I joined the ‘Internet-free Day’ organized by my school two months ago. It sounds boring, isn’t it? But why did I still decide to participate in it? Let me tell you why. The main reason is I was an Internet addict in the past. Every day, I spent at least two hours on Facebook, MSN, Instagram and the list went on. The internet had become an integral part of my life. I didn’t think it was a problem until the day I had my eye-check. The optician told me that my short-sightedness had increased 200 degrees! I realized that I had spent too much time on surfing the Internet. I decided to give myself a challenge. I would not use the Internet for one whole day. That was why I decided to join this activity.
At first, I thought it was a cruel activity. Time passed extremely slowly without the Internet. I had thought of giving up and logging on to the Facebook immediately. But then I thought I should keep my promise and be a responsible student but not one without perseverance and persistence. Having made up my mind, I put away my mobile phone and turned off the computer placed in front of me.
Then, I started to find something meaningful to do because I did not want to waste the whole day long sleeping. I took out a book from my dusty book shelf and started reading it. In amazement, I found the book very interesting and there were many new vocabulary items that I had not seen before. I took out my dictionary and looked for the meanings of those words. When I found that reading helped me enrich my vocabulary, I felt delighted. This was the happiness that I couldn’t find when I used the Facebook.
After I had finished reading one book, I had nothing to do again. Therefore I called my friend who had also joined the ‘Internet-free Day’ and asked her to come to my home. She arrived at my home quickly. Both of us had nothing to do and we were bored to death. Later on, we went to the park where I used to go to when I was a little child. We played hide-and-seek, the metal bar, the swing and so on. After we had finished playing those 3-year-old kids’ games, we sat down on a bench and started to chat. We chatted about our family, classmates, school life and so on. Time flew. When we reached the most exciting part of the topic, it was time for us to go home. It was already 8 o’clock in the evening. The Internet-free Day had come to an end. Weirdly in the following few weeks, I surfed the Internet for only 1 hour per day at most. I find that there are more meaningful things that are more worth doing than staying at home and going to the Facebook. Sometimes, playing with friends is much more fun. We can also read books to acquire more knowledge and learn new vocabulary items. Chatting with our friends face-to-face is different from using the Internet to chat in the virtual reality. We can build up ‘real’ and more intimate relationship with them.
People who are ‘Internet addicts’ should try to stay away from the computer and experience things that are in the real life.