CONTROL LOST
Somewhere along the way, we screwed up our relationship with the phone. It was a slow insidious process. Maybe it happened when we stopped referring to it as a “telephone” and started to call it the “phone,” which is a misnomer. Goggle describes the “phone,” as a device by which sound is converted into electrical impulses and transmitted to another receiver. Our phone – cell phone – is an alarm clock, map, calendar, computer, gaming device, camera,
entertainment, and a constant companion.
There was a time when the telephone’s primary purpose was to communicate, to fit into our life making it more manageable not us fitting into the life of the cell phone. Don’t think you are controlled by your phone? Read on. If you don’t see yourself anywhere in the remaining words, then a bit of self-examination is in order, or you are a unicorn.
For years, a very popular credit card company ran a successful marketing campaign using the slogan, “Don’t Leave Home Without It.” That slogan could easily be applied to this culture’s relationship with the cellphone. “Can’t Leave Home Without It,” is our slogan. It has become our lifeline. Loss of the handheld device causes a meltdown. A shattered screen is tantamount to a major emergency.
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT? Asking the question is a beginning. I confess my relationship with my phone is decidedly broken…I can’t leave home without it. I have an app that records the amount of time I spend on it every day. Shamefully I spend more time with the phone than I do anything else. Each Monday morning, a report is generated that tells me if my screen time was under or over the previous week. I was thinking about the restoration of a fractured personal relationship when the report came last Monday. It occurred to me, if I spent less time with an electronic device, I might have more time to spend on personal relationships. I know that I am a part of the super majority with regards to the phone.
Because my dependency on the phone is both necessary and habitual, behavior modification seems to be a good first step. This week I intentionally removed it from my sight. I can’t leave home without it, but it doesn’t need to be everywhere I am when I am at home, so I left it downstairs when I went upstairs. When the urge to pick it up hit me, the phone had to be retrieved, giving me time to be cognizant of my actions. I know I could not function now with a dumbphone, so I made my necessary smartphone perform more like one by disabling notifications. Do I really need to be alerted to every text or email as it is received? I decided to look at social media once in the morning and evening. I am working on taking a phone sabbath.
These are small, seemingly insignificant steps. It is my attempt to restore my relationship to my phone where it fits into my life not the other way around.
PONDER THIS THOUGHT--- Little things can slowly take control if not controlled!
