Day 1 – What did I do with my phone?
The first time that I will touch my phone during the day will be to off my alarm, followed by checking for messages. This is the routine for my day.
As I do not have school on Friday, I continued to browse through my social media for a while before I get out of my bed to start my day. I continued to liaise with my friend about the meet up in the afternoon through messaging applications on my phone.
I will also listen to music on my phone and read a book from application on my phone when I am on my way. I realized that most people on the train are looking down on their phones too, some typing on their phone, some playing games and some watching shows on their phones. Only people who are not looking at their phones are slightly older and those who are resting. Even a toddler was watching cartoon in his stroller.
The next time that I was using my phone was while waiting for my food. My friend and I just looked down on our own phone and browsing through, replying messages. We were also occasionally sharing about what we saw on our social media. I realised that not as many people were looking at their phones at the food court as I thought it would be. Most people were chit-chatting with their friends and some were dazing.
I was on my phone all the way at night, on messaging applications and jumping around social media platforms too.

Day 2 – A Day without my phone (as much as possible)
(I tried not to use as much of my phone today but it was really hard)
I had to use my phone to wake me up in the morning as I need to be somewhere in the early afternoon. I quickly checked through my phone for important messages and got up to prepare.
I got out of my house without my earpiece so that I won’t be tempted to plug it in my phone. On the way to my destination, I was just looking out of the window and occasionally observing the people around me. There was a mother with toddler who was sitting in a stroller on the train. I was just looking at the little girl and trying to make her smile with my “ghost faces”.
I used my phone a few times to make some calls to check on some stuffs but other than that I didn’t use my phone.
I couldn’t keep myself away from my phone 100% as I needed to run errands. That was when I realized that phone had become irreplaceable in my life. Phone has given me the kind of convenience that i really couldn’t leave without it. I can survive without using my phone as entertainment but definitely cannot do without it when I have to communicate things with people or like quickly search up something.

I tried the second day when I was meeting my friend, I set a meeting time and meeting place the night before and I just turn up at the place the next day. But my friend didn’t turn up until I called her as she didn’t know that I am awake as I didn’t message her. This is interesting how staying connected all the time is needed even when we’ve set the meeting time and place.
Something different when I stayed away from my phone was I have more free time to do my stuffs and I felt like travelling journey is not as boring as what I’ve imagined too. One thing that i feel is really different when i do not have phone will be to plan, like i have to plan in advance. For eg, like i needed address of a place that i am heading to, i will need to find out before i leave house and write it down somewhere first. Usually i will just Google it while i am walking to the nearest MRT station.

This exercise also allows me to truly look out of that screen and observe around me, it is quite interesting and thought-provoking too.