Before I get too far into this, if you haven’t read Going Light - Part 1 yet, I’d recommend reading through that before you continue here.
Alright - now we are ready for part 2. A lot has changed in my life since I wrote part 1 back in the beginning of August. Part 1 was all about the lead up to going light and I ended the post by stating, “Next week, I’ll be posting again but with my thoughts on what it’s been like going light since July 21. Stay tuned.” Well here I am, three months late on “next week” but still excited to share my thoughts nonetheless.
For me, “going light” was about recognizing how much I used my smart phone and taking a step away from the smart aspects so I could get back to the root purpose of phones - to be used for communication. In July 2019, I took a break from social media all together and saw just how much I decreased my phone usage. Going light helped me do much of the same. I found myself using my phone less altogether and more focused and present when I had my Light Phone with me. I used my iPhone at home as if it were a iPod Touch and left it at home when I was at work, going out to eat, or simply out and about.
However, I brought an end to my Light Phone in mid-September due to 3 factors.
The Light Phone was tough to use. While it was nice having a phone that was only for communication, communicating on it was tough at times. I couldn’t get picture messages which only became frustrating when I had to tell people to e-mail them to me instead. Additionally, texting on the smaller device got to be annoying when I had a lot to say. While this is kind of the purpose of the smaller phone in hopes that the user picks up the phone and calls someone instead of texting, that wasn’t always possible when the other user was unavailable to talk.
I found myself choosing to use my iPhone A LOT at home, and after about a month, my screen time mirrored what it did before I started using my Light Phone, the time was just all spent on my iPhone at home instead of spread out throughout my day.
My job changed. I started supervising a 2nd staff team in a different location than my first. With this change came a 2nd office and a different type of mobile app that the new team was already using to communicate. During the first two weeks of splitting my time between two locations, I found myself missing messages from both teams and struggling to keep up with communication channels. Eventually, I found myself bringing my iPhone along with to work so I could continue to communicate with both teams on their respective applications.
After a while, these 3 factors added up enough that it was time to say goodbye to going light. While my Light Phone was something I enjoyed having for the time being, it’s okay that it wasn’t my forever. It taught me a lot about how I use my phone and I’m thankful for the time I had it to learn those lessons. I’m more aware of how I use my smart phone and how I can best utilize it as the tool that it is rather than the distraction that it has been.
I’m not perfect with using my smart phone, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, I’m happy I made the decision to go light for a couple of months.