Since it was Halloween weekend and everyone was busy texting friends and making plans, this task was extremely difficult! For starters, it was difficult when you see your phone light up signifying that someone is trying to communicate with you. And with having a smart phone, you can read most of the text message sent to you without opening it as it shows up on the lock screen. Due to being able to see a preface of what the text says, they always were messages I felt obligated to answer, especially texts from family members. I tried to tell myself that I would need to put my phone away, but it was too hard to commit to the idea of giving others no way of communicating with me in the case of emergency. It was hard because I had friends and family in contact with me before 5 pm on Friday where the conversation carried on past that. I knew I should have warned them, but I sincerely did not think to do that until after 5.
Another aspect of this assignment that I caved in to early (Saturday morning), was checking email. I work for Rec Sports here on campus and have shifts on Sundays; and since weekends are not the ideal shifts for most employees, I always want to make sure I am not missing the potential opportunity to help someone out and pick up their shift. This actually was relevant because I got an email from another employee who worked after me who was unable to make her scheduled work time. If I had not checked my email, no person would have taken her shift and we'd be short a person in the office.
I would definitely want to try this experiment again because I think it can be done. What threw me off the most was the fact that it was Halloween weekend and phones were constantly buzzing with notifications on where people were and/or from family members telling you to "stay safe this weekend," that you just couldn't ignore, without them being worried for you. I'm sad to say I caved in so early and couldn't make it past the first night, but activities got to be so busy and it was important to aware others of whereabouts.
It was very interesting that you mentioned being able to read messages before you could open your phone and being obligated to respond/read. I had a similar experience and eventually I caved in entirely especially since it was Halloween weekend.
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