The dumb phone!
I am an owner of a dumb phone and I love this video, linked below! I long for the day that the dumb phone replaces the smart phone and we become smarter people, not dumbed down by slavery to smart phones and the internet. Maybe then we might create a smarter and more conscious society, who notice what happens around them, rather than having their head in their phone.
I know, I know, I’m being horribly judgmental, but you know, increasing numbers of people are suffering with a loss of mental wellness and I can’t help thinking that there may be a link with the use of smart phones and online living, so that people have less head-space to just be, filling any momentary moment of nothingness with a flick through the phone.
I let go of my smart phone on 1 June 2022 and I haven’t looked back since. It took others a while to get used to it, a few months in and I was still receiving “join WhatsApp” text messages as a response to my text message to a few of my friends. And others found it annoying that they couldn’t include me in WhatsApp groups, even my dad, who for months had been irritated by my using my smart phone too much, was challenged initially by the loss of my daily WhatsApp family photo share.
Actually if I’m honest that’s the one thing I do miss, is the ease with which I could share photos. But then it also stopped me taking a zillion photos that I never actually looked at, and I have become much more present to our outings, no longer reaching for the phone for the photo, and use an actual camera from time to time instead. There are less videos though, albeit the boys make their own these days on their iPads, so these things swing in roundabouts.
I’ve actually gotten to the point where I often have no idea where my phone is, because I have such little need of it. I text from time to time and use the phone only if I need to, but mainly I communicate from my laptop, at home, through email, or in person. And this really is the biggest benefit, being present to people when i meet them, not being distracted by my phone.
It took me a while to adjust to losing this distraction, because I had been a victim of it for years. In waiting rooms and departure lounges, standing in queues, moments of boredom at home and I would be found with my head in my phone. Now no more. Now I enjoy the peace of not being attached to what’s going on in the outside world, of not being at people’s beck and call, of not always needing to be online. Now I find it interesting watching others, especially in departure lounges, the majority will be in their phones. It’s amazing how many are on it when sitting with others in restaurants and cafes too.
But hey, each to their own. All I know is that I don’t want to be a slave to anyone or anything if I can help it, and I’m hopeful that more people take a stance, so that we can go back to a world where customer service is face to face and you don’t have to have a phone to access certain Apps to be able to do certain things and that we can continue to pay for things easily in cash.
I appreciate that for many there are benefits, but for many others, they don’t realise how much of their time and energy is consumed by it and how much it adds to there stress and anxiety levels, let alone feeds insecurity, overwhelm and addiction. It’s worth a conversation anyway, in case some of you are thinking about freeing yourselves a little bit this year, from anything which enslaves you, if it does of course.
Here’s the link to the video.
Love Emma x
