To remove one’s self from technology means to remove one’s self from the largest platform of communication the world has ever seen. Much of Generation Z has been using technology since they could walk.

To take away technology, such as phones, means to take away the most used tool in the world.

More than 1-billion people live without the tool of modern technology while the other billions strive off it. To compare the very different worlds, two things must be compared productivity and the skill of observing.

Junior, Mason Whitaker took up the challenge of not using technology for two days to test his productivity and observing skills without the distraction of a cell phone. The only exception to the test was if the use of a computer, phone or internet was necessary to complete his school work.

Otherwise, his phone was kept locked away in school so that he wouldn’t be tempted to use it during the day or at home.

“At home I found myself being less productive because I would be doing more things if I had an easier form of communication,” Whitaker said. “I found myself to be more productive at school without it because I wasn’t expecting to feel that buzz, to check my text messages or Snapchat and it can be an easily distracting thing.”

According to the Washington Times, Americans spend an average of 4.7 hours on their phone per day. Also, 40 percent of people suffer from Nomophobia, which is the fear of being without one’s phone.

A survey by AT&T and the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction found that 53 percent of 1,004 respondents get upset when they are without their phone.

“I did find myself to be more observant and I noticed a lot more about what other people were doing and how everyone else was on their phone and I would notice little details as I went through my day,” Whitaker said. “Overall I think it was a decent learning experience and I do think I learned stuff especially along the lines that it’s not necessary for me to it have anymore. By the second day I wasn’t looking for it anymore it was more of just a thought in the back of my head.”

With access to infinite information constantly being available at our fingertips, most people find it hard to set aside the devices they rely on. For Whitaker, the experience taught him how to be more observant and productive in school.

“I would do it again,” Whitaker said. “I felt like during those two days I was a lot more relaxed, a lot more chill….I wasn’t always checking my phone… I would do it again.”