I’ve started to call my smartphone my “dumbphone.”
After reading “the Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt (thanks Alexandra for the recommendation!), I can no longer conveniently ignore that I spend waaaaay too much time on my phone.
I shudder when I hear statistics like “the average person will spend 9 years of their life on screens.” Maybe 9 years seems like a lot to you, but each YouTube video swipe gets you closer right?
Do you have kids that you want to keep out of the “anxious generation”? I do!
So if you want to convince your children that a dumbphone is not in their best interests, you need to model your own responsible use.
And the happy side effect is that you will improve your own well-being. And maybe keep more money in your wallet.
In his book, Haidt makes these points about having the Internet in your pocket:
Kids tend to rely heavily on disembodied, asynchronous relationships (and lose the natural social learning of awkward conversations, body language, rules of belonging etc.)
The overuse of screens fractures sleep patterns, especially when kept in bedrooms.
Social media algorithms serve up aspirational vision of perfection that increase comparision, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.s
Short-form content, with their boundary less feeds, encourage dopamine hits without letting kids practice being still and paying attention.
I want my kids to be able to watch a long-form movie, like LOTR, without needing to get up every Tik Tok minute!
I want them to be able to write cohesive sentences without “6-7” in them!
I want them to exercise in nature and not get tech-neck-turkey folds!
So…
I started to keep my dumbphone in the kitchen cupboard.
And WOW, what a difference it makes!
Just the act of keeping the phone out of reach can make a huge difference in my productivity and focus.
I am much more able to finish tasks efficiently and creatively.
I wrote this blog–uninterrupted!
Not a single person has complained that I’m not picking up a call or that I’m too slow to reply to a text.
When my kids ask me a question, I can look at them–without whipping my head!
It has, in all ways, helped me move into the new year with hope and a sense of better clarity.
I hope you try a smartphone hide-away too!
Question: “can you keep your smartphone out of reach?”
