So I ditched my smartphone for 30 days...
You read that title right. I'm the proud owner of new LG Exalt LTE Flip Phone. (Think Motorola Razr except not as cool.) I had considered ditching my smartphone for a while, but I could never pull the trigger because, frankly, I was addicted to the damn thing. I couldn't go 30 seconds without looking at it!
So last Thursday I decided I was going to to do it. I woke up that morning hellbent on getting my, as I refer to it affectionately, my dumb phone. I thought I would blog about the experience on a day by day basis to hopefully help others considering the switch. And maybe restore some of my sanity.
My main reason for wanting to ditch my smartphone was I felt like it was a time suck. Everyone pretends they make you so much more productive, but I think they can make you just as unproductive as they do productive. My phone literally owned me. I couldn't do anything without it. Couldn't remember calendar events, appointments, birthdays, directions, etc... I wanted to see what it was like to depend on me again. The last day I had it in service I checked it 98 times that day. You figure at 98 times a day at 98 minutes that's at least 98 minutes of my day staring at that little 4 inch black hole. That translates to 11 hours per week or 40 hours a month!!! It was smart and it was making me dumb. So here we go. Here's a day by day summary of what I experienced going to a dumb phone.
May 2, 2019
The day of reckoning is here and I'm in no turning back mode. Once my mind is made up I'm all in on whatever the challenge/task at hand may be. I get to the Verizon store at 9:45 am to find they don't open until 10:00 am. So I sit in my car and give my smartphone 15 last minutes before I put her out of service. So yada yada yada, I'm in and out of the store in 10 minutes with a new dumb phone in service. So far so good....this feels really good actually. On the drive home I started realizing how much I would check my iPhone while driving because the impulse was there the entire drive home. First few hours were no sweat. Got through the rest of the work with no issues other than trying to use the new dumb phone. i.e. adding contacts etc...was like splitting the atom. How the hell did I used to do this? Realized quickly that I don't know 663 people. Thanks iPhone. Not to worry like 3 hours later I had the list whittled to 60 people and off we went.
Daughter had a band concert later that night and this is where the first sign of separation anxiety started creeping in. About 30 minutes before leaving the house I started getting these physical symptoms of anxiety. I felt just like i did before playing a basketball game in High School. A little nauseous, butterflies, nervous, etc...Could this be from not having my iPhone to take with me? It was! I was literally have physical signs of withdrawal. Theses symptoms lasted all night and even into my bedtime routine. Got in bed around 9:30 pm. My body felt sore and restless. Felt like I was coming down from an adrenaline rush if that makes sense. I started running a fever. Is this for real? I wasn't quitting heroine! I was quitting a stupid phone! This was going to be harder than I thought.
May 3, 2019
Day two without a smartphone. I managed to remember on my own that I had a golf date with my uncle this morning. Go me! This would make the morning without a phone no sweat. Got up to check the weather (on the TV not my phone) and off I went. For the first time in probably 10 years I played an entire round of golf and only checked my phone once to listen to a voicemail. It was a totally different experience and I loved every second of it. I didn't even check my email that morning! I checked it at 4 pm and had about 50 meaningless messages. Friday night was a little rough without the phone but I watched some basketball and hit the sack. No big issues.
May 4, 2019
Woke up that morning and rolled over to grab my phone as usual and remembered that there is nothing to look at on my trusty LG. Sat it down and again started a morning with no email or news. First few days of this were rough, but I have settled in pretty quick. Email may be the biggest distraction of all time. I don't know about you but I probably get 70 a day and maybe 2 of them actually deserve my attention. Anyway, headed to my kids soccer game and watched an entire game without looking at my phone. I count that as another win. Made it through the rest of the day fine. Son and I went to see Endgame, which is flat out awesome by the way, so that gave me another easy 3 hours to cope without my phone.
Later that day family and I went to the mall. Instead of me wasting time on a phone I counted people walking through the mall staring at their phones. I will refer to them as Zombies from this point forward. Counted 73 in about 30 minutes. 73 people totally unaware of their surroundings! Had some killer Chinese for dinner (found the place without Yelp btw) and the rest of the night was no sweat.
