my phone free long weekend

I’m one of those people who has about five apps on their phone: Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, all the usuals. I steer clear of games and iBooks and absolutely don’t understand how Candy Crush could ever be enjoyable. Without Flappy Bird there to make me want to throw my phone into the ocean and out of sight, the best solution to get away from the distraction is to put it on aeroplane mode and hide it in another room. But on the best of days, I end up finding myself sneaking a 5-second glance at my Instagram feed and it all goes downhill from there; nek minute, I’ve gone through five of Vogue’s 73 questions, watched a fluffy dog get a haircut on Facebook and scrolled through to Margaret Zhang’s very first Instagram photo.

For me, social media is the culprit, and my phone is the carrier. When I’ve got nothing to do, I find myself constantly picking it up to see the latest Instagram photo or the next funny Vine on Facebook. Even when the feed hasn’t changed since I checked it 2 minutes ago, I’ll find some way to while the time away swiping, typing and double tapping. Sometimes, it gets exhausting, but it’s very difficult to find the resolve to balance phone time with other things going on, because the internet, social media and other apps and games are so accessible every second of the day, making it very easy to waste time without even realising.

I got to a point where I just wanted a short break, and so last long weekend, I decided to put my phone away for 3 days. After about an hour of regret, spent wondering what I’d been missing, the urge to pick it up simply disappeared. I actually found it really easy to give up for that brief period of time and putting away the constant connection and updates gave me more room to relax and to clear my mind. Living phone-free is just not realistic and completely undesirable as a sustainable lifestyle; there is so much information and inspiration and memes to be viewed out there, but every once in a while, I think I might continue to have a phone-free weekend. I really enjoyed having time where my phone wasn’t in my pocket and I think it actually helped me to balance out my phone time when I returned to it.

Don’t get me wrong; I couldn’t live without my phone, and love the entertainment, the inspiration and the stories which are channelled through the technological world. However, it can get addictive, it can reduce focus and it can disengage people from the ‘moment’.

Like all other things in life, we need balance when it comes to our smartphones.

Love, Ingrid