Since the new year, I have been slowly weaning down my smartphone usage and dependence (I had a Galaxy S7 and have been a smartphone user since 2011). I began by uninstalling apps I didn't use daily or apps that were redundant between my phone and tablet. I turned off all notifications besides calls and texts, and I cleared off my homepage so it only showed the weather and the Google search bar. I began leaving my phone in another room or at home when I went out on a walk, and if it wasn't at home, I tried to leave it in my pocket on "Do Not Disturb" mode. I started charging my phone overnight in the living room instead of at my bedside. And after the initial few moments of, "OH MY GOD, WHERE'S MY PHONE?" I felt good. I felt really good.
I have been a student of mindfulness (specifically mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR) for over two years now, studying both independently and under a professor at the university from which I graduated, and I was starting to feel like my smartphone and its portability and constant connection to the world was fragmenting my ability to focus and be present. Even if I wasn't mindlessly scrolling through various apps, I was compulsively picking it up and checking it for no real reason at all, and I hated that.
Two weeks ago, I was down to just texting, calling, and music streaming. That was it. If I wanted to do anything else, I waited until my break time at work, and I used my tablet to read the news or look at Snapchat or reddit. This worked really well for me - I still got to enjoy my favorite media, but it was a conscious choice instead of a way to fill five minutes that didn't really need to be filled. I'm more social at work and have had some great conversations recently, and I feel less frazzled by the end of my day.
Now, I'm not by any means living in the dark ages or railing against the evils of technology because I love the internet just as much as any other 29-year-old. I am keeping my Android tablet and my laptop and my WiiU and my 3DS and my Blu Ray player and every other internet-connected device. But I ditched my Galaxy, bought a Nokia 3310 3G (which, for the record, is adorable), told Sprint to suck it, and jumped ship to Ting Mobile. Why pay for services I'm not using, right? I'm going to be saving $70 every month = $840 every year, which can be put toward my family's goal of being debt-free in five years. We have been living pretty frugally for a long time, so finally being able to cut something from our budget was huge for us.
Yesterday was the first day I took my Nokia to work, and my co-workers were completely enthralled. I have never gotten more attention than I did yesterday and all because of a little blue phone with a numeric keypad. Co-workers my age were asking me if T9 texing is still super easy and reminiscing about the days when they could text without needing to look at the screen, and my younger co-workers were asking things like, "How do you check your email?!" A few co-workers were even wondering about how they could simplify their smartphones or reduce their phone bill, and I hope I was able to give them meaningful advice and help them pause and think about their connection to technology and how it impacts their lives.
I guess, overall, what I'd like people to take from my rambling post and from my decision to give up my Galaxy is similar to what what my husband said when I unboxed my Nokia - you should use your phone and your technology the way you want to; don't let yourself be used by your technology instead.
Your time is yours. What are you going to do with it?
Submitted March 08, 2018 at 01:00PM by christinebearcat http://ift.tt/2FsK7Mf
