iExamen

            Before starting this exercise, I was a bit skeptical on whether or not I would observe anything significant in my daily routines that I hadn’t already noticed.  However, I was surprised to find out that really taking the time to reflect on your everyday actions can drastically change your thinking process before doing even the most common tasks.  I chose Saturday to be my day of reflection because I was just about to play in my first college lacrosse game, and I was extremely focused during most of the day, analyzing almost every situation I was in with relatively more thought than was necessary.  For example, in the morning I was reluctant to talk to anyone at all worrying that I would distract myself from the upcoming game.  Over time I’ve seen many pictures and posts on social media about how people are too worried about capturing a moment on their phones, so they forget to really enjoy an event.  That was my focus going into my day of reflection. I was about to take part in something that very few people have a chance to do so I was determined to make the most of every moment.

            To start the day, I turned on my phone to see if I had any messages from anyone.  However, after seeing the notifications, I refused to respond to any of them.  I wasn’t worried about what was going on with other people not near me, but rather I was fully invested in enjoying the process of getting ready to play with my teammates.  For the majority of this day I only communicated with people face to face.  For some reason it just didn’t feel right during Saturday to do anything other than that.  From start to finish the day was filled with powerful words from coaches and teammates, urging me to further reflect on the words I used when addressing others.  The emotion that almost everyone spoke with throughout that day made me want to almost sit back and listen to how others communicated rather than speak myself.  I started to realize that I had a more difficult time figuring out what to say to people during emotional events when it came to face to face conversations, because I wasn’t able to take my time and think about a response like you can easily do when texting or emailing. During this time, I realized that my social skills could definitely use some work when it comes to serious events.

            Due to my busy schedule that day, I was able to put my phone away for about 4 hours instead of just one.  On my way home from the game, I finally turned on my phone and began to respond to all my family members sending me messages about my game.  It made me realize that although social media and cell phones do to some extent worsen our social skills, they’re also a vital aspect in our everyday lives by allowing us to regularly converse with friends and family members far away that we otherwise might not be able to speak with for months at a time.  For example, I have a cousin in the military, and when he’s deployed overseas, the only possible way I can reach him is through social media or text.  To recap on my day of reflection, technology may have some impact on our face to face social skills from time to time, but technology is an irreplaceable way of speaking with loved ones that you physically can’t see.