We use them so often that they might as well be an extraneous piece of our body at this point. Soon to be embedded?! 61% of Americans admit they're addicted to their screens, 84% of people couldn't go a single day without their cell, the average American checks their smartphone 352 times per day, 71% of people spend more time on their phones than with their romantic partner, and 26% of car accidents are caused by cell phones. Overall, the average American will spend an accumulated two months (65 days) on their phones in 2023.
Not only that but there's a wide range of negative concerns connected to phone usage: physical & mental health implications, biological changes, diseases, work disruptions, children's usage, blue light exposure, sleep issues.
I've used mine every day since I bought my first one, and in recent months, I've even become a bathroom user 🤯 This was the perfect incentive I needed to assert my independence from this tiny machine and go a week without it! An alternative job secured, I left my phone half an hour away to avoid temptation, and then I skipped off to my new, simplified, unshackled life!
The first day, I felt a giant sense of relief and freedom from the dings set out to steal my time and attention. I started to notice how often others used their phones. You can't go anywhere without at least one person staring zombie-like or clutching at theirs.
On the second and third days, I got into a rhythm of being more productive. My sleep dramatically improved (even while suffering from simultaneous COVID and strep), and I felt a sense of internal peace and a whole lot of possibility.
On the fourth day, I started to feel a social loss. However, I reminded myself that the absence of a phone has the potential to cut out unnecessary or shallow socializing and create a more genuine and meaningful social circle instead! The people most important to me found me without my phone.
During the rest of the week, I felt disorganized, and in disequilibrium. I found myself going inward a lot. Phones are overstimulating to the nervous system, and my body didn't know what to do without this constant superficial fix. At this point, the human body is so accustomed and dependent on this continuous sensory overload that it's something we don't even realize is present until it's not there anymore. I was learning how to be human again.
When the week was completed and I retrieved my phone, I wasn't happy. It immediately felt like a weight was put back on my whole world. I wanted to chuck it out the window permanently and run to live off the land in a paradise somewhere. But overall, this reset was a chance to start anew, create new habits, and use my smartphone more smartly!
