Ready for a challenge? Make your smartphone a “dumb phone.”
Though I do not know of the exact genesis of this challenge, I first heard of the “dumb phone” from author, YouTube star and cultural icon John Green, so I’m just going to give all credit to him. The reason I’m giving this credit to Green is because I believe he gave the best explanation of this growing trend in the digital age.
Put simply, Green says the goal is to control your phone and not let it control you.
Green suggests removing all apps on your phone that “stress you out.” While this is most certainly a subjective judgment made on behalf of each individual user, it is also very likely that what stresses John Green and me out also stresses you out. This is including, but not limited to, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, any internet browser and essentially any app that connects to the internet and provides you with frequent information.
In other words, if Alexander Graham Bell wouldn’t approve (or be aware) of it, then delete it from the device.
Phones these days have started to drift further and further away from the fundamental idea of what a telephone is and should do. Our pockets hold devices more similar to small computers than telephones — and more of a distracter than a tool for our convenience.
Upon first hearing about it, this challenge sounds less like a formidable test and more like a cute way to generate some self-inflicted inconvenience in life. But nonetheless, I decided to suck it up and give my iPhone only four major reasons to exist: calling, texting, Google Maps and Spotify.
None of these applications notify me with social feeds or information overload, but instead only function as tools that make my life slightly more enjoyable. I promised myself that, during this challenge, my only internet/social-media access would be on my computer because, well, that’s what they’re made for.
The first day was the hardest. I realized in that first day just how much of my time is spent waiting. Whether it be for a bus, a class or just killing time between other tasks, a surprising amount of time is spent in this state. It was in these moments I would automatically reach for my phone, like a Pavlovian dog who’s been trained to robotically take out its phone anytime it feels a semblance of boredom or inactivity. Nothing interesting or intellectually stimulating happening at this very moment? My brain’s immediate response was to go through the social media rounds, but for what? To see what new things have happened in the 30 minutes since I last checked?
Two days later, after fighting countless urges to satisfy the desire to scroll news feeds that realistically have nothing to do with me, I began to look up. Ten minutes until the bus arrives? Those 600 seconds that used to be consumed by mindless scrolling were now occupied by the age-old hobby of looking around. For all I know, that is the only time I will be in that exact situation, with those exact people in those exact circumstances. It wasn’t exactly a Henry David Thoreau level of sucking “the marrow out of life;" I was definitely not talking to the birds darting above or studying the way the trees swayed lazily in the warm breeze, but I was at least taking notice of these small details of the world. Each one of these moments was not significant on its own, but they all had the synergistic effects of nature itself. As a whole, these moments made my week, overall, significantly more enjoyable.
Fifteen days in, I am starting to think of this as less of a challenge and more of a permanent change. I have come to the realization many are blind to: Using a phone as strictly a tool for your own convenience not only liberates you from the chains of the internet, but also allows one to burn through less data and more life.
Andrew Hall is a UF business administration junior. His column appears on Fridays.
