Switching off

How would you feel (be honest) if you were to be without your smartphone for the next week/10 days or more? Do you think you'd adapt?

Well, that's exactly what happened to yours truly and boy has it been a revelation. A faulty battery, an online order, a couple of delayed deliveries and here I am writing about my ongoing reality sans smartphone (don't get me started on customer services).

Now although my smartphone has been out of action, I can squeeze a few operational minutes before it suddenly decides to switch itself off (I did vent my frustration by phone and email as you wouldn't expect a knackered battery after a few months from one of the allegedly best devices on the market).

Learning to 'switch off'

However, to my surprise I've almost learned to live without it. The fact that I have a limited usage time of my device kind of works as a self-disciplinary mechanism: 'You can use me for 15 minutes maximum a day, so make the most of it!' 

Fine by me. I have to recharge it frequently and then I know that I'll only have a few minutes to check emails etc. and then the dreaded black screen appears. Not so bad really as I'm probably actually 'switching off' a lot more than I used to.

The fact that I can't use it as a phone has its downsides. But it has made me realise just how much I was dependent on it and that I feel better now that I've reduced my surfing and social media time. And this can only be a good thing as technology does take up a disproportionately huge amount of our time. 

A period of abstinence

And given that we're in Lent, it got me thinking about how many things there are that we could do without, and that when we do abstain, we often find that we could quite comfortably continue without going back to our old ways (think food or alcohol for example). Abstinence is healthy, good for the mind and the body.

Although this has been forced on me and not in fact a self-imposed 'digital detox', I never thought that a replacement battery could make me so happy. My phone switching off has helped me to switch off. A smart phone after all.