So, we, The Gavel Staff, decided to take on the challenge to not access any social media for an entire week. Here we will explain our experiences so far, how we’ve dealt with it, what we have done instead, and so forth.
Keren Cumpian: “I thought it was going to be harder, but deleting the apps really helped. Sometimes I feel like I’m missing something, but I get to finish my homework and go to sleep earlier. I downloaded the Neko Atsume game. They have really cute cats!!!!!!! even though they barely do anything like at all. I also, for the sake of my soul, I gave my friend my snapchat account so he could continue the snapchat fire-streak (it was 123 *fire emoji* last time I was on it) and that helps me be okay with being away from my social media accounts. I ALSO FEEL LIKE I SHOULD START BAKING COOKIES AND STUFF BECAUSE I AM SO BORED.”
Alondra Martinez: “I feel really good. It makes me rethink all my tweets, because yesterday I was driving home, and I saw a dog squinting. I wanted to tweet it so bad, but I couldn’t. And I realized how bad of a tweet that would’ve been. Overall, my thumb hurts from circling around and avoiding Youtube, Tumblr, etc. I don’t think you understand the struggle of taking a nap, waking up and ALL your friends are asleep, and you just have to sit there and think about all the mistakes you made in the seventh grade while convincing yourself that homework and Netflix is the better route.”
Amber Villanueva: “Ummm..the first day it didn’t really bother me and I just turned off my phone because there was no use for it anyways. But then I had the urge to go on Instagram and see what everyone was doing, but I didn’t.”
Janelle Martinez: “Okay first off, I logged out of all my apps, which was like seven of them. The first day was pretty easy, and I though ‘eh this isn’t so bad’ and then second day I was like ‘this is going to get harder’ I got so bored that I downloaded sudoku and played for an hour. Right before I went to sleep, I laid down, and was about to click the twitter app, and I was like ‘wow I didn’t even know I did this until now.'”
Victoria Johnson: “I have now 11 hours of sleep instead of 10, and now have more time in the morning to look spiffy. I even took a shower this morning.”
Clarissa Silva: “I am able to focus on my work during school, but I do get bored when I am done with everything. And I don’t get sidetracked as much. I find that I’m tempted to open my apps but I can’t find them because I deleted them. I am able to hold conversation and be be more involved without being on social media. My friends thinks it’s real funny to blow up my phone with snaps and peer pressure me to open them but I forbid. ”
Amanda Rocha: “My experience has been quite interesting. Yesterday, I was in a waiting room for about four hours and imagine the temptations of having your twitter icon just taunting you. It took literally everything in me to not get on but I did it and I feel great. ALSO, big deal- my friend got sugar gliders and sent me a picture of them on snapchat and I wanted to see so bad because, sugar gliders. But, I told her to send me a picture via text like we used to do back in the old day.”
Tori Falcon: “Ok so upon accepting this challenge I decided I wouldn’t delete my apps because I wanted to see how much will power I had. But like a wise, and beautiful butterfly Keren once said, ‘It’s like putting a cupcake in front of you when you are on a diet.’ She was so right so now they gone. I had to find things to do; I even edited several of my peers essays. But the most interesting thing that happened was Wednesday morning, I forgot my phone at home because I just wasn’t using it for social media. The whole day I just had no idea what to do with my hands. I was just grabbing my friends phones to hold. Honestly though, it’s been kind of nice.”
Alicia Yanez: “Because of the lack of social media, I made plans to go to the movies with my friends. I was able to take on a new TV series and actually paid attention to it instead of having it play in the background while I scrolled on my timeline. I had more time to text people because when I had my social media I would forget. I also completed DIYs that I’ve been putting off.”