May 5, 2019
Woke up and didn't reach for my phone. This is a good sign I think. Maybe there is hope for me yet! Headed to mass with the family. After mass went to lunch with my wife and went an entire meal without looking at my phone. I think I got this! It was cool. You suddenly become very aware of how many people spend their entire meal staring at a phone while a real live person sits right across the table from them doing the same thing! It's ridiculous really. After that I went home and mowed for three hours and watched golf. On a side note I'm not totally disconnected. I check my laptop and use it when I need it. I just don't carry it around the house while staring at it....so I count that as acceptable.
May 6, 2019
I'm starting to enjoy this. My head is really feeling clear, my memory seems better, and most importantly, I feel better. So this morning I got up and didn't reach for my phone again. Made coffee, turned the news on to check the weather, got everyone ready for school, did my MMPA (Move, Meditate, Plan, Action) and am updating this blog. Feeling pretty good about my decision to leave my toxic smartphone relationship.... so far. I'm going to try and update this daily until the end of May. So stay tuned in.
May 7, 2019
Another morning and and another morning without rolling over to stare at my phone first thing. It's getting easier. I still think about it first thing but am able to get through my morning routine without it. This new dumb phone has zero apps so I can't even check the weather on this thing. No big deal I have a weather rock in my yard. If it's wet....it's raining.
About 9 am I went for jog and I did it without using an exercise app. Instead I used this device called a watch and it worked like charm. And then I met my daughter for lunch at her school and ordered food without using an app. It's crazy! You know they actually have people in these restaurants that are more than willing to take your order at no additional cost? And then instead of streaming music, I popped in an old cd I hadn't listened to in years and one that Pandora never plays. That's right a C freaking D! My kids are digging some Foxy Shazam. Check them out if you're bored and start with the song Holy Touch. It's pretty tame.
I think my biggest take away so far is how unneeded these smartphones really are. I'm literally within arms reach of a computer 75-80% of the time. Why do I need a hand held computer with me the rest of the time? I think the answer is I don't. I'm also surprised how much clearer I'm thinking and how much it feels as if life has slowed down. Also my ability to speak is returning and my texting skills are weakening. Which is something I had hoped for. And it's not even been a week yet.
And for anyone wondering, these newer dumb phones still have data plans available so you can use them as hot spots with a laptop etc...And you can still access the internet with them but it's hard and the experience is sort of crappy so you end up skipping it. I'm to the point I'd rather ask a real person than google most anything.
May 8, 2019
Today was a little harder. I found myself missing my old iPhone today. Like I mentioned previously, it's a bear trying to put contacts into this flip phone and texting is like a trip to the DMV. Long and not enjoyable. I knew that would be the case, but I underestimated how disconnected it would make me feel. Suddenly I don't text my wife every funny thought I have during the day (ask her if you want, I have plenty of funny thoughts) because it's too hard. However on the "flip" side (see what I did there) I'm finding instead of texting those thoughts I save them for later. Lucky her right!I think my favorite thing so far is that I'm not attached to a screen when I leave the house. That was one of the things that really bothered me. I've been on beaches in Hawaii, Florida, and Mexico and checked my iPhone. It sounds even stupider when I type it but it's the truth. Hell I've been in conversation with a human and checked my iPhone before. If you were one of those people I apologize. The thing is I don't like that I did that.... but I could not stop myself.
I'll be honest …I have really leaned on my laptop the last week, but I've found I'm much more intentional with it. I don't just burn time on it and I don't take it in into my car or in the general public per se. It's a tool and not a crutch. And it is as capable as my old iPhone just not as convenient.
May 9-11, 2019
So I skipped a few days because honestly my life isn't all that exciting but this is becoming a trip. I'll skip the boring stuff. It's still really hard to kick the smartphone addiction. It's easier now, but not easy at all. I still think about it most of the day but I'm getting past it to a point and wow I feel like I'm seeing things for the first time.
May 10th wasn't all that hard. I got up worked out, did a bit of office work in my basement and mowed for hours. You read that right. Takes me 3 hours to mow the lawn and apparently it's a 3.2 mile walk also. I wore my Garmin Golf watch while mowing and that's why I know.
Bought a new washer so I posted my old one on Facebook market place. Literally had 60 people message me on this thing. Everyone wanted to buy it. I couldn't keep up with all the messages especially without a smartphone. I was answering people via my laptop which was odd. There were gaps in the conversations because I only answered messages when I opened my laptop. Long story boring I sold the washer to a gal who was relentless with the messaging.
