The Phone Switch Experiment
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Relationships

The Phone Switch Experiment

A modern-day way of "putting yourself in someone's shoes."

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The Phone Switch Experiment
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Do you ever wonder what it is like to be a different person? If they have it easier, more things to handle, fewer things to handle, a more relaxed life? Sometimes we all get overwhelmed by who we are and the things we have to handle that we just want to turn it off for a day and take a break, but we can't because things constantly need to be handled and some responsibilities just can't be ignored. These are all of the thoughts that led both my best friend and myself to get the idea of switching phones for a day. We wanted to see a few things: if we could handle it, if we liked the break from our technological world for a day, if we trusted each other enough to handle things, if we were different from each other on a social perspective, etc.

A few things to know about the experiment: we texted everyone, snap chatted everyone (because obviously, we couldn't break streaks), went through each other's social media as if it was our own EXCEPT we were being each other. The experiment started in the morning and went until about five o'clock that evening and it was actually pretty hard. We had to talk like each other to our friend's and peers, manage each other's schedules, keep up with each other's guys--WITHOUT them noticing.

The difficulties: Our phones didn't look anything like each other's, we had different apps which made it weird at first. We got calls/facetimes and had to make excuses as to why we couldn't answer, group chats were going off like crazy that I personally had no clue how to handle so we just both kind of messed with it and winged it. Another thing was regarding read receipts, she has hers on and I don't, so she had it easy compared to me in that case. I had to strategically read her texts in a certain time frame because that is how she does it. I had to not respond to certain people for a specific amount of time which was hard because normally I don't do that when I get a text.

The conclusion: Doing this enhanced my understanding that my best friend is way more social compared to myself, I am not used to my phone blowing up unless it is important or one of my closest friends or family, but she had random people texting her about pointless things that they could be smart enough to answer themselves (this tested my patience a little). She thought it was strange that my phone wasn't constantly blowing up, whereas I was begging for my quiet back towards the end of the day. We definitely miscommunicated with some of our friends at some points in the day, but nobody noticed! We handled each other's lives for a day without completely losing it, and in the process, we learned more about each other's preferred social styles. We also realized we weren't horrible at being each other, but we would rather be ourselves in the end.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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