Students in special education teacher Leona Swieton’s class came up with the idea to give up their phones for 24 hours, something most high school students believe they would struggle with tremendously. The challenge came after a class discussion on the topic of time management. The students were asked to log where they spend their time. When the students realized that most of their time was spent on some sort of electronic device, they started to discuss what they would do if they didn’t have electronics for 24 hours. They decided to challenge themselves to go without their cell phones for a whole day.

“I need my phone, I felt disconnected,” one student in Swieton’s class said.

Not always looking at your cell phone 24/7 allows more time to do things one maybe didn’t have time to do before. Swieton’s students capitalized on this time they felt they lost before.

“I found I had extra time to play on my computer, not getting annoyed from text messages,” one student student said.

Another of Swieton’s students said, “I found that I had extra time to talk with my mom. You have more time to talk and spend time with your family. You get closer with them and remember the memories instead of having your phone in your face.”

Although the cell phone challenge was difficult for some of the students, they successfully completed it. The challenge proved to be a great experience to see if the students could survive a day without cell phone use.

“I loved the idea because it was student directed, I simply provided the support. Through this challenge the students were able to identify what they value in life and most importantly learned that they could survive 24 hours without an electronic device. I’m really proud of them for taking on the challenge and learning a valuable lesson. It would be great if we could get more people to see the benefit of taking the time to have personal conversations rather than communicating via text messages and emails, even if it is only for 24 hours,” Swieton said.