Experiencing Being Unplugged (revised)

Charles was in the kitchen one morning when got to Tara Gail’s parent’s house, he was sucking on a Capri-sun and munching on some Doritos. When I walked in through the kitchen door both he and I knew what time it was. Duty called and I had to prove to Charles he was out of his element. This was how my infatuation with Call of Duty began, I started with watching Charles play and then trying to “one up” a thirteen year old. It was my attempt to prove I had the upper hand.

Summer classes had gone well in the past and I had just finished my may-mester course. I “unplugged” Friday. Our assignment was to spend a full twenty-four hours without digital technology to see how well we could do without it.  As soon as I woke up the morning of the assignment, I felt a huge lift off my shoulders when I knew I would not be able to answer my phone. It was shortly after that, I found myself pacing back and forth from the upstairs and downstairs,  I usually get coffee and then start catching up on the news in the mornings. I would usually watch CNN in the mornings and then watch C-SPAN after.  I had drank my coffee and stared at the empty black television screen for a while but it was eventually time to start heading into town so I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and left.  I noticed that as soon as I did leave my house and stepped in the car it was all too silent. I could not listen to my iPod or radio in the car and instead I began to talk to Tara Gail about what it was she was going to do all day.  I noticed that my girlfriend, Tara Gail, and I talked about a lot less but about a lot more meaningful aspects of our lives. We talked about our plans and possible businesses we could set up in Point Clear, Alabama; one of which is a show barn for hunters and jumpers. We walked through what the process would be and how much time it would be before we had customers that would stable with Tara Gail.  Before being unplugged we talked a lot more but about a lot less important things and I suppose it was because the radio kept pitching ideas for discussion every once and a while shifting the focus of our conversations.  The drive into town from Beech Island felt longer than usual. It was extremely quiet sometimes in the car and I felt peaceful, almost peaceful enough to take a nap while Teeg drove.  I noticed more details on the route toward Tara’s barn, there were houses I had never noticed before with people on porches. I had also never noticed some distinctive landmarks, dead trees, signs, and churches. After we arrived, in town where I usually have better phone reception than at home but realized I could not check the weather updates on my iphone. I wanted to check the time and the weather on my iphone many times and it made me somewhat uneasy not knowing if it was going to rain and not knowing what time it was (since I do not wear a watch. ) I also thought about checking my Facebook on my phone since I do not have a computer at home.

Around the later part of the morning when TG was doing her barn duties, I got an itch to play Call of Duty online. I knew it would be breaking the “unplugged” rules; I even tried to justify my wanting to go play by telling Teeg “either way I’ll just have to write it down in my journal and admit I am addicted to this particular video game.” Therefore, I went to the playroom to play Call of Duty. I played for two hours. I thought all the while how every time I went  to Tara Gail’s parents house, ever since last Christmas when Call of Duty appeared for Charles (TG’s younger brother) , I felt I had to play Call of Duty. Charles would love to trash talk about how much better he was than I was and it gave me the unquenchable appetite to kill fictional Charles to prove to him he was not. I always tried to get the least amount of deaths with the most amounts of kills. The videogame became a habit and something to pass the time while my girlfriend did her daily barn duties. However, the online interaction was more than just an obsession. I liked the game because I had to think of strategically killing off the opposing team’s players with the right combination of artillery, explosives, and attachments to any World War II gun. I also had to take into consideration how well I knew the maps and the combinations of the opposing team’s artillery that could have exceed my weapon’s capabilities to exterminate the enemy.  It was easy being “sucked” into the game with so many variables. I had my pick of any World War II machine guns, rifles, sub machine guns, sniper rifles, grenades, and handguns. All these factors have to be taken into account in order to see the possible outcome (win or loss) of the game. That is only taking your profile’s capabilities and combinations of weapons. However, something else happened while playing that afternoon, there were cheaters who took advantage of glitches and cheats that made the game unfair instead of fun in the end. This does not happen often but when it does it makes people leave the game and try to join a network with teams that do not have cheats. I thought,  if eventually the ratio of cheaters to non-cheaters was exceeded the game’s standards would have to be brought up to the incorporation of those cheats by all the players to have a fair advantage. That is to say in order to make the game fun again everyone would have to cheat to have a fair advantage. In addition, I did not know (or care) how to cheat at the game because it took the fun out of it. I would have probably played a lot longer than the two hours if the cheaters had not interrupted my fictional killing sprees.

Later on at night, the television was the hardest thing to ignore because it stared at me in the face while sitting in bed in my room. I tried to distract myself by reading a magazine but my attention was elsewhere. I wanted to check out the National Geographic Channel and maybe catch Ancient Aliens or possibly the Military Channel to see R. Lee Ermey and the modern weapons of today. I also kept thinking that America: The Story of Us was probably on the History Channel and I was missing out.  I also thought South Park was probably going to be on later and I was going to miss out, unless I had seen the episode. I paced around the room a lot and eventually took a nap before hitting the town for the night. When I woke up from my restful nap, Tara Gail reminded me that we would have to have dinner with some friends. My friend Collin, from Florida, was in town and I had not told him that I was doing the “unplugged” project. It was only until after I had not invited him to dinner and ran into him out at One Hundred Laurens that I had to explain why I did not answer his text messages or have my phone turned on. He remarked on how he would not be able to do the “unplugged” project because he loved his phone too much.  My mother had also freaked out since I had not talked to her or seen her in a week; she decided to call and check on me the day I chose to be unplugged. 

I did not feel completely isolated from the world like in the reports of other participants and I did not experience withdrawal like symptoms from not being able to use technology, except when trying not to play Call of Duty. I think partially it has to do with the fact that I know where to find my friends and do not depend on my cell phone as much as others do. I did however cave in to the pressure of playing Call of Duty, something I could not have predicted happening because it has become a routine. I knew I liked the game but I had no idea it would turn into an obsession.