Two weeks, no smartphone: how I tried – and failed – to kick my screen addiction

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James Ball spends countless hours a week staring at his iPhone. Would a fortnight with just old-school text messages and games of Snake shake him out of it? Plus! Five tips for resetting your tech life

ne Monday morning early this year, bleary-eyed and getting ready for work, I am interrupted by a notification on my phone: an Apple Screen Time alert, informing me my usage last week was up by 60%: to 19 hours 24 minutes a day. I stare at the numbers for a while. Anyone who gets the recommended eight hours’ sleep is awake for just 16 hours a day – I apparently spent several hours more than that using my phone. I share a screengrab with friends, who react with concern, if not much surprise.

During that period, I’ll talk to experts and see what they think. What’s it like for the heaviest of heavy phone users to go cold turkey? One school of thought suggests I’ll feel more in the moment, more observant, more connected to the people I’m physically with.I decide to test the waters by doing a trial day – I am still carrying my smartphone, but it has no sim card and is on airplane mode. I have my trusty new Nokia 105 up and running.

– but perhaps it shouldn’t be. With prisoners often moved to facilities miles from home, and with visitation dramatically curtailed during the pandemic , surely some connection between prisoners and their loved ones is good for all of us?On my first phoneless morning commute, I confirm my suspicion that Snake is less fun than I remembered. Also, I manage a high score of only 12 on a nearly 30-minute train ride.

‘I discover the friend who borrowed my bank card last night still has it. How do I get home with no card and no way to order an Uber?’know and loathe What, I ask, are the negative effects of such an addiction? “Less joy in modest pleasures that used to give us joy,” she says. “Mental preoccupation with the phone, and heightened distractibility and reactivity. Decreased ability to be present in the moment.”

Lembke has one particularly stark tip for people who want to change their relationship with their phones: change your number and then don’t give it out, and don’t have your phone on when you’re not using it. She does this herself – effectively turning her phone into a send-only device. “Since my phone doesn’t receive, I’m not mentally preoccupied with checking it,” she says. This strikes me as very good advice forbut that someone probably isn’t me.

 

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Two weeks, no smartphone: how I tried – and failed – to kick my screen addictionJames Ball spends countless hours a week staring at his iPhone. Would a fortnight with just old-school text messages and games of Snake shake him out of it? Plus! Five tips for resetting your tech life I'm curious to know if afterwards, having gone back to their smartphone, the author finds themselves using it less than before. Those previous usage numbers - to me - are staggering. Sure things just aren't important.
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