It’s your safety net. The one thing you are likely never to leave the house without. You use it for phone calls, pictures, writing down all of the things you have to do and even just scrolling through social media looking on what everyone did that past week. Are there ever moments when you forget it at home and in a panic run back to get it? What happens when you need to tell your friend about something that just happened, but you realized your phone is dead?
I decided to get rid of this chokehold that my phone had on me this previous summer. I learned so many things about the people in my life and the things surrounding me that I missed out on just by being on my phone too much. I realized how reliant I was on it and it was quite an adjustment not having it anymore. I was going on a family vacation for a week this past summer where I would have little cell service as is. I turned off all my notifications, told the people I most frequently texted when I would be back on my phone, and then turned it off. This meant no social media or contact with anyone but my family members for that entire week. I can’t tell you how beneficial this was for me. Just this little bit of time disconnecting from the outside world helped me recognize the importance of being present in the current moment.
My little sisters are five years younger than me and I always have a hard time grasping the fact that we are at such very different points in our lives. While I’m off at college, they are going through all the hardships of being a freshman in high school. I feel almost selfish for being off at school and not getting to be there for them during this stage of their life. I try to FaceTime, call and text them as frequently as I can to remind them that I’m always here for them instead of the big sister who is “too busy at college to make time for them.”
This week away from distractions allowed me the opportunity to just focus on them. I got to be fully present with them. I wanted to make the most of every moment I had with them because they are precious memories that I would always have. I noticed the little quirks and fun hobbies that they loved. I sat there doing a puzzle with them for almost two hours thinking about everything my phone could have taken away from in this memory.
I havelearnedhow to be OK with the idea of silence. A lot of people have a hard time just letting it be quiet every once and a while. Silence is a good thing. You have to let moments get silent and listen. A lot of the time when things go silent we resort to looking on our phone because we think of it as “awkward” even though it really isn’t.
I have learned what it means to appreciate the people you're with. I am barely ever with my parents and little sisters so taking the time to be present with them, rather than talking to my friends who weren’t even with me.
I have learned how to let go of the necessity to respond instantaneously. Your friends don’t expect you to answer right away and that is something I have always had a hard time coping with in the past. When you don’t answer right away it doesn’t mean that you don’t like them any less, it’s just that you’re busy living your own life right now.
I have learned the meaning of what a genuine conversation actually is. Those friends I couldn’t talk to for an entire week now had so much to tell me that we needed to actually take the time to talk on the phone and FaceTime. This was so much more genuine and personal than the short little play-by-play updates.
Although I now use my phone, I still try to implement these things I have learned into my everyday life. I don’t want to always be so concerned with what everyone else is doing and just practice living my life. I don’t usually watch the Snapchat stories and I don’t feel pressure to see every Instagram post because I know that what I am doing in the present moment is more important than anything going on in someone else’s life. Let go of the control your phone has over you and learn to enjoy the present moments instead.