Now here is the hilarious part of my story. I woke up this morning and had 16 messages about the washer and several from the relentless gal. I messaged her back immediately. She agreed to come and get it regardless of the chance of rain. Sweet I'm all about the sale. She shows up at noon today in a truck with Arkansas plates that expired in 2006!!! Pops out of the truck with a bonnet on her head. A Mennonite had been the most relentless Facebook messenger soldier that wanted to buy my used washer. Kidding me!!! Can't make this stuff up. She and her Paw tied it up to an old truck with twine. Seriously they used twine and off they went.
Think about that for a moment. Freaking Mennonites are on the Facebook and buying stuff. 2019 ain't no joke. I'm trying to get rid of my smartphone yet she lives in Arkansas and had never been to Ozark before and rolls up in a truck with plates that expired 13 years ago!!! With a smartphone!!! We could discuss this irony for about a week, but I digress...
Afterwards, I took my son to lunch and then we went to an arcade for several hours. 1984 is the place and it's awesome. Pay $7.50 for all the 80's arcade games you can play all day long. My son and I played Rampage for at least an hour. Then Pacman, Pole Position, Track and Field, Space Invaders, you get the picture. If you live in Springfield go to this place. They jam 80's music the entire time you are. there. Good Enough by Cindy Lauper was playing as we walked in. I felt like a Goonie.
After three hours of this me and my son go to Sam's Club. I needed to buy some meat to smoke for Mother's Day. (if you want to smoke meat and have no idea what to do visit Pitbarrrel.com) I don't have a physical Sam's Card because I use my virtual card on my iPhone typically. So we have to go to the service desk to get a real card.
I tell the lady I don't have a card because I typically use the virtual card on my smartphone and i don't carry a smartphone anymore. She's at least 50 and looks up at me and says "I couldn't do anything without my phone"...to which I reply "that's exactly why I don't carry one now." She's literally amazed. She tells me all the reasons she can't get rid of her phone to which I reply aren't you and I the same age? We did it for years. You already know exactly what to do without a phone. She laughed and kept going. I said you'll be surprised about all the things you see again once you put it down. She replies. "Do you get your life back?" To which I reply yes you do. It's crazy all the things you will notice again. She said she can't do it right now.
No big deal. I'm not blogging to get converts. But there is something to this, that I can't quite put my finger on. So far I've noticed that although people don't think they want real human interaction they crave it. When you actually look people in the eye and speak they turn human again and they love it. And they aren't mad and there aren't stupid political differences. For a moment we just are...and it's great!
May 12-15, 2019
Skipped a few days again and writing this during breakfast. Sort of reflecting on my smartphone addiction. I think it started at my previous job. When I first started there in 2007 I had a flip phone. You cannot get addicted to a flip phone. It's like smoking candy cigarettes. But, eventually we all graduated to iPhones and as cool as they are/were I suddenly lost the ability to turn "off." I would "work" for work's sake on the thing for no good reason other than to convince myself maybe what I did sort of mattered. What started as an email after hours here or there turned into a 24 hour hamster wheel of email, texts, Facebook messenger, twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Suddenly I was connected 24/7.
Like I mentioned when I started this blog I caught myself a few weeks ago just walking through the house staring at that stupid phone for no good damn reason at all. I also would catch myself not able to drive a block without checking it. It was way out of hand. I was checking the thing 100 times a day. I left that job a few months ago but kept the iPhone until a few weeks ago. I think the big problem was after I left my job I hadn't given myself "permission" to behave any differently than I had the past 8 years. I used to always be "on" and I was never really "present" anywhere. Was always too busy doing the iPhone prayer instead of spending quality time with the people right in front of me. I don't have to do that anymore and I'm not going to do that anymore.
For those that don't know I started a Financial Planning business. I started it because I love that stuff and love helping people with it. I also wanted a career that would provide me with a disproportionate amount on income vs. time invested personally by me. I wanted complete autonomy over my schedule and activities. Time to get off the 9-5 Hamster Wheel.
