22 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 28, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Little Neck author goes smartphone-free for a year in $100K quest
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
For one year, Little Neck native and
fantasy author Elana Mugden is living a
smartphone-free life.
Her endeavor is not a self-imposed
technological purge, but rather part of
a competition created by vitaminwater
challenging their consumers to live a
“scroll-free” life.
Back in December 2018, her friends
sent her news stories about the vitaminwater
competition and urged her
to enter. Th e contest involved creating
a Tweet or Instagram video explaining
how a person would use their year if
they took a break from their cellphone.
“Everyone who is close to me knows
that I have a love/hate relationship with
my phone,” she said adding that though
she relies on her phone for many things,
she hated the feeling of being “tethered,
attached and addicted” to it.
Aft er reading the contest rules, she
settled on creating a humorous infomercial
style video with family friends
over the holidays. In January, vitaminwater
reached out to Mugden informing
her that her video had been chosen
out over 100,000 entries and she would
be competing in the “no smartphone”
challenge.
She recalled that she was out to lunch
with a friend when she got the email.
“I lost it,” said Mugden. “I got out of
the car and did a lap around it just to
make sure I read the email right. It was
a life-changing moment.”
As of Friday, Feb. 15, at 7 a.m.,
Mugden locked away her iPhone 5s
and is also not allowed to use anyone
else’s smartphone or tablet. Instead,
vitaminwater provided her with a snazzy
Kyocera fl ip phone and will allow her
access to laptop and desktop computers.
She is scheduled for monthly checkins
with vitaminwater and at the end of
a year she will take a lie detector test.
She will be releasing weekly vlogs of her
journey on her YouTube channel.
Th e Little Neck resident shared that
adjusting to life without her smartphone
has come with its own obstacles,
including learning to text and navigate
without online maps.
Despite the challenges, Mugden said
that she has already experienced positive
life changes and hopes that she
will be able to implement the “permanent
lifestyle changes” once the contest
is over.
She noted that she is able to get to bed
earlier, is not obsessed over text messages
and has become more present and
aware of the world around her.
“I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with real
life,” she said. “It’s been liberating and
I realize that I’ve defi nitely been dependent
on smartphones.”
She plans to spend her newfound
free time fi nishing her fi ve-book young
adult fantasy novel series. She released
the fi rst installment entitled “Dragon
Speaker” last year and launched
a self-organized book tour this past
January.
Apart from that, Mugden wants to
“get out in the real world” and “live
awesomely” which includes enjoying
the things she loves with the people she
loves.
If she wins the money, she hopes to be
able to invest a chunk of it to “jumpstart
her career in writing” and transform her
from a self-described “broke, starving
artist.” She also hopes to use her platform
to bring awareness and give back
to causes dealing with the environment
and human and animal rights.
Cops grab crossbow, cannabis & cash in Pomonok Houses raid
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
A resident at the Pomonok Houses
wound up in handcuff s last week aft er
police raided his apartment and found
weapons, marijuana and more than
$7,000 in cash.
Offi cers from the NYPD Public Service
Area (PSA) 9, which patrols the public
housing complex, participated in the Feb.
21 raid of Dennis Fairchild’s apartment
on Kissena Boulevard.
Sources familiar with the investigation
said the court-authorized search
was ordered as a result of information
received by the PSA 9 Field Intelligence
Unit, in conjunction with the NYPD
Intelligence Bureau.
Police raided Fairchild’s apartment
just before 9:25 a.m. last Th ursday
morning. Once inside, authorities said,
they found 8 ounces of marijuana along
with a crossbow and an imitation pistol.
Th e offi cers also seized untaxed cigarettes,
assorted drug packaging and paraphernalia,
and $7,500 in cash.
Fairchild, 60, was home at the time and
taken into custody on charges including
criminal possession of marijuana, criminal
possession of a weapon, two counts
of criminal use of drug paraphernalia
and possession of untaxed cigarettes.
Following the raid, Captain
Christopher Giambrone, commander
of NYPD Public Service Area 9,
took to Twitter to tout the successful
search and congratulate the Field
Intelligence Team.
Photo via Twitter/@NYPDPSA9
The haul from the Feb. 21 raid at the Pomonok Houses in Flushing.
Photo courtesy of vitaminwater
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