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I spent 40 days without a phone and I liked it
What is life like when you are not constantly connected?
I’m often clumsy with my hands. If I call someone and that person does not respond, I keep calling, and I often get increasingly nervous. And increasingly clumsy. In almost 20 years of going around with a mobile phone — I got my first in 2000 — I have definitely dropped many. When they were as big as a speakerphone and only had small LCD screens, falls were not a massive problem. Early Motorolas and Nokias were impressively sturdy. I once dropped a Sony Ericsson phone from up the second floor, and it survived; some of them ended running on the treadmill while I was exercising, flew away, and survived.
Recent smart phones aren’t so sturdy as their predecessors. Some time ago I destroyed three phones in 12 months, the last of the series an Android smart phone which didn’t survive its very first drop not even two months after buying it. In what was meant to be an act of self-punishment, I decided to give phones a break and go without one for a few weeks. I managed very well without a phone for 40 days, and I liked it.
What’s life like without a smart phone? Let me give you some examples.
