Martina Balcázar Toledo and Antonio Pérez Sicilia
Martina and Antonio give us two different perspectives on how their challenge turned out.
Could we survive without our phones? A day in the life challenge
Martina Balcázar Toledo
Is it possible to get through a full day without our phones? To find out the answer, my friend Antonio and I tried the challenge of not going on our phones for a full 24 hours and this is how it turned out.
It was a random Sunday morning and I’d decided to attempt this challenge. Given that I didn’t wake up until 11:30 a.m, the morning was shorter than normal. I jumped out of bed and went to the kitchen to get something for breakfast. I sat down and had a coffee and some toast. Never had I felt so tempted to check my Instagram. I tried my best to put it out of my mind by working for a bit on school projects and I was really focused so that wasn’t a problem. Yet I knew that I was bound to fail at some point.
As is tradition in my family, every Sunday afternoon we head out for lunch so there was minimal temptation to bring along my phone. When I got home I felt really tired because my social battery had run out so I went straight to my living room and was literally a couch potato. At that moment I was on the verge of checking my phone and, wouldn’t you know it, I caved. I had failed the challenge. Not having anything to entertain me I reached for what I consider to be the only thing that can keep me engaged for hours, my phone.
Did you know that the average time most teens spend on their phones is around 5-7 hours a day? This is a serious addiction that is affecting our younger generations. This experiment did not really impact my mental health since I didn’t last a long time but it did make me realise that I’m severely addicted to my device and that it’s a concerning problem not only affecting me but the people I surround myself with. In all honesty, would you be able to try this out and last longer than I did?
Antonio Pérez Sicilia
