40 AM, extremely late but made it none the less. During class I instinctively would grab for my phone and pat down my pockets but to no avail, because my phone was at home in my room powered off. For a while I felt like something was missing, like a piece of me that felt so natural was no longer there. I also had to study for my quiz that was scheduled for 7 pm the conventional way of using a textbook. I would have usually read the slides on a computer online document. I wanted to text, or call up some people to study with from my class. However I had no way of getting a hold of them without my cell phone. I continued reading for my quiz, from the textbook. As I walked the halls, I would see people that I knew and talk to them. At times in breaks of the conversation they would whip out their phones and start dialing, or texting or some activity. It felt weird with these pause breaks where people would take out their phones. I was unable to do the same. When I went to my class for 7 to take the quiz, two of my class mates had asked where I was, and why I didn’t answer my phone. They said they wanted to know if there was a quiz today, and if I had lost my cell phone, or changed me number. I told them simply that I left my phone at home. Needless to say I, felt like I did fairly well on the quiz. I went home, and saw my roommates watching TV in the living room, I just passed by them, and proceeded to use the stove to make some dinner. After that I went to my room, turned on the light, and started writing down my experience day of no digital technology in my notebook.