Entry 1:  Technology Deprivation.

This weekend, we were assigned to participate in a technology deprivation experiment (hence the title).  For the experiment, we were to forgo using social media, email, the internet, and any messaging services for a period of 24 hours before slowly integrating them back into our daily lives.  Being part of a generation that has had the benefit of enjoying all these features for most of our conscious lives, this task was clearly going to go as well as trying to lose weight while eating nothing but Big Macs and not exercising.

Starting 3 hours:
For the first three hours, I did pretty well since I could still call peeps, and I had the Red Sox game to watch on TV to numb my senses, after the game (Sox won 9-8 WOOHOO!), reality has sunken in since I could not go online to check the box score, nor could I go check the box scores of other teams to check my fantasy team (ARRGHH).  With nothing else to do, I decided that I might as well shower and go to sleep since I couldn't browse online and I had no real desire to watch the highlights.

The Next Morning:
Progress was going surprisingly well since I planned to hang out with my friend all day before attending his little brother's Bar Mitzvah.  Unfortunately, we both have a tendency of going onto our phones during dull times, and guess who couldn't use his phone to satiate his boredom (on a side note, HOW THE HECK DID I SURVIVE WITHOUT A PHONE WITH INTERNET??!!).

The Afternoon:
Still no phone meant bored out of my skull, although my friend tried to satiate it by trying to show me funny stuff he found online (MUST RESIST!).  While waiting around his house, I figured I might as well watch TV and take a nap, which worked out quite well since I got refreshed if anything else.  By the time we're ready to leave, 24 hours have passed, I HAVE SUCCEEDED.  Alas, fate decided to screw me over by making me wait an extra hour and a half since the Bar Mitzvah took place at 5, THE EXACT SAME TIME THE RESTRICTIONS LIFT!!!  Regardless, it's nice to see a boy ceremoniously become a man, so I couldn't exactly say it was a bad reason not to pop the phone up again the check the web for just a little longer.

The Night:  At last, I can access the internet, 24 hours of tension released in one go as I can finally check my stats, as well as update my fantasy team, so it's all good.  My inability to check email, social media, or text doesn't bother me as much as my lack of internet, since I have the ability to call in a worst case scenario anyways, and I was spending all day socializing, so Facebook and Twitter didn't end up being too busy anyways.  At least if anything else, my ability to release all the internet tension that had built up meant I could relax more and party my night away.

Conclusion:  Seeing that access to the internet for me is like water to a fish, I felt like a fish just gasping around until I finally could get it back.  On the upside though, I can proudly say I survived the challenge, albeit with a little more mental wear than before (but at least I can now remember how elementary school me survived without internet access).