Persona Account of Spending Time Without Technology

On Easter Sunday, March 31st, I decided to take the no technology for a day challenge. I felt that doing the challenge on a day when you spend time with family would be a lot easier than a day when you just sit at home doing nothing.

My day started at 11:30 a.m. Usually, I would get up and take my phone of its charger. However, yesterday I left my phone on its charger for the whole day. I ate breakfast with my family and we had a little discussion about our plans for the summer. After breakfast, I decided to pass time by doing some of my homework. While doing homework, I did not feel different at all because I was not using electronics.

At around 3:00, my parents and I went to San Francisco. When we were shopping there, I had an urge to check my phone since I was bored. I also noticed how technology has affected our society. When we were in the checkout lane, the person in front of us was checking something on his phone while waiting for the store clerk to pack his bags. It slightly bothered me because he was holding up the line just to check something on his phone. It also made me realize how we use our phones every day to a point where we do not notice how much we are on them.

After San Francisco, my parents and I went to my cousins’ house for an Easter dinner. At points I was so bored that I started untangling a broken slinky just to pass time. I think that we use technology to communicate with each other, so that we would not be so bored all the time. People need to talk to other people, and by texting, tweeting, and messaging technology consumes our minds without us even noticing it.

Over summer, I went to Russia for a whole month and stayed in a secluded farm house with my grandparents. The only technology we have there is a TV and a phone. I survived for a whole month there only watching the news every now and then. I feel that if you are active and busy, then you do not have a need for using technology. But if you are often bored and lazy, you will use technology more often and it will become a daily routine in your life.

Technology plays a big role in 1984. In the novel, people are scared of technology. The government has taken advantage of it, and now rules all of the people through the use of telescreens. By having power, the Inner Party is able to control technology. The Party can vaporize the people anytime they do not like what they are doing since they always see what people are doing.

Every day, technology is advancing, and people are becoming lazier and lazier. It is possible that soon people will only use technology and will not go outside or exercise. If this happens, a government can take over the people because they would be too hypnotized my technology. All the government has to do is take control the technology, eventually succeeding in controlling the people.