Flip-Phone Report?—?Day Two

Today is the second full day without my smartphone. I felt lighter yesterday. I’ve been carrying around a tiny notebook in one pocket and my flip phone in another. I make copious lists and I felt like I would panic if I removed my ability to do this. One list I made was the things I couldn’t do without my smart phone.

  • Check the weather
    This proved to be unimportant because the world kept giving me weather updates all day. And today’s forecast was wrong anyway.
  • I have to buy train tickets through the kiosk instead of through the iphone app. This is a major issue for me. I might have to start walking to work.
  • I can’t use google maps to get me places.
    When I was a teenager, I prided myself on being able to navigate most of the Silicon Valley through memory and intuition. My dad was a Realtor and we had these fantastic map books when I was a kid. I loved to study and memorize them. When I learned to drive, this came in very handy and I could pretty much find my way to any destination by the street name and address number alone. Today I went to see a friend’s art at a cafe I’d only been to once. I had a small panic attack when I realized I had no way of looking up the address. But I just used my memory and intuition and found my way no problem. I just had to zig zag a little.

Other things I noticed… At dinner, I went to the bathroom with my daughter. When we came back, my husband guiltily put away his phone. This is quite different behavior than the other day… I was in the middle of a story and he pulled out his phone and started scrolling through Facebook as I was talking. I’d like this to never happen again. Don’t do this to the ones you love!

I went to my local bar last night. The two guys I was sitting with kept pulling out their smart phones. One would do it and it would prompt the other one to follow suit. I felt the same bodily urge, similar to when someone yawns and you can’t help but yawn too. But I realized my phone had nothing to offer me other than the date and time, which I already knew, so I kept it in my pocket.

I felt the urge to document my daughter being cute, but had to means of doing this so I just enjoyed her being cute instead. Smart phones make it so easy to document your memories as they happen. Watching the world through a phone feels numb. Watching your kid spin around and dance, without pulling out your phone, feels joyous. It’s a moment just for me and her.

When I got home yesterday and checked social media, I really hadn’t missed much. A check in once or twice a day might be more than sufficient to keep me feeling “dialed in.”

I realize how many emotion-based things I rely on my phone for. I feel fat right now and I wanted to get my phone to help me with this. What an absurd idea that is. I want to feel more connected to my friends, but I’m left yearning on facebook. I saw friends last night and two minutes with them was worth more than a hundred facebook posts. I fear that without photos or videos, I won’t have memories. Nope, not true… also, how many photos does a person need to take in a year? I take thousands. Maybe it’s too much, yes?


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