Digital Sabbath

This is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. I didn't realize how much I was connected to my phone and computer. I mean, I normally go without watching TV or playing video games for days but my cellphone is always right by my side. I can barely survive a class without it; most classes I end up texting at some point anyway. But I am glad that I completed this "digital sabbath" (well until 9pm that night when I just couldn't take it anymore and figured my time was up because my roommate had woken me up around that time that morning) because it made me realize how much I really focus on reality and am missing all the wonder that is around me 24/7. 

I went for a run that morning, without my ipod, and actually listened to nature. It was almost scary because so many of those natural sounds aren't natural to me, therefore I was in constant fear a bear or some other creature  was going to come darting out of the woods and kill me on sight. Then I came back and instead of going for my phone immediately I took the time to cook myself a meal. I normally don't have time to do that due to the fact that my phone is constantly going off and I have to meet this person here and run this errand, etc. It was fantastic to simply sit and enjoy my meal, even when my roommates came barging in the room and wanted to talk. I like talking, face to face. It takes a lot of work to carry on a conversation when one doesn't have the leisure to pause and think about everything they say before they actually say it. I never noticed that before because I was always pausing the conversation at some point anyway to answer my text messages. It's really sad now that I actually reflect on it. But after lunch I didn't really know what to do, I couldn't contact anyone which resticted me to hoping more people would stop by. My roommates decided to take me out to random places but eventually I decided on crafting since it was something I needed to get done at some point. Honestly, it wasn't too long before I got bored with crafting and decided to take the bus to the library. I usually carry some novel around with me that I can pull out when I want to just chill, but since I'm at school and have my phone on me all the time, I just don't carry around books anymore. Thankfully that changed when I got a book and read the whole thing in a day. It was refreshing, I used to do that all the time, but now I can never seem to find the time to do what I want. How pathetic. Overall I would say that my "digital sabbath" really opened my eyes to reality again. There is more to the world and to life behind the little screen I always seem to be focusing on. Participating in this and seeing how hard it was for me really makes me question the next generation. How are they going to be able to cope when everything around them is infused with technology? I'm worried. We're becoming like the Romans in the sense that we don't do much proactive movements; we're content with sitting on the couch and watching someone else do it for us. I'm wary though because before we realize it, the next empire to fall, could very possibly be ours.