“Time to Unplug” showed Kristin Chang’s experience when given the task of avoiding electronic devices for 24 hours. As she watched her classmates’ horrified expressions and pleads to revoke the challenge, she felt superior, and as if it wasn't such a dramatic obstacle to surpass. It turned out that like most of our culture nowadays, steering clear of the infinite LED screens around her was almost impossible. Kristin found herself reaching for her cell phone almost immediately after she released her hands from underneath her while trying to resist the urge to use it.

In the midst of the assignment, Kristin decided to have a face-to-face conversation with a friend she usually only talked to via text, and found it quite difficult. Thirty years ago, people would never have dreamed of the fact that in 2013, we would lose most of our ability to communicate with one another because now all our information is conveyed through “technology.” Our world would now rather have electronics speak for us through a monitor than to hold a normal chat with someone right next door. People would not believe that there is now such a device where two people can talk to one another even though they’re miles away, or search “the web” for a useless fact and have results within a split second. These inventions were completely foreign and were not even considered to be possible, but now to us they have simply become customary.

Kristin claimed that it was time to wake up and realize the putative nightmare we live in. While I do agree it’s healthy to separate yourself from the electronic world once in a while, I don’t believe it’s very realistic to do so all the time. It’s sad but true that the “tapping and texting and watching and drooling and staring, slack-jawed and dead-eyed” notion is what our world has now become, and technology will only continue to develop as time goes on. It’s inevitable that people will become further absorbed in new and updated gadgets and toys. From what it looks like, it’s safe to say our world will never completely unplug.