I’m (un?)lucky enough to have already spent a recent day without my phone – left in the backseat of an Uber and turned off within minutes of my disembarkation – so I felt like a relative phone-free pro going into this assignment. Before I turned off my phone on Wednesday night, I already knew which apps would be most usable from my laptop vs. iPad, and to enable iMessage from my email instead of just my phone number. In a sign of Apple’s dominance in my life, I set my morning alarm on my iPad (feeling a little sad I was losing one night of sleep tracking from my usual iPhone app) then charged my Apple Watch (to be swapped out with my usual analog watch so that I’d have something to track my steps). Finally, I reminded my partner that I’d be without my phone all day so he needed to just trust I’d show up to our off-peak Valentine’s Day date on time.
For most of the day, I felt fine, and in ways, more free. I’d like to think I’m not “addicted” to my phone since I wasn’t reaching for it out of habit and I didn’t crave any particular use of it. I did, however, miss key elements of certainty and distraction.
On certainty –
I had a 7:15am workout class booked for Thursday morning, and while I’d been to this particular studio before, I wasn’t sure how long the walk would be. Usually, I would have checked on my phone en route, but instead I had to check on my iPad while I was still on my home WiFi. After class, I wanted to grab a smoothie at one of the cafes I knew was near the studio, but couldn’t remember any in particular, couldn’t look it up since I was phoneless, and decided to just get on the T to school instead of (gasp!) asking any humans around me.
I had a few moments like this throughout the day, doing weird things I wasn’t used to, just because I didn’t have instant access to online information. I could have guesstimated the walking distance myself, and I could have just wandered one block to find a smoothie. Instead, I feel like I gave up – like when I didn’t have my phone on me, I became this somewhat useless person who refused to use resources unless they were on a smartphone screen.
On distraction –
I lost count of the number of times I wanted my phone on me just so I could either read (Twitter or email newsletters) or listen to something (especially since I was in the middle of Memoirs of a Geisha on audiobook.) Instead, I read… anything I could. Whether by luck or something else, I carried a lot of reading with me on Thursday. I read the actual newspaper, which I get every day but usually just skim, and learned about how Puerto Rico lost millions in an email phishing scam. I read a book that’s been in my backpack since 2019. I read the estimated time of arrival signs in the T stop way more often than I usually do, and it made time feel like it was moving more slowly. I read the ads in the T stop and finally learned about the weekend Red Line construction. I read posters and digital signage across MIT and realized there really is too much going on across campus.
I realized how bad I am at being bored, at allowing myself to just stare / zone out and think. I wanted to have something in front of my face, or in my ears, the whole day. I didn’t mind that it couldn’t be my phone, and I was lucky to have other distractions with me to keep my brain occupied, observing, intaking rather than mulling. This is the worst part about my relationship with my phone – the way it distracts me when I’m not with other people (and even sometimes when I am with other people). I think my partner and I were both secretly thrilled when I showed up to dinner still phoneless, the two of us forced to purely enjoy each other’s company over tacos and ghost pepper margaritas.
Bonus thoughts
One “good” thing I missed about my phone usage was taking photos. I love capturing small moments of joy, especially food, sometimes for myself and sometimes for social media. It’s just a convenience that decent cameras are now embedded in smartphones, and I think if I had a compact digital camera in addition to my phone, I’d be happier to leave my data-connected phone at home more often and just have a camera on me.
Another positive about phones is the ease with which we can intentionally connect with other people. I had the strongest urge to text my partner when I was on my way to dinner. I still can’t pinpoint why, but I felt that urge from the moment I stepped off campus to the moment I walked into the restaurant. I wanted him to know where I was, that I was thinking of him, and a little to know he was thinking of me (based on whether he responded to my text). I’m not sure this is a good thing – maybe it’s another sign of my dependence on my phone – but it gave me some hope about our phones as contributors to strong interpersonal relationships, and not just a crutch for modern, digitally mediated interactions.
Overall, I’d give the phone-free experience 4/5 stars. Worth a try, but probably not for everyone.