I stopped my "always open" mentality when I gave up that iPhone. Emails are rarely ever urgent and if you expect an immediate reply to an email then you are using the wrong medium to communicate. Email was never intended for immediate response, yet it has become maybe the biggest distraction in the world today. I take Fridays off now to give myself a nice 3 day weekend every weekend and Monday better watch out because it's getting the ax next. I do my work Monday through Thursday from 10-3 or about 20 hours per week. Once I set that schedule, I basically am forcing myself to get my work done in that time frame. I forced myself to look through the lens of an 80/20 Filter to analyze what 20% of my work was giving me 80% of my results. I found that pretty much 50% of my time was wasted on crap. i.e. surfing the net instead of actually doing a meaningful task, checking email constantly, etc. I eliminated that stuff and started doing batch type task management.
Now I look at my tasks each morning and pick the ones that give me the greatest return on my investment. Notice I didn't say the easy tasks or the ones I can finish the quickest, That's what I used to do and for me it was the complete opposite of what I should be doing. So when I'm working I'm actually working and when I'm not I'm not. I check work emails twice a day now. Emails aren't urgent and rarely are they ever important. If it's important people will call you. I know for me, sometimes I would create the urgency that doesn't really even exist and my old smartphone gave me immediate access to those fake "fires." I'm amazed how they put themselves out now.
May 16, 2019
Texting on this flip phone is like carving the ten commandments with a chisel and hammer without God guiding your way. Whew it is painful! If you get a text from me just assume I think the world of you. On a positive I can't text you while talking to anyone and no way I can text and drive now. Straight up death sentence! Which I will admit I love. Driving is fun again. I can see the open road again and floor it when ever I feel like it and talk crap to all you zombies on your smartphones that always deny about texting and driving. I see you now and it's all of you! Quit lying to yourself because I did the same thing too. It's dumb! Admit it now and save your life.
Another cool thing I've I noticed is I put like 1000 songs on my dumbphone and it's great. All songs I want to hear rather than Pandora telling me what I want to hear. Its a total trip hearing songs I actually added rather than a computer telling me what I might like. And these dumbphones are Bluetooth capable. All of them.
And suddenly I don't go over on my data anymore. Trust me you can't go over 3 GB on these phones even if you want to. I suppose you could using it as a hot spot but that's a total different conversation.
Now is where I promote a book I read that inspired me to do this. I get nothing from this, just a book that changed my life. And there have been many but that's another blog. The 4 hour work week by Tim Ferriss convinced me to do this. It's not a get rid of your phone book, but it is a book about being efficient and ditching the distractions in your life. My distraction was my phone. Goodbye to my smartphone for now and I highly recommend that book. You will also find you have much more time to read again. Cheers!
May 17, 2019
Some things I've really enjoyed about my dumb phone so far:
1.) Cost of phone and cost of plan. Phone was $155 and plan is $35/month
2.) Durability. I can drop it without cringing or caring.
3.) Battery. I can go 3 days without charging this bad boy.
4.) Less Distraction. Suddenly my day feels longer and free time seems abundant. I read a book for 3 hours today.
5.) I can leave work whenever I feel like it.
6.) Embracing my inner old dude. I don't need 24/7 connection as a matter of fact, I find it draining and utterly exhausting.
7.) Meaningful Interaction. Two people I care about actually called me this week. Beats a text any day.
8.) Music. I'm listening to way more music without Email, Facebook or Twitter taking my free time. (I'm not anti these mediums just anti on my phone.)
9.) Warren Buffet. He doesn't need one and by all measurable accounts he's one of the smartest guys on the planet.
May 20, 2019
I'm 18 days in. It's been a total trip. As of right this second I'm going to stay with the flip. For me the minor inconveniences of not having a smartphone are not as bad as I thought they might be. And the convenience of not being connected constantly are pretty great.
In 18 days I've read three books. Something I never would've accomplished with my smartphone. I get some of you are able to control the urge to check your smartphone constantly, however, I was not able to do so. And in reality, I never needed to. I did it out of boredom, for the most pat, but what is boredom? I didn't actually give myself a chance to be bored!
Our phones have become an integral part of our lives. We hold them physically close to us all day long. We look at them for hours at a time. Some of us even sleep with them. They are pretty dependable companions. They help distract us when we're bored; they make us feel good about ourselves, they get us out of awkward social situations, yada, yada, yada.
But honestly, I often used my phone to feed my worst impulses. Don't get me wrong, I use other things to feed my worst impulses too. McDonald's anyone? But, generally speaking, I don't have a cheeseburger in my pocket at the ready for the very moment that shameful urge arises.
