Experience of Living without a mobile phone
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Experience of living without a phone for a month
Not having a phone means no emailing, no texting, no tweeting, Facebook or Instagram. No Shazam, Waze, Lyft, Uber or Spotify. No alarm clock, camera, video, calculator, fitness tracker, stock market ticker, goggling or daily weather forecast. A few weeks later, after purchasing the iPhone, is was surprised that the iPhone I had was doing what it was designed to do precisely. Implying it to all human beings vulnerabilities and fears as it reveals new ones. Using a mobile phone means being haunted by one selfs image looking at the phone, excluding anything around. I developed an attitude of disliking that a cartoonish cuboid of glass and metal had life’s full control.
I concluded not to use the cellphone for one month. In the beginning, I felt frustrated, disoriented, frightened and lost, which supported the industry tale: look how lonely and disconnected you will be in the absence of technology ( Robert, 2017) Just after one week, I began to see that living without a phone is more advantageous. The following is my experience and observation.
Creativeness: Our brains and phones are entangled- the two are not distinguishable in various ways. In the same way that we are unwilling to switch off our mobile phones, we deny our brains the chance to refresh or reboot. As a result, we give minimum attention to our senses, intuition, experience, and memories- the recognition pattern has guided human beings. There is also a risk of losing the boredom capacity. Boredom seems to be boring, but it is also an innovation and creativity incubator. Not using a phone has doubled my creativity in the past two weeks. I see the world, and as most individuals duck in their addiction to cellphones, I would say that it is advantageous not to have a phone.
Productivity: technologists state that technology makes us more productive ( Tucker, 2015), but being a student, possessing a phone had the opposite effect. Having to write a paper without my phone boosted my productivity. Your concentration is on one task hand; there are no worries about any other thing. Havinstudy for a test for the one month was easy because there was no phone to distract me. I could sit down and focus on writing the paper because I gave it my full and undivided attention. The decision made me complete the paper fast and have a better paper.
Punctuality: While using my phone, I was late almost all the time, but for the one month of not using it, I was always punctual since I don’t need to text or call friends and family to tell them that I am stuck in traffic. Cell phones, in my experience, contribute to worldwide negligence around time. Without my cellphone, I got lost, asked the people around, and gave me directions to where I wanted to go.
Friendliness: In the beginning, my family and friends were not happy when I told them I would not use my cell phone for a month, but later they loved it. They told me that I am more relaxed, nicer, and I am more agreeable to be around. While using my mobile phone, if I had about 45 minutes, I would send many emails to confirm things that my family and friends knew. For one month, I would use my free time to prepare and reflect. Because during the period, almost no time was spent on social media taking the place of one on one meeting, this resulted in my real-life relationships becoming better, richer and deeper.
Having a mobile phone had affected my unique code of ethics, and it scared me. I had sworn to myself never to text while in class, but I had done it this year. I was disappointed in myself in seeing how dependent I was on technology. I started wondering if it had influenced who I am as an individual, and I remembered it has already affected me.
Learned coping with awkward situations: Finding yourself in a social event where nobody knows you, and you know nobody makes you want to pull out your phone and send a tweet, check your mail, take a photo and post it on Facebook. I found myself in the situation, and I had to cope with it, and I had to push myself to interact with the new people.
Less anxious: For the one month of not using my phone, my anxiety levels decreased because I do not necessarily have to permanently keep looking at my phone to check any updates, notifications or new messages. While using my phone, I used to feel paranoid and think that it was ringing when it was not.
Not using my phone for one month made me realize that my phone was compromising my relationships, distracting me from practical matters and cut me from the real world. It made me realize that life would be real and simple without a phone, but we may not be able to cope with society And the world. I felt okay without the phone, but it is only okay for just a short period.
References
Budd, K. (2017, November 27). Attention Spans, Focus Affected By Smartphone Use. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2017/mental-focus-smartphone-use.html
Imagine A Day Without A Smartphone. (2020, August 09). Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.technobezz.com/imagine-day-without-smartphone/
Lindstrom, M. (2020, January 07). My Experience Living Without a Phone. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://thriveglobal.com/stories/living-without-a-phone-unplug-recharge-experience/
Robert’s Auto Tech – La Crescenta, CA. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.yelp.com/biz/roberts-auto-tech-la-crescenta-5
WikiHow. (2019, December 30). How to Survive Without a Cell Phone. Retrieved December 04, 2020, from https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-Without-a-Cell-Phone