Last week was a rough week for me. In a fit of post-Super Bowl passion, I threw my phone on the floor and the screen broke. A few days later while doing laundry, I discovered my iPod shuffle was nice and clean – unfortunately, because it had just been put through the washing machine.

We live in a very tech-savvy time. Virtually everyone has a cell phone and people are often surprised and perplexed when they discover someone who doesn’t have one. Most college students also have some sort of personal MP3 player. All of us, by nature of being an NIU student, have at least one e-mail address. I have four. We all use the internet on a daily basis for everything from communicating with others to checking the news to watching videos. We can do almost all of our shopping online – you can even order pizza online.

Every year, new technology is introduced that makes our lives faster and more convenient. I imagine that every year we spend more and more time on the Internet. And every year, technology encroaches more and more on our lives.

When our technology fails us, we fall apart. When my phone died, I felt lost and helpless for a day or two. I couldn’t call anyone, I couldn’t get text messages from anyone, I felt as if the world suddenly became very distant. When my iPod got washed I was forced – and still am – to walk to and fro in silence with only the cold whir of DeKalb’s wind to fill the void.

The funny thing is that, after a few days you get used to not having technology, or at least I did anyway. Most college students would probably whimper if suddenly they didn’t have the Internet, a cell phone and an iPod.

Going without technology can be cathartic, though. It may surprise many of you to know that I don’t own a television. When I moved away from home a few years ago I brought my 19-inch TV with me, but it was placed in a room with no furniture and nothing else in it. If I wanted to watch TV, I had to bring one of the kitchen chairs into the room to sit on. That was a weening period – TV became inconvenient and uncomfortable to watch. Soon I found that I was only watching a few hours of TV a week. When I came to college I left my TV behind. I figured I’d have no need of it anymore – and I was right. Without a TV, I found that I had more time on my hands to do stuff: homework, reading, socializing with others, etc. I also came to realize that I didn’t even miss TV.

When my computer broke last spring, it was out of commission for a couple months. Although this was a very difficult time, I found that I was getting a lot more done and not spending quite so many hours checking Facebook. I was able to survive without my computer. Although I choose to have one now, I know I can get by without one. Once again it was a time in which it became very evident how closely are lives are linked with technology.

I’d suggest that all of you try something: Go a week without one of your prized technological marvels. See how you feel, see how your life is different, see what it was like before you came to be dependent on something. You might even like it. In the end I think it’s kind of funny how dependent we are on technology in today’s world, but I also find it reassuring to know that we can actually survive without a great deal of our technology as well.