With the constant access to news and entertainment, it is hard to imagine life without technology.

To find the effects of going “unplugged” has on the teenage body, I went tech free for 24 hours.

While I am not as attached to my devices as some of my peers, I found it a constant struggle not to look down at my phone or turn on the TV. These struggles showed me how natural the consistent access digital world is to me and how hard it would be to live without it.

I turned my phone off on Monday afternoon and immediately felt its absence.

I felt like I was going crazy. I started playing guitar to take my mind off things but even then I could not look up songs nor chords and the boredom surfaced once again.

My next idea for a remedy was to sleep.While trying to fall asleep I reached a disturbing conclusion. I cannot sleep in silence.

I am so used to having music playing or calming sounds going through my headphones, that even while sleeping I could feel the silence.

After waking up, I saw my parents preparing dinner. I immediately asked to help. I did not actually want to assist my family with cooking dinner but I saw an opportunity for a distraction and there was no possibility I would pass that up. Dinner was a relief as I am already not allowed to use electronics at the table.

For the rest of the night, I talked, laughed and actually listened to my family. They seem like nice people. Getting closer to them was the best part of this experience and I realized that they were more important than my devices.

The most surprising aspect of this experiment was the silence. It was not until the experiment began that I realized how much background noise we take in. This white noise is all around us and showed me the cacophony of news, advertisements, music, and so many other sources that we are subjected to every day.  

Overall, I do not think that we need to shy away from or desert technology. We need to evolve and adapt, rather than abandon. Our relationship with technology can be as intimate as we like, as long as we do not let it replace human activity. All we need to do is remember what is important in life, the people you love.