“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.”
- Steve Jobs, introducing the first iPhone in 2007
In 2007, I was entering my freshmen year of high school. I was this shy, timid kid who was trying to convince my parents to let me get my first phone. Eventually, on my 15th birthday, they finally allowed me to get one. While not an iPhone, I absolutely loved my LG Shine. I wasn’t able to text on it, only make phone calls, and if I could try to wait until nights and weekends to make my calls (after 9 pm), that was better too; that way we didn’t spend a ton of money on our minutes each month.
Mom and Dad saw my phone as a tool more than anything else, and in reality, that’s actually what it was.
So when did our phones turn from a tool we used to improve our life to a device that sucks us into a spiral of mindless swiping?
“Feeling bored or anxious? Check your e-mail. Nothing there? Check social media. Not satisfied? Check a different social media account. And then maybe another one. Like a couple of posts. Follow some new people. Check to see if those people followed you back. Maybe go look at your e-mail again, just in case. It’s easy to spend hours on your phone without using the same app twice- or staying focused for more than a few seconds at a time.”
- Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone
I just recently finished a book titled How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price- it’s a quick read and well worth the $10 price tag it’s currently listed for on Amazon. I HIGHLY recommend that everyone with a phone read it because of how incredibly troubling it was to learn from Catherine Price how much our phones are configured to addict us to them. Like a bad relationship, they suck us in and while we can admit that the relationship isn’t super healthy, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s really hard to end it, to make changes.
I read this book after already starting my social media fast and it changed a bit of my perspective on why I needed to get rid of social media for a while. It made me realize that social media is a problem in my life, but only a product of a much larger problem- my phone.
Since reading this book, I’ve been more intentional in tracking my phone screen time through my phone’s settings and it’s crazy to experience the real change between using my phone less and having more time to do everything else I want to do. I’ve included the data since beginning this journey earlier in the month and will provide another update once the month is over.
My Phone Screen Time Data
Through this process- I’m learning that my phone doesn’t need to run my life anymore, that I can instead rely on myself more and utilize my phone as a tool rather than thinking of it as an extension of myself.
It’s been a cool journey to be on and as I head toward the end of this month, I’m excited to see where I land with it after all is said and done.