I still have a computer. I am not, by any means, unplugged or disconnected. I'm just taking back control of a relationship that took over my life in the quietest of ways. I don't need a smartphone. I have everything I need without it.
May 23, 2019
So I'm 21 days into this new life without a smartphone and things are starting to shift. First off I didn't blog every day like I had planned on doing and that's ok. Some days nothing really happened. You know the days I'm talking about. They type of days you just do what you have to do and need to do to keep this thing called life going. The no drama type days that sort of exist in our life because they have to and because we need them to or we would all go crazy.
I have noticed one thing though. And maybe the most important thing is I do what I want now. I'm reading books at an almost frenetic pace. Our local library is having some sort of contest about logging reading hours and you can win a basket or something at the end. I don't know exactly what it is. Wife talked me into it and I said "ok" not really knowing what I was agreeing to. Anyway so far I'm in first place. lol! I got a free book and shopping bag from our library for reading like a freak. Not necessarily a bad thing but if you know me, it's a bit surprising.
Like Newton's third law states, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. My action of ditching my smartphone has led to the equal and opposite reaction of reading and actually doing things I like to do and accomplishing things I wanted to get done. Although obvious, this is pretty enlightening to me. That time I used to spend buried in my phone making sure I was caught up on what everyone else was doing has now become my time to do things I want to do. Pretty cool really.
If a day goes great we get 16 hours to be awake and live. We all get the same amount of time each day how we use it is ultimately our choice. I was giving my smartphone approximately 3 hours of my day which is nuts! However, after doing research I was way below average. American adults spend more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media, according to a new study by market-research group Nielsen. Eleven hours a day! You're only awake like 16-18! That includes Computers, Smartphones, Video Games and Television. That's insane to me. Eleven hours of every day spent on screens and we wonder why we are all so divided. We are feeding the machine! This isn't meant to be some political post, so I digress.
My big challenge comes this weekend. I'm going out of town for the weekend with no smartphone or a computer. I heard you gasp! It's going to happen and I'm going to win....I think. We'll see. I feel I can do it now with no problem, but I may be way wrong. I'll bring a few books and hope and do my best. Just me, my family, books, and dumb phone. Wish me luck.
May 28, 2019
So I made it through the holiday weekend with no smartphone and I didn't take my laptop either. I will admit I used the hotel business center to check email each night for like 10 minutes both times. Truth be told not having a smartphone with me was surprisingly easy.
Made some driving mistakes but they were minuscule and I learned my way around a town again that I haven't navigated by myself in years. Always used my smartphone when I was there in the recent past. Now I know my way around and can find places without smartphone help. It's almost surreal how easy directions are and how you remember them when you actually do it.
My Dad can can tell you how to get most places by road name and direction without a phone. I want to be able to do that do. I can't remember directions if I use a smartphone and for me that's a hindrance. I also noticed that smartphones default to interstates and highways and, for the most part, skip the roads less traveled.
So far the only thing I miss is how contacts automatically sync with your smartphone. That's basically it. Everything else is a walk in the park and not hard at all without it. Just takes some readjusting.
I started this as a month long experiment. That was my goal. Almost there now. First days were hard as I blogged about, almost brutal. As the days have gone by, I'm way less dependent on technology. Probably placebo effect but I feel smarter and I know I'm way less distracted. Instead of checking Social Media all weekend I finished another book and focused on goals both personal and business related.
I know this isn't for everyone. Kudos to you if you can use your smartphone without wasting time on it. If you can I'd love to chat with you bout it. You are on to something I couldn't crack. Would love to know what you do to limit usage. In the meantime, I'm now the guy that pays for 3GB a month and uses like .07 per month. You're welcome high data users I'm subsidizing your usage! LOL! I'd love your thoughts on this blog and my experiment. Did it help you or make you rethink anything? Or were you just like that Coleman dude is a nutcase?
Probably got one more blog in me about this. Would love to hear opinions either way or questions if you have any. I think I'm #flipphonenation for life after this experience. It's helped me. That's all I wanted.
June 4, 2019
So it's been a month now. Over all experiment has been a plus. Pros have outweighed the cons, but the cons have been difficult for me.
Major Cons:
Not having access to my calendar on the smartphone. (First World problems)
Texting is a nightmare on the flip, but sort of the point.
Photos and Video stink on the flip.
No GPS maps on the flip.
