My whole life is on my phone. Everything from an important email from professors to videos of my friends dancing at 3 a.m to some stupid song is literally in the palm of my hands every day. Like most people, my phone consumes me. However, as I get older, and contemplate things like what is the purpose of my life, I realized that the phone can be really detrimental to me living "a full life." Now I was not yet willing to do one of those crazy social fasts or go off the grid for a month, but I knew had to make a change somewhere in my phone use. So for the past week and a half, I haven't looked at my phone when walking, and I'm never going back.
Here are the three reasons why:
I get to class in a clearer head space
In between classes, I am usually am scrambling to find an email that I sent to a T.A two weeks ago, texting my friend that she should totally not get back with her ex-boyfriend, and trying to order a venti almond milk iced coffee from Starbucks, simultaneously! Needless to say, it's the perfect storm for my daily headaches. When I get to class, my head usually has stress pressure in front of it, and I already feel overwhelmed before the course starts. In this last week and a half since giving up my phone while walking, most of those headaches went away. Also, when in between classes I now have time to process the information I just received in my last class. I even get to mentally prepare for the next class by thinking of questions to ask and things I need clarification on.
I have a better appreciation for nature
Looking up from my phone has allowed me to see an adorable animal almost every day (except that dead squirrel lying next to my car on Wednesday). Now mind you, I live on Long Island, so the I'm animals passing are limited. However, in the last week I have seen more chipmunks, deer, and cute dogs on my campus then I have in the past year and a half I've been there. And, seeing a cute animal automatically brightens my day (duh). On top of that, I've also had a better appreciation for the weather. When it's sunny and warmer than usual out, I get a burst of joy. When I was on the phone, I could've cared less if there was a tornado going through the middle of my campus because I was absorbed in stalking someone on Instagram.
I have less phone guilt
I don't think I'm alone in this when I say I feel guilty at the end of the day when I was on my phone a lot. It makes me think I have wasted a day doing nothing, even if that whole day I was checking emails. There's something about not being present that makes me feel as if I'm just going through the motions as opposed to truly living. While I did not make any extreme adjustments, this small change has impacted me in a positive way. Apple does those weekly check-ins telling me how long my average daily phone use was, and I'm proud to say in a week it went down form 5 hours and 32 minutes to 4 hours and 57 minutes. Yes, I'm aware that it is only about a 35-minute difference, but that difference has helped me tremendously.
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