Sometimes, grown ups do crazy things. Not embarrassing things, like singing along with the radio when they’re driving you and your friends some place, and insisting that the music is cool (it’s not). Not weird things, like insisting that mayonnaise is great for the skin and slathering it all over their face looking like a bhoot and opening the door, scaring the courier guy. But crazy things. C-R-A-Z-Y.
Our class teacher did a crazy thing and challenged us to a digital detox for the weekend. She said she wanted us to realise how much time we ‘wasted’ — her words, not mine — playing video games and watching videos online. Apparently, we needed to stop and smell the roses. We don’t have any roses in our home, my mother kills any plant within hours of its arrival. But I know better than to mention that to my class teacher. She’ll just give me that look of hers over the rim of her glasses. A look that features in many nightmares.
Anyway, the idea was that we spend 48 hours without any technology and keep a log of all the things we did instead. Y, was all “Ma’am, do iWatches count as technology?” What a show off. He just wanted to remind everyone that he got an iWatch for his last birthday.
Of course, my mother was overjoyed with this assignment. She was SO happy that she said we should start on Friday and not wait till Saturday. I was pretty upset that we weren’t following the instructions properly, but I cheered up when she said my pesky brother would have to do the digital detox too. He threw such a massive tantrum that she had to say the entire family would do the detox together. I guess misery does love company.
My deductions
Well, here’s what I learned from the digital detox.
Before GPS, people must have gotten lost A LOT. Their friends must have gotten tired of waiting for them to show up for lunch and left and never spoken to them again.
Before the Internet, if you didn’t know how to change a fused light bulb or fix a broken flush, you probably lived in a dark and smelly house. Living with a broken flush is not an option if you have a brother who likes to eat rajma as much as mine does.
Before WhatsApp, if you didn’t write down your homework in the diary, there was NO way your parents could find out what it was and make you do it. Which, is actually an excellent thing.
I didn’t stop and smell any roses over my digital detox weekend, but I did end up playing more cricket, fake word scrabble and hide and seek. We’re not ready to say adiós to digital things just yet, because really, we need to fix our flush. And, we had rajma for dinner last night. HELP!