Major Pros:
Way Way less distractions,
Don't text meaningless things like I used to.
Watched things in real time instead of videoing and taking pictures.
Actually remembered things on my calendar.
Was at my kid's swim meet all weekend so a bit of a struggle. Typically I take videos and pics with my smartphone, but I didn't this weekend. No big deal I watched instead. And in down time at the meets I check my phone typically. Didn't this weekend.
Then I spent a lot of the morning trying to justify to myself how I was cured and needed to go back to my smartphone. Bargaining with myself and the whole nine. You've learned your lesson Brian. You won't waste time anymore...On and on was the internal dialogue in my head. Long story boring, I'm not ready yet. This experiment is "over" for now, but I'm keeping the flip. Saw more pros than cons for me internally and emotionally.
Just like any battery, being on all the time was draining to me. I didn't function well with the smartphone. I know that's opposite of many of you, but for me I was actually more efficient with things I wanted to do and less captive to things I didn't really care about without the smartphone.
Had two issues that having a smartphone would've made easier...i.e. car died and needed roadside. Took 14 minutes to get an actual person because I couldn't click the link the were texting me. But still got my jump start so no big deal. Totally spaced on an appt. because I had set it up to notify me on my phone. Only happened once in 30 days. Totally minor issues.
In the end, I found that I don't need it. I want it at times but don't need it. Same as any vice. A little is good but too much is detrimental. I was in the too much phase with my smartphone. Maybe that changes some day, but for now if you need me call me. It would be cool to actually talk. We can social media, email and text all day long but nothing replaces eye to eye contact and real conversation. Now get off my lawn!
Update July 15, 2019
Switched back to my iPhone 8 after approx. 73 days off. Only switched back for one reason. Texting was just barbaric on that flip phone and let's face it, sometimes texting is just more convenient. However, I only believe that to be true if it's a one off type question and response. If you're going back and forth for 30 minutes a phone call accomplishes this in about 5 minutes.
Had the iPhone back for several days now and other than texting conveniences, I'm not missing anything else. My screen time has averaged about 90 minutes a day this week, way down form the 8 hours per day from when I first started this blog.
We will see where this goes, but I feel like I learned my lesson in these last 72 days. Like anything else your phone is a tool. But it's very easy to misuse that tool. The main thing I learned was actually speaking to people is so important! Nothing replaces that. A call trumps a text almost all of the time. A text should be sent for a quick question or answer and not a conversation. And most importantly get off the damn thing on occasion. I'm tired of seeing people in social situations glued to their phones. Life is happening right n front of you. Live there and not on your phone.
Hope to keep these things in mind and I kept the dumb phone just in case I lose track next time. Smart phones are a great tool if we use them as such. If you don't they can take over your life. Cheers! Hope this helps someone.
August 22, 2019
So switching back to my iPhone was a total fail. Started off fine. My screen time was hanging around 90-120 minutes per day for the first few weeks. Then much like death by 1000 cuts it suddenly started creeping up. I'll add one more app, it will help me and make my life more convenient. One more app, led to one more app, led to one more app. Yesterday I hit my limit again. I could feel that stupid phone draining me again just like it had before. Checked my screen time for the day and it was 6 hours! That's it! Something has to give. Logged into Verizon this morning and switched back to my LG Exalt... aka the dumb phone.
One thing that made this change back possible was my hairdresser. I know hilarious, Brian has a hairdresser. I know I don't have much hair, but I enjoy the experience. lol! Anyway, was talking to her about how hard it was texting on my dumb phone and that's one of the reasons I switched back to my iPhone. She started talking about how she used to be so good at T9 texting. Literally, I had never heard of that before in my life. So googled it when I got home. As it turns out, T9 texting is pretty cool and super easy. Thanks Alicia. Suddenly texting on my dumb phone isn't hard at all now.
Heard a cool quote the other day. You change something when your desire is greater than your distractions. A simpler way to put it would be when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired. That's when change happens. And that motto works with everything. You will make change when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
So phase two of dumb phone begins. I'll see how it goes. Stay tuned for updates.
*For any grammar police out there, I realize this writing isn't perfect and there are numerous errors. This is cathartic for me and hopefully it helps someone else that was dealing with smartphone addiction. I'm not editing this closely nor do I have any desire to make it perfect.
Thanks for reading,
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
