 |
| Elizabeth D. Johnson Legal Assistant |
There are many
things that differ between my generation and my mother’s but the one I’d like
to discuss is the well-known smart phone obsession. My mother is a very smart woman but she just doesn’t get her
phone like I do (no offense, mom). Honestly, she is lucky because it’s easier
for her generation to shut down and step away from their “entire world in your
pocket” device than it is for mine. The average person checks their phone
110-150 times per day! So, with that being said, how do I successfully cut back
on cell phone usage and not start nervously twitching? Why do I even want to do
this in the first place? Well, I’d like to see if I even can plus I’ve been
using a smart phone for a good 10 years at least and my anxiety/stress have only
gotten worse. Coincidence? Probably not.
So how do I
actually do this? Where do I even begin? First things first, I’ve got to start
with social media, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. I have started
setting up a shortcut that with three clicks of the home button, turns my
screen black and white, hopefully making social media “less attractive”. Then,
I will designate a certain time in the day to check my social media accounts.
For example, when I get home from work the first thing I like to do is plop on
the couch and scroll through everything, so that will be my Instagram and Snapchat
time. Facebook is something I care less about since it really only connects me
to the people I vaguely remember from high school. So, I will delete this app
from my phone and check Facebook during my lunch break on a computer.
One tip I read
about and may (or may not, let’s be real) try is to not use your phone as an
alarm clock. I have my phone as my alarm clock now and therefore it is the
first thing I touch in the morning and I see all of my text and social media
notifications and lay in bed for 10 minutes longer than I need to just to check
everything. Plus, an actual alarm clock set further away from the bed might
motivate me to get up instead of staring into an abyss of what activities my friend’s
brother’s cousin got into last night. Another tip that I came up with on my own,
inspired by being in group chats and hearing a constant buzz or beep every 3
seconds, was to completely silence my phone if I’m not expecting any important
calls or texts. I don’t even have the vibration on to really keep the annoyance
at bay. I also have specific ringtones for people like my boyfriend and mom so
that if I hear it go off I will know who it is and whether or not it may be urgent.
I don’t have the
best history with completing projects such as the time I said I was going vegan
and then bought a block of cheese the next day. So, I don’t think I’m going to do
great with this project but if it
helps me combat even a little bit of the obsession, then it was well worth it.
