Phones can be seen as innovative or an utter tragedy to our existence. Having a phone has turned into a rite of passage to today’s adolescents. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 78% teens have a cell phone, while 47% have smart phones. Life without a phone seems unusual and boring. Lunch tables are overrun by Snapchat selfies and the halls are filled with students urgently checking the Infinite Campus application. So, when my parents told me that my overuse of technology was damaging my grades and friendships, I became curious and wanted to test their hypothesis. I vowed to spend a week without social media or access to my phone.

Ironically, not having my phone caused more stress for my mother than myself. After just four hours of not having a phone, my mom had called me eight times, sent my sleepy neighbor over at six in the morning to check on me, all accompanied with a text to my brother that read, “Just give me a sign.” My mom was the person who was always preaching against technology, but now she was the one who needed it most. And yes, your parents would do this too. In that 7 days of phonelessness, they were not only out of town, but my basketball season had just started and I had a broken finger, so they had quite a bit to worry about.

That week was probably one of the longest of my entire life. I never felt so isolated and out of the loop. Throughout the week, finding my friends was extremely difficult. With a phone, I could simply text a friend and find them in an instant, but without it I found myself loitering through the intersection of E and F hall waiting for them to show. Additionally, rather than allowing me to focus on my homework, it inhibited me from doing it because I could not text my friends for help or check our class blogs.

At this point you are most likely thinking, thank goodness Martin Cooper was born to invent the cell phone, and yes, there are many benefits to having one, but there are benefits to life without it too. Yes, it was challenging at times, but I’m glad I did it. Common Sense Media reported that teens spend an average of nine hours using media, and I could do a lot with the combined 63 hours per week. I realized that I can actually get to sleep on time each night without facebook, texting and Instagram stalking which was exciting. Also, I learned that every phone has an owner, and that the face to face conversations with those people are far more interesting than the mundane ones over text.

So is not having a phone possible? No, not in Deerfield at least. If people around me had not had phones this would not have been an issue. People are so accustomed to having a phone that life seems impossible without one. The issue is that we live in a technology driven world and that a refusal to use the ever-increasing gadgets we have access to will only leave you behind the curve and isolated from society.

Therefore, if this theoretically happened, I think it would be fantastic. Having a phone is a privilege, not a right, and we have to treat it like that. No one needs a phone. Yes, it is inconvenient, but it is not impossible. So, sometimes put your phone on the side, go uninterrupted for a few hours to see what it’s like. Most probably, you’ll find the silence frightening, but relaxing at the same time. Don’t be afraid to unplug yourself from societal norms.