WHAT IF We Shove Our Phone?

 

WHAT IF we shove our phone away [EXCEPT of course if you are at work and that phone is required]?  Way back 1654, philospher Blaise Pascal was quoted:  ALL OF HUMANITY's PROBLEMS STEM FROM MAN'S INABILITY TO SIT QUIETLY IN A ROOM ALONE.  In iPhone's SCREEN TIME, it showed that my typical daily phone activity includes ninety minutes of texting, one hour of reading, another hour of emails, another hour of social media and about seventy 'PICKUPs', meaning that I checked my iPhone about four times per hour.  BUT that's least a surprise because I carry my iPhone around with me AS IF it were my oxygen tank, whoaaaaH!  Even during my idle times, I realized I do stare at my phone📗📙📘

And WHEN that Covid-19 Pandemic did hit us, I realized that many of us really cherished working from home because it gave us that sense of control, that sort of relative peace, as long as our phone was next to us.  A recent Georgetown research said that those 'WILLPOWER' and tips [and even add our very vague resolutions] are NOT just suffcient by themselves to tame the ability of these new technologies to invade our cognitive landscape.  Instead, we are advised to establish that 'philosophy of technology use'💥💥💥

Experts are seemingly giving us quite extreme countermeasures like a month-long detox, like a 'decluttering period' in WHICH a person takes a complete break from all optional technologies.   And WHEN it's over, the digital minimalist slowly reintroduces the technologies on his/her own terms, like you might still need an hour with Instagram each week.  And for our interactions and collaborations with friends and colleagues, let's consider those 'conversation time' at the local coffee shop💚💛💜

So, these recent studies are indeed pushing us to consider becoming digital minimalists, one WHO drops those 'low quality' activities like mindless phone swiping and halfhearted binge watching in favor of HIGH-VALUE leisure activities like board games and learning to fix OR build something every week.  Our end goal here is to establish that permanent change of outlook and behavior [LIKE converting to veganism]. I met someone WHO was so dependent on his Apple watch for donkey years and I was kind of shocked recently WHEN he confided that he recently bought a 'BASIC' watch!!!

Our takeaway:  In case some are NOT aware, those social media companies monetize everyday selfhood like our own preferences and even our personal data are tracked [and SOLD!] to advertisers.  Our relationships are framed as potentially future conduits of their commercial opportunities and here we are, continually capturing one another's lucrative attention by performing some version of WHO we think we are and over time, we seem to have absorbed these seemingly unpalatable TERMS & CONDITIONS.  BUT to quote American writer Jenny Odell, NOTHING IS HARDER THAN TO DO NOTHING.  So dude, will you consider 'shoving your phone' to manage your screen time???