I recently started paying attention at the 'Screen Time' feature on the iPhone and what
I saw kind of bothered me. You see, I was using my phone A LOT more than what I thought
I actually was. In fact, even the days that I was intentional about using it less I was
still surprised at the end of the day of my usage.
Now I'm not saying that is wrong to use your phone as you see fit, but for me I thought
that I had control until I actually tried to exercise that control and realized that I didn't.
It was a harsh wakeup and I realized that I needed to do something. So it all started by
looking into how I was using my phone and I'm embarassed to say that I spend hours on it daily...
looking at memes. Now, I like memes as much as the next guy, but when I'm counsciously aware
that I'd rather be building "that" project for two hours instead of looking at memes but I still
used all that time NOT working on the project I want... well, I'm not ok with ME doing THAT.
So I decided to be radical, more radical than just deleting the offending app from my phone,
more radical that adding parent control or something else, I decided to completely let go of my smartphone.
I bought an ugly flip-phone, switched my SIM card and then sat back to see how it felt... and IT WAS AWESOME!
Just the fact that I wasn't receiving emails notifications made it totally worth it! I started
compartmentalizing my time into what I needed to do and what was ACTUALLY important/urgent/a
priority vs. whatever new notification I received.
Maybe it's just me but in me "personal" email I haven't received a "personal" email
in months! Everything is a "policy update" or some "statement" or some new product
or something else that I don't really care about, and all of this is after ruthlessly
unsubscribing from almost everything that has an unsubscribe link.
Now, not all is roses, there are certainly a few thorns. I don't know how to get places
without a GPS any more so I've been paying more attention at my surroundings, learning
street names and I'll probably get a GPS unit for the car. Another thing was that all
of my interactions with my bank (deposit checks, transfer money, etc.) was done with the
bank's app. Communicating with international friends was also a challenge without
WhatsApp/FB Messenger. But most of those challenges, with some creativity is quite possible
to overcome them without letting go of a lot of convenience.
All in all, I'm so very happy that I'm not using my smartphone any more. Notebooks and
planners and calendars are now a thing is my life making handwriting an area or personal
growth for me.
Anyways, if you have wondered about this, give it a try! one or two days will be more than
enough to give you a pretty good idea if this would be a fit for you!
(also, if you are reading this in gopher... well... a few thing could be assumed about you...)
Feel free to send me a "note" in sdf or shoot me a message at benj AT sdf DOT org.
