When I decided to spend a week without modern technology, I thought I would cope just fine. It would probably be a struggle to cope without my mobile and email, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have many problems. After all, unlike most of my friends, I wasn’t hooked on Facebook, Hollyoaks or microwave meals. So how bad could it be?

I found myself presented with a problem the night before I even started the experiment. I’d rung around my friends and family to warn them in advance that I would be unreachable for a week, and if I wasn’t replying to their texts or voicemail, it wasn’t because anything had happened to me (though being a student, they’re fairly used to me disappearing off the face of the earth for a few days after a big weekend) but because I was doing some research for a feature. Again, me doing strange things in the name of journalism is no surprise, though they were concerned about how I was going to stay safe without a mobile phone.

But the night before, I had a more pressing question about my mobile phone- how I would get up the next day, as I use my phone alarm. As this was obviously now out of the question, I had to hunt around for an alarm clock. I finally managed to borrow a tiny, barely audible clock and set it for 7am.

The next morning, I was surprised to find I woke up before the alarm went off. When I checked the clock, it read 6.50am. Feeling pleased with myself, I got out of bed and thought it seemed unusually light for that time in a morning. I could also hear my housemates, which was odd as usually I’m the first up. When I went to the kitchen, I glanced up at the clock and was horrified to discover it was ten to nine. The alarm clock must have stopped in the night. I raced to get ready as I had to meet a friend at court to report a trial, but no sooner had I thrown on my jacket, than I realised I couldn’t find my keys. When they still hadn’t turned up after ten minutes of frantic searching, I gave in and rang my friend to apologise and tell her to go without me. Needless to say, she was less than impressed.  My housemates had left by that time, so there was nobody to lock the door and as the house next door had got burgled the weekend before, I definitely wasn’t going to leave it open. So far, not so good.

The next challenge presented itself the day after, when my friend was due to come up to stay with me. She had told me her train was due to arrive at 6.12pm, so I went to the station and crossed my fingers that she hadn’t missed the train as I would have no way of knowing, and the idea of spending hours waiting in a cold train station was less than appealing. Luckily, she arrived on time. But when we went out that night, I managed to lose sight of her in a club. Though we had agreed a meeting point in advance, I was worried about leaving her in a place she wasn’t familiar with and spent the best part of half an hour searching for her, only to find her happily chatting to a group of people.

Throughout the week, I found giving up modern technology was a big inconvenience. I had to plan outfits days in advance, as I couldn’t use the washing machine. When I realised the dress I wanted to wear on a night out was lying in a crumpled heap on my bedroom floor, I had to handwash it in the sink and pray that it would be dry in time. I was forced to resort to hanging the wet dress on a hanger and hooking it over the shower rail to dry flat, as ironing was not an option. I ended up having to wear a slightly damp dress with a few suspicious creases, but I figured that in a dark club, nobody would notice.  My friends thought I was mad but I was determined to prove that I could give up technology.

By the end of the week, I was desperate to return to my technology-filled lifestyle. When I logged into my email account, I had 13 emails in my personal email account, over 60 messages in my university inbox and my work email had a staggering 93 emails to wade through. My mobile began bleeping almost immediately after I switched it on.  There were eight voicemails, three of which were from a magazine editor frustrated at not being able to contact me about a story I was writing, another was from my boss asking me to cover a shift and the others were from friends wanting to know why they couldn’t get hold of me. I also fell behind with work as all the resources are online, and lecturers communicate with us via email. I had to rely on my friends to inform me of any changes to lecture venues or deadlines.

After spending an entire day ringing around apologising and trying to appease some annoyed editors and disgruntled friends, I had got the message. Technology is essential. As a freelance writer and student, there was no way I could function without my email and phone.  The week had bordered on torturous. Technology has become such an integral part of our lives, it is almost incomprehensible to live without it. And yet I had (almost) managed to do just that. It made me wonder whether our lives had been simpler before technology, or whether they are simpler now because of technology. One thing is for sure; there’s no going back. Technology has transformed our lives, whether it’s for better or worse.

Kay Weston

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