I’ve told myself the same story before. I know I have an addiction to my phone. I can see it in my screen time averages. I can tell by the way I reach for it every minute of every day. It gets to the point where I won’t go anywhere without it in my back pocket.
I have preached to all of my friends how they shouldn’t always be on their phones, and instead pick up fun hobbies. Or if we’re at dinner, they should be present and in the moment. But do I follow my own advice?
Right now I wouldn’t say that I am miserable. I have too much to be grateful for. But what I will say is that I am not at my best. I know that with these 5 hours a day on screens, I could be allocating that time elsewhere.
I have seen the movie, “social dilemma”. I have written about the advice given. I have read several books that support the idea of spending time without devices. All to say, do I follow it? No.
Currently on my phone, I am trying to break whatever phone addiction I have. Typically it’s to social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram. However, I was able to delete my snapchat account and that is no longer a problem. Some days I experience fomo so then I use my phone (browsing other apps) to “make up ” for those feelings of fomo.
Another key aspect of my phone addiction that I thought I should mention is this attention I am trying to grasp. Although I am fully aware of how unhealthy and unattainable it is, I still reach for it. I also aim to have an “organic” relationship and not just some rando. I will say that from my experience, it is no fun to be locked up in a room all day texting a man when you could be spending that time outside on a walk and admiring nature, etc.
Since I am back home from college, I don’t really need any notifications on for any reason so I will be turning all of them off (apart from family). I have also decided that it is time to delete everything (except messages). This is my restart. I definitely find this to be possible as I will be starting work (part-time) tomorrow and seem to be able to busy myself in some other way. I do not want my phone addiction to ruin my break as this is supposed to be the time to recover.
In the meantime, I want to figure out what else I would like to work on, if there’s any skills I would like to focus on. I have already decided that learning how to use microsoft can be beneficial to both my academic and professional world. I also want to read plenty (currently have 4 books on hold) and I just would love to start coloring again.
When I do go on my devices, I want it to be for a reason, and I want it to be good. I want to dedicate some time every night to watch a holiday themed movie. Or I want to spend time each morning to go on headspace on my phone and complete that daily meditation. Whatever the reason, I want it to be helping me and not feeding into my already stressed being.
Not bringing my phone everywhere is another goal of mine. I find it easy to keep it on my night table for morning “alarms” but I don’t have any. I want to put my phone in a different room when I know I don’t need it. Another tool I use is my timer. I find it very helpful to set a timer for 30 minutes and then start working or cleaning, I think it’s the fact that I know it will eventually end that keeps me motivated.
All to say, I will be trying this out for a week. Today is Monday. I have already been on my phone for 5 hours today. But starting tomorrow, Tuesday (12/19) I will not be on my phone for more than 2 hours.
I will update tomorrow with my progress.
