I thought it would be easy to go a mere 24 hours without using anything electronic. This included my laptop, my cell phone, television, movies, microwave, everything. The only exception was lights so I could read once it got dark out.  But it wasn’t what happened. 

I almost cracked a few minutes after waking up in the morning.  I passed by my laptop on the way to the bathroom and it called to me like a long lost lover. All I had to do was lean over and push that little ON button. Then I would have my e-mail, my news sites, twitter and more. It took a few seconds to get control of myself and continue my trip to the bathroom – where I encountered my cell phone sitting there and staring at me like I was neglecting it.  I felt like an addict.  It got worse, it got way worse.

I had to get out of my house where I was surrounded by temptation, from my attempt to turn on the coffee maker to the TV remote that sat next to my twitching fingers as I ate my cereal. I was like an alcoholic at a bar.  So I got dressed and ran out the door, leaving all my toys safely at home.

About half-way towards my first destination – the mall, I made a scary realization. My debit card required the use of electronics and I hadn't gone to the ATM in a while so I had no cash.  Along with my lack of electronics I would have to entertain myself for a day without making any purchases whatsoever. Today was going to be tough.

You have no idea how hard it was for me to pass by the Apple store in the mall without giving the iPad a try.  I'm not even an Apple fan, my brain just clicked when I saw a new gadget and my fingers wanted to touch it.

After walking around the mall for a while I still had that horrible urge to go home and turn on the laptop.  It took me a while to realize that it wasn't my need for electronics, it was my need for information. I was craving knowledge.  Like smokers who need nicotine, not cigarettes. My brain was craving data.  Excited, I thought “library”, only to realize that without the Internet I had no way of finding one. Asking people where it was would probably send me on a wild goose chase and I needed the information immediately because my hands were starting to twitch.

I considered asking the mall information desk, but of course they wouldn’t know.  What they probably would know was where the nearest book store was in the mall – which would be PERFECT.

I ran my fat butt over to the information desk and through gasps of breath asked them where a bookstore might be. They pointed to a little dot far away and I ran again. Once I arrived I had a bit of a nerdgasm. The amount of information there was insane: Magazines, non-fiction books, comics, everything could be found at a book store! It was like a hardware version of the Internet. I wondered how much I could read before they kicked me out for not buying anything. It was sad when I started reading through a gadget magazine, wishing I could have each two. It reminded me of simpler times of a hormonal teenager flipper through a different kind of magazine.

I didn't have to hide at first, but after a while the employees started getting annoyed with me and I hid behind a large pile of books like a child. That’s when I noticed that a book is similar to an mp3 player. You use it to cut out the real world and enter a dreamland. Most of the people near me were doing both. Was this part of the addiction? Was I in need of a way to cut the general public out of my life once and a while?

Once the information binge was over my true enemy reared its ugly head. BOREDOM.

What do you do with a whole day off and no electronics? I had a few chores, sure, but they would only take an hour or so to complete. So I came up with a unique plan, something to do for the next couple hours.

At around three I had finally accomplished my mission. I had a copy of every single major newspaper published in Toronto. I had gotten each one free. It was a game I played that wasted about an hour and in the end would be useful; I now had something to read.

I like news, information is sacred to me but I hadn't read a newspaper in a long time. When I read them something was missing though, they didn't “feel” right. It took a bit to realize that it was because there was no commentary. Sure, you can read the letters to the editor but those are usually based on yesterday’s news. I wanted commentary on today's news. I wanted different opinions, new facts, etc.

On my way home from the mall I noticed that I was actually listening to people more. I listened to a homeless person who told me some story about a sick kid in a hospital and even let a scam artist give me his whole pitch. At one point I let sales people talk to me for upwards of twenty minutes. The communication I was missing from online was simply being transferred to the real world.

It was scary how quiet my apartment was without any music. As soon as I got home I started cleaning out of pure boredom. I did the dishes by hand and wiped down everything I could see. It became me against the dirt, a one on one battle!  The dirt was clever though. It hid in corners and behind piles. I was far cleverer and in the end, I won the war of the apartment!

Dinner was interesting that night. With no money to buy food and unable to use the microwave I had to be creative again.  It seemed that without gadgets to shut down my brain I become far more interesting.

A lot of people say technology is invented to make people’s lives easier. Much of it is, but I discovered in those 24 hours that most was bullshit.  The highest tech stuff is used for one purpose – to quell our boredom. The lack of electronics forced me to communicate with more people and become more creative. I was forced to leave the apartment and get out into the world, which was not something I did often.  Afterwards I realized something else, too: maybe these electronics are holding us back instead of propelling us forward.