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Monday, February 15, 2016

How I Quit My Smartphone Addiction and Really Started Living

The phone rings: it’s my friend checking to see if I can pick her up on the way to a dinner party. I ask her where she is and as she explains, I reach as far as I can across the countertop for a pen. I scribble the address in my trusty notebook I keep in my back pocket. I tell her I’ll be at her place in about 20 minutes, give or take a few. Then I hang up. Literally.

I physically take the handset receiver away from my ear and hang it on the weight-triggered click switch that cuts off my landline’s dial tone.

I take my laptop, Google the address, add better directions to my notes and head outside to my 1989 pick-up truck (whose most recent technological feature is a cassette player) and drive over. If I get lost on the way, I’ll need to ask someone for directions. If she changes her plans, she won’t be able to tell me or cancel at a moment’s notice. If I crash on the way, I won’t be calling 911.

I’m fine with all of this. As you guessed by now, I haven’t had a cellphone for more than 18 months.

I didn’t just cancel cellular service and keep the smartphone for Wi-Fi fun, nor did I downgrade to a flip phone to “simplify”; I opted out entirely. There is no mobile phone in my life, in any form, at all.

Arguably, there should be. I’m a freelance writer and graphic designer with many reasons to have a little computer in my holster, but I don’t miss it. There are a dozen ways to contact me between email and social media. When I check in, it’s on my terms. No one can interrupt my bad singing of Hooked on a Feeling with a text message. It’s as freeing as the first night of a vacation.

“My phone” has become “the phone”. It’s no longer my personal assistant; it has reverted back to being a piece of furniture – like “the fridge” or “the couch”, two other items you also wouldn’t carry around on your butt.

I didn’t get rid of it for some hipster-inspired luddite ideal or because I couldn’t afford it. I cut myself off because my life is better without a cellphone. I’m less distracted and less accessible, two things I didn’t realize were far more important than instantly knowing how many movies Kevin Kline’s been in since 2010 at a moment’s notice.

I can’t be bothered unless I choose to be. It makes a woman feel rich.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

love!

Anonymous said...

Hope more people realize this before there are so few of us left they feel free to take all the landlines away.

Anonymous said...

Love This!

Anonymous said...

I still have one of those phones in my kitchen on the wall.

Anonymous said...

My phone is like the one Andy calls Sarah on.

Anonymous said...

My work history included driving to job interviews in Washington, DC. Invariably, I got lost and had to wait until sunset to figure out how to find my way home again. Eventually, I watched a Steven Segal movie where he used this mind boggling technology call GPS while hiding under the wraps of a lifeboat. Still, not aware of what smartphones were, I coupled a battery operated laptop with some Garmin gear (took up the whole seat next to me) and I actually found my way out of DC without waiting for sunset for a change. When the iPhone hit the street with built in GPS and mapping, I was a sold customer because my old LG flip phone would not even allow me to synch contacts with my home computer. Sure, it made me feel like Captain Kirk but the iPhone made me feel like a stud in action movies!

Anonymous said...

I turned my phone off along with FaKebook in 2007. My kids and wife never can reach me to do extra things for them. It's awesome.

Anonymous said...

6:12 Now YOU are special.