Before I dive into today’s prompt response, I have to admit a facepalm moment that explains quite a bit. Last week I wrote about nearly skipping the question because of its similarity to the first one I completed a few weeks before that. When I looked at the third prompt on the list and saw yet another question similar to the previous two, I paused and looked looked a bit closer. Turns out, the New York Times organized these prompts into categories with the first category titled “Overcoming Adversity.” So, instead of harping on a single topic twenty-one more times in a row, I will instead choose a prompt from a different category each time, cycling through all of the categories until I finish all the prompts.
The question for this prompt asks whether I could survive for a year without a smartphone. This question captured my attention since just in the last day or two before writing originally writing this post I had begun contemplating, again, how much time I spent on my phone. It jumped to the forefront of my mind after seeing the data my iPhone revealed; I spent an average of an hour a day on my phone. To some, that seems low but to me, when I consider how much I want to accomplish and the fact that an hour’s a significant chunk of my waking, non-working hours, I find it abhorrent yet at the same time keep going back to the phone.
In addition to contemplating how much time I spend on my phone, I recently had a thought slowly creep into my brain, likely thanks to a podcast or something similar. This thought made me ponder how tied to the internet nearly every action I take is. Once that thought entered my brain, I started analyzing my internet use and wondered if I could survive without the internet. Then I began contemplating if I could slowly wean myself from activities that require internet connection with the exception of the google entwined actions for work like google classroom and all the various documents I load there for the students. I did start doing this a little when I would get distracted or crave distraction. Stopping and remember that desire to disconnect helped those times I attempted the weaning.
When I saw this question on the prompt list, I knew I had to answer it and I will, I promise, eventually. Before I get there, I need to think about what I use my phone for. In no particular order, I use the device for music during my runs, texting, checking email and my to do list, a quick check in to myfitnesspal, ordering (too frequently) from Starbucks and/or Chic-fil-a, scroll through Instagram, and reading blogs. I have a handful of other apps on my phone that I use every so often but not regularly. Somehow, even with that relatively small number of time wasters on my phone, I still manage to spend the aforementioned hour a day on my phone.
Whenever I get the screen time notification, I want to lower that average. After the previously mentioned notification, I tried to drastically reduce the amount, horrified at that hour per day yet found myself grabbing that phone even more often. Even as I continued to use my phone despite the nagging voice in my head, I thought about how those time wasters require the internet, accessed via web or mobile data. This first tipped domino led me to start thinking about the time in my life prior to the everpresent internet access and from there a vague memory of a time in college where I pondered what life would look like if I could access the internet from my house rather than having to stay at school or go to a coffee shop. This then leads to the realization that the things I love most, reading, writing, and running, do not require the internet.
Finally, I come to the answer to the question itself. Could I survive a year without my smartphone. As my previous paragraphs show, at the present moment I could not. Yet, I want to move to the point where I could. My forgetfulness and inattention helped me take the next step toward a smartphone free existence.
Just under a week ago, I travelled with the rest of the seventh grade of my school and the other middle schools in the district to the district-sponsored career fair. For some reason, I put my iPod nano in my pocket instead of the pocket of my bag like I usually do. I also put my phone in that pocket, a phone I pulled out and put back multiple times to communicate with other teachers and to photograph my students. At one point, unbeknownst to me, the iPod slipped out. I have no idea where it went since I did not discover the loss until after the faculty meeting when I needed to head quickly to get something to eat before class. On the drive over my mind cycled through the possibilities. Ultimately resigned to purchase a new one in 72 hours, if I had not figured something out about the iPod location. While pondering, I realized that a new iPod could help my iPhone problem.
In the days ahead, I hope to transfer all nonessential apps from my iPhone to the iPod. THe iPod touch (RIP iPod Nano). Since the iPod touch has no mobile data connection, only wifi, I will no longer have the ability to access the time-wasting apps when out and about. My phone will return to a device for communication with the additional features of music for the runs and mobile ordering for Chic-fil-a and Starbucks, the only non-native apps I plan to keep on the phone.
In a few months perhaps, I may return to this idea after making the above changes and see if I come up with a different or perhaps more nuanced response to this question.