Pretty much everybody I know will be able to tell you that I am more or less inseparable from my phone. I take it everywhere, will look the second I have a notification and I even carry around a portable battery just to make sure I never ever run out of charge.
It very much fits the stereotype of young people who can’t go anywhere without their phones; I’m that guy. I’ve always dismissed comments about being attached to my phone under the guise of oh, everyone does it yeah whatever, but it’s probably not actually really that healthy after all.
I don’t really want to be that guy who’s always checking his notifications; I’ve got stuff to do, and checking my phone every couple of minutes just represents an unprecedented distraction. Heck, it doesn’t just represent an unprecedented distraction, it is an unprecedented distraction.
I’ve toyed with the idea of switching to a “dumbphone” for the last couple of weeks, and whilst I’m not quite prepared to go that far, in an effort to restore some productive independence to my everyday being I’ve turned off and/or restricted notifications for all but a handful of apps. I’m also going to attempt to just straight-up ignore my phone more. Put it in aeroplane mode more. Leave it behind(!). Let it run out of battery. Y’know. Just use it less.
And then, so say Radiohead, I’ll be fitter, happier and more productive. We’ll see how that goes.
