Day 1 – Sunday, 26 February 2017 (with gadgets)

• 630am. Woke up with the phone’s alarm.
• 700am. Showered, checked phone.
• 730am. Going to church by bus and MRT. Using phone to chat with my mom and friends, to browse random stuffs on google, to check time.
• 730 to 830am. In the bus & MRT, listening to the music in the phone.
• 830 to 1100am. During church, I was checking my whatsapp and Instagram for several times so I wouldn’t get bored. I took note of the sermon using my phone too. After church, I uploaded a picture to my Instagram.
• 1100am to 100pm. Strolling around Star Vista and Jurong Point, and chatting in Whatsapp at some points of time. I checked emails and made an online purchase. While shopping at Watson, I checked the online price of a product before deciding to buy it from Watson.
• 100 to 200pm. On my way back to the bus: listening to the music and chatting.
• 200 to 230pm. Lunch at Hall Canteen without using phone.
• 230 to 450pm. In my room, I was checking Instagram and whatsapp, editting a photograph on my laptop. I was listening to youtube all afternoon, and watching videos sometimes. I uploaded a blog post on Tumblr.
• 450 to 600pm. Home cardio exercising while turning on the music from youtube and I used my phone’s timer to set time limit.
• 600 to 630pm. Resting after exercise while chatting with a foreign friend on Instagram. I used Google translate in order to talk to him.
• 700 to 730pm. I was preparing dinner while checking on my phone some times.
• 730 to 10pm. I was browsing instagram, watching a live runway show by Dolce Gabanna, while listening to music on youtube with my laptop. I was watching a makeup tutorial video, checking on my email.
• 1000 to 1100pm. Writing this Day 1 report on my laptop and reading the reading material.
• 1100pm to midnight. Answering some chats and was ready to sleep.

Day 2 – Monday, 27 February 2017 (no gadget day)

• 730am. I woke up without the alarm. I took a shower.
• 8am to 930am. Preparing my bag and getting ready to go to the Botanical Garden. In order to be able to keep track on time, I wore my watch. Then, I was waiting for a friend to knock on my door.
• 930am ro 1pm. I ate my breakfast. While waiting for him, I was reading a book in my room. There was no music at all. I felt sleepy. I slept for about 15 minutes. In between my readings, I sang because I felt the room was too silent without music and my roomate was not in the room. I had no one to talk to. He said he’s going to knock on my door at about 1030-1130am after his dental appointment. However, at 1230pm, he was still not yet at my door. I became frustrated as I could not know what made him late. I wanted to eat lunch but I could not because he might come any time soon (or not at all). I had nothing to do other than reading my book, and it was too boring and anxious to the point I cried (i don’t know when he would come). At the same time, I was not used to no-gadget, and without gadgets, I could not do anything related to school work. Waiting without gadgets and means of online communication is crazily frustrating and it is a waste of a lot of time. The clock seemed ticking slower than usual, and before this gadget-less day, I had never finished reading hundred of pages in one go. Life seemed much of a slower pace during this waiting period. It was peaceful at first.
• 100 to 200pm. He finally came. Only then I knew his dental appointment took longer than predicted and he was equally helpless, unable to inform me he is going to be late. He said he was rushing back to his room so that he would not be later than he already was. On our way to Botanic Garden, without gadgets, we just talked to each other.
• 200 to 430pm. We had our lunch at Simply Bread. Then we were strolling around Bukit Timah and going into the National Orchid Garden.
• 430 to 700pm. Going inside the National Orchid Garden. We were strolling around looking at flowers and talking to each other. I was feeling a little bit lost and down because with no gadgets, I could not take photos, nor updating my social media real-time about the amazing place.
• 700 to 930pm. We ate ice cream at Island Creamery. Unable to use phones, we could not have a free photo printing at the ice cream place. Sad.
• 930 to 11pm. Heading back to NTU using bus, and we forgot to check the route of the bus 154 at the bus stop. I trusted my memory and instinct that that bus would alight at Boonlay. And my memory is correct.
• 11pm to midnight. I was back in the room at 11pm, feeling tired and dirty. I took a shower.
• “Aftermath”: Mom and Dad were panicked as I didn’t receive nor respond to their chats on Whatsapp and Instagram. They did eleven miscalls too. Gladly, they are not angry when I said the gadget-less day is for a school assignment. I always talk to them via whatsapp, hence, once I didn’t give any news or update about myself, they become panicked.

Reflection

It was not a bad day to be without gadgets. I finally had the chance to read the books I have bought, and when I did not checked my gadgets at all, time seemed slower. I did not feel like I am in Singapore, where everything is so fast-paced. It feels peaceful. However, waiting without gadgets is the worst part of the day, especially when things did not happen according to plan. It was a small leap of faith: to wait for him, or to just go out by myself. It was no regret to wait a little longer, because we did have a great time without gadgets. It was pretty fine to be out of the room/house without gadgets as we simply enjoyed the things before us. However, as a social media enthusiast, I felt a little empty without my phone because I could not update my status nor upload photo like I used to. Worse, I cannot capture the moments and beautiful thing I saw. Trusting my instinct on the bus route was another leap of faith too. The absence of gadgets in such digital era and online communication creates anxiety and worries, because we are so used to getting updated easily.

Overall, I like the day when I did not use gadget. I feel more present than I was ever before. I felt peaceful too because I was temporarily disconnected with distractions and the updates of other people’s life. It trains my patience during waiting time and teaches me how precious online communication is to me and my family.