A few years ago, that one day that I was officially pushed over the edge. After many battles, I finally forfeited. I was emotionally and spiritually drained and wanted to disconnect completely. From the world, from everyone. I had no idea that this feeling of defeat would be a great turning point and only a minor but greatly affective change for me…
So I turned off my phone, put it on high shelf and spent the rest of that day with family. I went to bed, still not touching the phone and didn’t look at it again until half way through the next day.
When I finally turned my phone on, nothing had changed. There were no missed calls, no messages. When I opened social media, everyone had posted as they would, completely unaware that I took over 24 hours off of technology. Unaware that I was not viewing their every move, as they displayed it. It was then that I discovered, I don’t really need my phone. I didn’t need to be on it constantly and I most certainly didn’t need social media or to see what others were up to at every moment and visa versa. Life just goes on. People move on with their day, uninformed. And this was kind of awesome to me.
Life without alerts
From this moment on, I put my phone on ‘do not disturb’ 24/7. Yes, 24 hours, the whole day, everyday, my phone’s ‘do not disturb’ setting is enabled. I even now cut myself off a couple hours before bedtime and have my phone on aeroplane mode for 12hours over night while I sleep, until after I have done my morning routine the next day. This is also just healthy for you in other ways, radiation, blue light and all. But I realised that I didn’t actually need my phone as much as I thought!
“What if its an emergency” – luckily, theres a setting you can switch on so if someone calls you again within a couple minutes of the first call attempt, it will go through. Or you can select specific contacts that the ‘do not disturb’ setting doesn’t apply to. Besides, how often is anything urgent anyway. Most of the time, in my life at least, its all pretty chill and if someone reaches out to me, they’re usually unaffected by the timing of my response. And when I am expecting an important call, sure i’ll turn it off and then back on again. I like to remind myself sometimes, “this is just how life used to be before phones anyway”. If our past generations could get by without it, so can we! Smart phones are still so fresh and yet we’ve completely forgotten how to live without them. Don’t get me wrong, I still use my phone for a lot of things. A calendar, alarm clock, reminders, my bank account, a map, all in my back pocket, as well as a whole encyclopaedia! Yeah, it’s awesome. I can now appreciate all that and not feel like im tied to it.
I realised I was addicted
When I first transitioned to this new approach toward technology, I weirdly felt like I had been set free. I know that may sound a little dramatic but really, this realisation had suddenly lifted these invisible chains that had me connected to my phone. The strangest part was that every now and again, I thought I heard my phone go off, or I felt a vibration sending me an alert. Which was impossible since my phone was on do not disturb and all my alerts were switched off? Then I’d check my phone and nothing was there. It was then that I realised, I was addicted to it and boy was I glad to start getting rid of that! It took a short while to get used to but eventually, I learnt to live without feeling like some magnetic force was drawing my in towards my little black mirror and I was in complete control. There’s something special about getting through my before bed or wake up routine, without checking up on whatever else the world is up to. I feel like i’m the only one in the universe for just a second. And when I do finally check it, I didn’t miss a thing anyway. Everything is the same except I have now done everything I wanted to do, without a distraction or seeing something dreadful that I didn’t need to see before breakfast. Not to mention its been a hell of a treat for my eyes. Not that i’ve ever had problems with my eyesight but I can’t imagine less screen time and blue light wouldn’t be beneficial in the long run!
Cutting off my third limb
Since that day, I have now also turned off ALL notifications from every single app. Yep, social media included – Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Mail etc. I even have short time limits on my apps. I literally only get notified by call or text, and thats only when I pick up my phone. Sometimes if I post something on social media, it will be well after the live time it was taken. I tested it and realised, that no one actually noticed, knew better, cared. People dont actually need to now what it is you are doing right at that present moment of every day! I am still a millennial and like to share my experiences, but now I document, save, put my phone away, enjoy being in the moment, and post it later. Sometimes I go days or even weeks before I share something on my story and guess what, no one knows any better. You think it’s happening right there and then either way. I get the best of both!
Look I’m not judging anyone for how they live and their relationship with their phones but just speaking from experience, my wellbeing has only felt better since i made the difference and I can’t see why less time on a device and more time in real life couldn’t do more good than not, for just about anyone. How I like to see it is all these generations before me had all this extra experience, so why not give myself a bit of the same. All the screen time i’ve accumulated adds up and I always wonder what life would have been like without it. What else would I have spent all those hours on?
Even during every experience I’ve had with psychedelics, where I’ve felt most connected to my spirit and the Earth, I always feel this barrier, this resistance like a strong negative force trying to push me away from my phone. Weird, but it kind of makes sense. How can you connect with yourself and the universe if you’re constantly attached to something artificial and full of toxic emitting rays!
This is all just a personal conviction I had with myself and wanted to share. It changed my life for the better and I can honestly say that I don’t feel attached to my phone anymore like I used to. At times, I like to forget I even own one. Too much of just about anything is bad for you right? My advice is, give your eyes, your mind and emotions a break every once in a while. Even if its just skipping one morning of scrolling, to do your regular routine before getting to it. The days feel much longer, I assure you.
Carpe diem