Are you ready to put your phone down yet?
2024 marks 20 years since both Facebook and YouTube started and with the invention of the iPhone in 2007, our lives changed forever. The smartphone has brought many advantages to our lives, our social networks, and communities and so many other benefits, but let’s be honest, who HASN’T taken their phone to the toilet with them and been scrolling while we do our business?
“ I’m pushing my inner anxiety about leaving it behind or having to check it every few minutes and witnessing my reaction and reliance on this thing, which has been controlling my life. ”
Hats off to you if you are someone who has maintained that boundary! But just like toileting, eating, and everything else we do with our phones, we are losing the opportunity for mindful presence. We are losing life! Of course, we are busy people. Sometimes life feels like life is going so fast we can’t keep up. “I don’t have time,” is a common refrain for many of us. But I wonder if technology has made it SEEM like we don’t have time. And in actual fact, we are losing the opportunity to live in the moment every time we pick up our devices.
I’ve just started turning my phone off at night and I’ve been having THE most vivid dreams and restful sleep without it near my head, bed, or in the vicinity. I leave it downstairs and if I need the alarm, I leave it on and when it goes off, the action of getting up gets me started for the day. I highly recommend this. I’ll also be buying a battery-powered alarm clock the next time I go to the shops. I find myself disconnecting from technology more and more and returning to a simpler, slower pace of life.
I’ve returned to my roots and writing out my projects by hand, journalling, reflecting on my day without the use of the phone, and leaving the house without my device. I’m pushing my inner anxiety about leaving it behind or having to check it every few minutes and witnessing my reaction and reliance on this thing, which has been controlling my life. I’m actively seeking ways to take back control of every aspect of my life from music to photography to banking and rest time. When we lay in bed or on the couch scrolling, are we really resting? Or is our brain being overstimulated yet again by a machine? Are we allowing our neurons the rest they require to process our lives? Do we even remember our lives unless we have pictures to prove that we existed?
But this wasn’t meant to be a social commentary on social media, and yet, it’s exactly what we need to be talking about. With the rapid rise of AI, it’s a conversation worth having now before Elon Musk or some nefarious tech giant signs us all up to upload our consciousness to the cloud. Is that what we want? Are we unconsciously walking towards this without any awareness?
Have we had enough of this experiment yet? Are we ready to put the phones down and live a more productive, present life? I certainly am.
