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Exercise 1: Audio transcript

Speaker 1: Text messaging, email, Instagram, Snapchat! Ugh, I just hate how many different
ways there are to communicate with people.

My mum always wants to text. Even when I am at school, she will message me. Sometimes, I get
in trouble because I feel pressured to reply to her straightaway. After all, she is my mum, so I
feel like I have to be respectful and reply immediately. After my phone got taken away last
month, she has been better about not texting me during school hours, but it still stresses me
out.

For a long time, my friends texted too, but now it’s all Snapchat, all the time. My phone is
constantly vibrating in my pocket from all of the alerts. And, it’s not just Snapchat, but every
other app too! Every night, my phone distracts me from going to bed on time. If I am not
watching videos or scrolling mindlessly through the latest TikToks, I am messaging back and
forth with friends. Even when I put my phone on my nightstand, I can hear it buzzing from all of
the alerts! It’s super distracting, but I think I am addicted to knowing what’s happening.

Sometimes, I don’t reply to messages, and my friends get mad. I just can’t keep up with it all. I
mean, I want to chat, but sometimes I can’t deal with all of the different apps and alerts and I
just leave the messages unread. So, either I am totally absorbed with messaging, or I ignore
it. There doesn’t seem to be an in between for me.

My teachers don’t use any of these apps, but they do send emails. Some of them also use
different online platforms for messaging, so it’s like I can never escape my technology. I have to
be super aware of every single app and every single way to communicate, or I might miss a
homework assignment, or miss an interesting story, or miss my mum asking me what time my
football game is going to be this weekend.

It’s exhausting to manage all of these different apps and programs. I wish I could just simplify,
but like I said, I am scared I will miss out.

My friend and I decided to try to do a “technology detox,” and not use our phone apps for a
whole week. We would use just the essentials − emailing, texting, and the phone call feature. My
friend didn’t last longer than 48 hours! I wasn’t much better, but I did make it to three days.
However, I did learn that I could turn off the alerts on my screen, so that they aren’t always
popping up when I am trying to do something else.

I don’t know if I am addicted to my phone or not. All I know is that all this technology is
stressing me out!

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