DumbPhone?

I want it thank Pavel for sharing his thoughts today. At first I wanted to comment on his post but as I started writing I noticed that I had too much to say on this for a simple comment.There seems to be a trend to get off the high tech and social networking bandwagon lately.

This particular video Pavel linked to made me listen up. Is there another life out there?

I think we are beginning to see the advantages of a more disconnected life. All the while making the best of technology. We are becoming more discerning users, and hopefully happier at the same time. All those Facebook scandals certainly help in this.

But is this only some hopelessly nostalgic fad or is there something real behind it? Can it be done? Of course for Pavel it has been working for several months now. Lucky him! But will it work for others?

For me?

The main culprit, as Pavel said is the phone. It is calling for our attention virtually all the time.

What do I use it for?

In fact it’s my watch, as I don’t wear a wristwatch any more, it’s a phone (duh), it helps me find my way, catch my bus in time and it wakes me up in the morning.

It even connected me to ‘friends’ I had never met…. and it ‘liked’ me too much, at least until I finally gave up on Facebook a month ago. I still don’t regret that move!

But would I be able to live completely without it?

I remember the pre-iPhone days with horror. Nothing was more terrible than composing even a short message on a numeric keypad. I absolutely hated that and was relieved by the iPhone’s possibilities.

Then there is the fact that the iPhone helps me find my way around foreign cities without handling bulky maps…. Certainly a strong point for it!

Without any doubt the smartphone has it’s enormous benefits, but it has caught us in a net (pun intended) and as much as we wriggle we can’t get free any more.

Or can we?

In order to try we will have to make a conscious decision. We will have to decide if we want to stay tethered to the phone or if we would rather break the link and live our real physical lives.

And taking that decision involves more that just saying ‘OK, from now on my phone stays home’. It involves considering our use of the phone, the benefits we get from using it and the negative side effects we suffer.

I’m not a fan of making pro and con lists but in this case I think such a list would help. And then, will it be possible, like Pavel, to ditch the smartphone from one day to the next and go cold turkey. Or would it be more considerate to slowly limit our use of it? Say leave it at home on photo walks, try to restrict checking mail to certain times per day, offloading annoying apps (looking at you Facebook, Messenger, Youtube…). Perhaps use the great ‘Do Not Disturb’ function of the iPhone…

Will it be possible to have the character strength to pull this off?

For the moment I feel very much inspired by Pavel’s post and the links he shared. But then again, the smartphone certainly has it’s uses. If only as a camera when nothing else is at hand.

Anyways, I can only applaud Pavel for his resolve and his ability to simply get rid of his smartphone!

Guess I’ll rather go at it more gradually, evaluating, restricting and controlling myself.

Ahem, by the way, all the photos in this post are from the dreaded iPhone….

Thanks for reading!