Student goes 90 days without cellphone

CHICAGO, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A Chicago student who spent 90 days abstaining from cellphones and social media said the first two weeks were "anxiety-ridden."

Jake Reilly, 24, a student at the advertising and design-focused Chicago Portfolio School, said he was originally only going to give up his phone, but he decided to expand it to all social media when he realized his communication would just migrate to other forms of technology, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

Reilly said the first two weeks of his project, which he began in October, were "anxiety-ridden."

"All of a sudden, you get home on a Friday night and there's no one around and it's just you and your thoughts," he said. "Very scary."

However, Reilly said he soon found staying away from cellphones and Facebook increased his face-to-face interactions and made him more active.

"I rode my bike all over the city," he said. "I made collages. I did puzzles. I did all these things that I normally never would have considered. And you know what, I loved all that."