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I remember once my friend saying “Life without using mobile phones and computers is a life that teenagers can’t survive!” At that time, I thought she was just exaggerating the impact of hi-tech gadgets. Recently, I was given a challenge to experience life without using the mobile phone and getting online for a week. Could I survive? It’s the ‘Dare To Try’ programme.
In fact, every morning before, I could deeply feel how much I relied on my mobile phone. I used to use my phone as my alarm. It got a function called”Snooze”. The alarm would be suspended for a while after I pressed the stop button but the beep sound would resume at regular intervals until I got up and switched it off. With this special function, I could stay on the bed up to the last moment without being late. Since I was not able to use it during the week, whenever the alarm clock rang, I needed to wake up immediately. If not, I might sleep over time. Guess what? I woke up earlier, which was quite a breakthrough for me. Also, I used to exchange short messages with my friends before I slept. In that week, I could just sleep PEACEFULLY without any distraction.
Apart from changing my living style, the way I kept in touch with my friends also differed. Using Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and sending short messages were usually my first priority when I needed to contact my friends. Although my phone was always beside me, I seldom took it up for calling others but instead, checking messages.
According to the rules of game, I could turn on the computer but I could not click the button for accessing the websites as usual. I always kept rummaging my bag for my phone until I recalled that I did not have it at that moment. I felt uncomfortable that I had lost contact with friends. I was afraid that I might miss out anything interesting or be out of touch with the hot topics discussed amongst my classmates. I was left alone.
After a few days, I said to myself, “I should not waste my time on worrying whether I would be left out or not. I’d better do something else.” Surprise! I found that the sound of the early birds was actually comforting. I enjoyed reading under the ‘symphony’. In the afternoon, I went down to the park or had a walk around my house to get refreshed. There was so much I had missed just because I kept sending text with others without looking around. What a pity!
When I had dinner with my family, they also told me that they felt much respected as I paid attention to them during conversation. In the absence of electronic communication, I instead visited my friends face to face. We felt much closer than just chatting online day and night. This experience was magnificent.
After winning the battle against the desire of using the gadgets, I retrieved lots of things that I used to ignore. I could SEE and TOUCH the real things and meet people face to face but not through a screen or a second-hand experience. I am not saying that having the advanced technology to enhance communication is a curse to people, but relying too much on them would definitely drive us away from human touch and reality. Striking a right balance is the key. Just try for one day and you will surely gain something! Dare to try??