About a month ago I signed up for World Vision’s 40 Hour Famine and weighed my options of either giving up food or technology for my campaign. I’ve probably accidentally starved myself for 40 hours during a Suits marathon, so the answer was obvious: technology was much more dear to me.
The first challenge was working out where to draw the line. By Google’s definition I’d have to give up any “application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes” and that would have been almost impossible. As my loving friends so kindly suggested, I’d basically have to spend the 40 hours in a cave to satisfy that definition. So instead I swore off technology like phones and computers for the weekend.
By the Famine Friday I’d raised around $600. Feeling accomplished, I was ready to jump straight in. How hard could it be? I didn’t think I was that addicted. I mean, I don’t send people Candy Crush invitations on Facebook, or Instagram every meal, or tweet every thought, although I may or may not have a Snapchat problem – but everyone’s got their flaws, right? Okay, okay, so I once complained for two hours while my phone updated – I may be a little dependent on technology.
But hey, I had activities lined up for hours of technology-free fun. Bubble wrap, sudoku, early nights, and if I ran out of activities I could always do my readings. What could go wrong?
Unfortunately I was not immune to the use of technology by others. Although my parents stood in for my alarm, it was hard to avoid the Vietnamese rap being played in the house, and I didn’t anticipate a family friend’s karaoke night where I sat in a corner avoiding technology while being Nerfed by kids. What I would have given to be at home reading up on the Constitution.
When the weekend was over I was very glad to get back online, In that one weekend I missed out on spontaneous movie plans with my cousin, a last minute housewarming, a relationship crisis, a car accident resulting in a broken jaw, about 100 snaps and three donations (yay!).
But it wasn’t all bad, though. Surprisingly, more than half the time I was asleep or outside. There was no fearing of lost phones, no constant search for free wi-fi, I managed to catch up with my mum, noticed the sky in all its glory and even got around to doing some reading. It turns out it’s nice to get away from technology every now and then.
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