I chose Monday, February 17, to be the day I went without my phone for 24 hours. Sunday night before I went to bed, I set my phone in the other room and didn’t pick it up again until Tuesday morning. It was quite the enlightening experience. The funny part is that during the 24 hours, the biggest things I missed weren’t the things I do most on my phone but were the basic utility things like taking a picture, checking my calendar, or texting and calling my wife. I was able to make accommodations for most of these things since I had my laptop with me practically all day (had to Google how to simply take a picture with my computer’s webcam).
It was a pretty typical day, and I feel like I was able to focus much better and I got a lot of homework done, which was exactly what I needed. Knowing that I still had access to do almost anything I could do with my phone if I needed made my use of the internet much more deliberate. Being freed from the constant ping of notifications was also very refreshing.
Overall, the 24 hours was not difficult. However, the next morning, I had my phone again, and felt compelled to “catch up” on the things that I had “missed out on” the previous day. Probably due to the lack of quick convenience of checking anything on social media on my phone, I felt like I needed to check my Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other feeds first thing. After pretty much wasting the entire first half of my morning, I was pretty appalled by the comparison between how I felt the day before and that morning.
“Addiction” can seem like a strong word, but I don’t think it’s necessarily inaccurate for me sometimes. The ease and convenience that having a smartphone provides makes it very easy to overuse. I really appreciate having the ability to communicate with people quickly and to take pictures and record notes, but I could perhaps do without the added extreme ease of access that such a device provides.
I’ve been interested in and have used the various tools that Google has rolled out on various Android devices, including my Google Pixel phone, all under the “Digital Wellbeing” banner. This exercise has helped me to see how using those tools have definitely helped me to tame my smartphone usage, but perhaps there are even more ways that I can tweak the tools to help me manage my behavior.
Something of note is that I will probably include my internet browser as one of my “Focus” apps that are restricted throughout the day since I can do quick Google searches throughout the day through a little widget. If there’s anything that I want to look into more extensively, I can make a note of it later and come back to it later in the day, or I can pull out my computer and check it out there.
One other thing I can do is find some sort of app or something that will package my notifications and only release them at specific intervals, instead of right when they come in. While I am aware that there are some disadvantages with that, I feel like it would help train me to be more focused.
I loved the benefits this exercise brought to light, including limiting distractions and making my usage of the internet and other technological tools much more deliberate. I only looked up things that were the most important thoughts throughout the day, letting the unimportant fleeting thoughts die out.
Overall, I had a much more fulfilling day due to the sense of purpose I held and not deviating from it. I’m not ready to throw away my phone, but I certainly will be implementing more measures to free myself from some of its enticing and addictive behaviors it can instill in me. I would highly recommend anyone trying out this exercise to get a better sense of their behavior and what they can do to improve themselves and their connection to others. It certainly helped me a lot.