Introduction
As a part of our Fixing Social Media course, we were asked to go without our phones for a period of 24 hours and record our reflections afterwards. The goal was to have a better understanding of how we relate to our phones and determine whether that relationship could be described as an addiction or in some other terms. I don’t perceive myself as being very glued to my phone, so I was particularly curious how accurate that actually was in terms of how l would react when I would try and fail to use my non-existent phone. Doing so took some preparation and admittedly some perseverance, but I pulled it off successfully in the end (…mostly).
Planning
I wanted to do some upfront planning in hopes that this would go as smoothly as possible, so I started to think through whether there was anything in my day to day life that would obviously be disrupted. Then with those things in mind I could preemptively make alternate arrangements. After that, I hid my phone under my mattress to keep me from getting to it too easily.
I came up with three primary things to address. The first thing also happens to be the first thing I see every morning — the alarm clock app on my phone. This wasn’t too difficult since I quickly realized that I had the exact same app on my iPad. I was able to temporarily substitute one device for the other. Second was my ability to be reached by teammates in the event of an emergency after business hours. Thankfully I was able to choose the day in advance where they would all know to contact me by other means. Third was letting people in my life in general know that I would be unreachable by phone or text. I just made a Facebook post announcing what I would be doing and when. I believe these were comprehensive enough to make my day go reasonably smoothly.
The phoneless day and observations
The day itself was pretty typical for me as far as where I needed to go. I needed to go to campus during the day, run some errands in the evening, grab dinner, then head back to my apartment later at night. The lack of phone actually had little effect on me while I was working during the day. It was during normal business hours when most people who need to reach me are likely to send me an instant message that I’ll see in short order while sitting at my desk. My errands were noticeably affected however. I lacked the usual list that I would keep on my phone telling me everywhere I need to go, things I need to pick up, etc. Unfortunately I didn’t think to write any of that elsewhere beforehand. My errands went mostly well, but unsurprisingly I forgot a couple things that were on the list. It also affected my ability to streamline my dinner pickup. I’ll often make a GrubHub (or equivalent) order for pickup before I run my errands so the food will be ready for me before I arrive. That wasn’t an option in this case, so I changed where I went for dinner to make sure it was something I could still get reasonably quickly.
Aside from the logistical things mentioned above, I observed some other effects as well. Apparently when I’m walking from one place to another, I will often have my phone out reading an article, answering an email, etc. Not having that ability had a twofold effect in that on the one hand I’m paying better attention to my surroundings, but on the flip side things that I would otherwise get out of the way while walking had to wait until I was back at my laptop instead. This resulted in some feelings of being disconnected as well, along with the feeling that I needed to catch up on everything I missed as soon as I was able. Those aren’t feelings I would normally have when my phone is at the ready.
Curiously, there were a few times when I caught myself trying to reach for a ghost phone in my back pocket the same way that a long time cigarette smoker who quit might occasionally reach for a ghost pack of cigarettes. I read that, and some of the above as signs, that I may be more addicted to my phone than I initially realized.
Conclusion
I have to admit it felt liberating to be free from my phone for a day. It was interesting to learn that phone usage seems to be more woven into the fabric of my day than I may have realized, but also comforting that regardless it wasn’t too difficult to make some adjustments that remove its usage. I have to confess I was only able to make it 22 of the 24 hours needed though. A work-related issue that needed me to be on the phone came up mid evening. Thankfully it was close enough to the end that I was able to get most of the experience needed anyway.