It’s more like: No Personal Assistant Day!
No alarm, no reminders, no directions, no weather or time info. In fact, no real time info of any sort. I’m relying on my laptop, and my good old friends; paper and pen!
I spent 24 hours without my phone. In this blog post I will take you through my reflection on the experience. It wasn’t smooth sailing, and I actually failed at first but managed to choose a better day to go through this experiment. I have a healthy relationship with my phone, it gives me direction and structure and I feed it with so much data. In fact, I’m more social and organized because of my phone. With that said, even without my phone, life moves on… but not as convenient and reliable as it is with my phone, my very personal assistant.
Failed First Attempt
I went to NYC for my birthday weekend. I was planning not to use my phone during that time. I actually announced that to my partner and informed him that I will be phone free for the day. I hid my phone (from myself!) and the moment I decided to step out, I had this train of thought steaming through my brain: “what if I lose direction and get lost?”, “now that NYC metro accepts apple pay, it’s the only thing I use. How am I going to conveniently pay for the metro?“, “What if I want to take photos and attach time and location metadata to them? my camera wont do that” etc.
At that moment, I knew that my phone was giving some sense of security. I wont feel safe and comfortable if I don’t have my phone in the City. I’m not from here, it’s not my comfort zone. I need my savior, I need my phone!
After Trying Again, I Succeed
I decided to try again when I arrived back to Cambridge. While my phone gave me sense of safety in NYC, I feel my familiarity with the area here in Cambridge and my daily routine, made me less dependent on my phone. Given that all my apps and calendars are synched I was able to check my laptop for my schedule and activities for the day. I noticed that I spent more time on my desk at home and at the office. I would say that my productivity is higher! I suspect it’s not the phone’s fault, it’s the intrusive nature of notifications.
I only check my FB messenger when I go to FB and intentionally open the messages tab on the browser, as opposed to my phone, which has a dedicated app for messenger! Did I mention that my work group communicates through messenger? I also only check my email when I deliberately open the email window on my laptop. I disabled notifications on my laptop since I do present a lot and don’t want weird messages appearing on the screen, which was helpful since no intrusion happens while I’m on my laptop!
On the metro, I saw people’s faces and made eye contact. Sometimes I do that even when I have my phone. But this time when I wanted to avoid awkward silence and stares, I had nothing to resort to. I pulled out a receipt I had ages ago in my pocket and pretended to be reading that piece of paper…
I slept better at night. That was great cause I had nothing to do but sleep! I had no phone, I didn’t feel like reading, and my partner wont let me scroll through his feed with him (cause he’s aware I’m during a no phone period)… so i just slept! wow that felt great!
Workarounds
For my alarm at night, I just commanded google home: “ok google! set alarm to 7:30 am!”. For the weather I just asked “ok google! what’s the weather today?”. For my music and home temperature I also did the same. All these activities were not interrupted by notifications or feed, I was able to get the task done.
For my media diary log, I chose to use a platform that could be accessible from my phone and my laptop. I chose to use google sheets and screenshots to collect and annotate my artifacts. It works well and I don’t need my phone for that.
My family, which live far away from here, texted me on a messaging platform that I don’t have access to on my laptop. My mom being a tech savvy… and a mom <3 would simply copy paste her message on different chatting apps knowing that one of them would be accessible at some point of my day.
For photos, I used my canon. Yes the photos are much more beautiful. But it’s not archived in my directory and it doesn’t have enough metadata to remind me of the occasion. Also, I know I will not look at these photos again, cause I don’t share them and I don’t browse through them.
Relationship Status?
It is definitely not addiction to my phone…It’s more like we’re in a codependent relationship! Life as a PhD student and as an adult living with others that I care about requires a lot of information and scheduling to do. My phone with all its services thrive on data, and I have data! We are perfect for each other. My phone gives me structure and direction, and I give my phone data. I like to check-in to places and take pictures of those places for my own reference. I tend to forget and I like that my phone captures metadata along with visual media which serves as a record to my daily activities. I use social media cause I live far away from home and I want to stay in touch.
Lessons Learned
Without my phone I’m more intentional. work does not intrude into my life when it’s not welcomed. When I want to work I go to my laptop. One action plan out of this experience is to disable notifications from messaging apps and emails and only see them when I can do something about them..or even better when im on my laptop. My phone is there to serve me and improve my life not make others use me more and get the most out of me! *so dramatic, I know!*
While I love that phones are portable and go with us anywhere we go. While I love how they manifest as an extension to our cognitive and emotional skills. I hate that these phones are also blurring all physical and time boundaries. When it’s time to work, I like to be at work or on my desk. My phone made work creep into my bed and social events, which wasn’t healthy. One thing I’m tempted to explore, is the idea of modes; in which I set a social or work mode to my phone, then apps and notifications will be adjusted accordingly.