CxD #276: Phone Addiction 📵 + Suicide savior + The Infinities
Approximately 95% of my students are addicted to their pocket computers. Unless prompted, they will prefer to look into their black mirror rather than talk to one another.
I, too, way more often than is good for me, non-consciously interrupt and sever my attention by grabbing for the gizmo. NOT GOOD.
If there’s a saving grace about my own struggle is that I’m aware of it— nay, over the past several years, fewer topics have concerned me more than this one. Ask my students about my crotchety curmudgeonly demeanor regarding even seeing one of Beelzebub’s devices inside my classroom during discussion.
There’s an experimental school in Australia in which the students live for an entire year with no access to their addictive computer pocket gizmo— the students write letters home to their parents using pen and paper and the post office. I’m gifting y’all this article because it will make you think more clearly about your own assumptions about the ingredients for a healthy life.
What We Gained and Lost when Our Daughter Unplugged for a School Year
I’ve posted about the light phone before, but here it is again— a minimalist phone designed to be just enough.
https://www.thelightphone.com/
My initial attempt to use it failed for two reasons.
The SIM card I received was connected to an old phone number that was on all kinds of spam lists and I’d get constant messages from telemarketers and miscellaneous ass clowns; this happened again when I replaced it with another random SIM card, and I gave up (instead of trying a third time).
The second reason is that my iPhone is also the key to my car and I can control things like the Nest thermostat with it. I’m also using it to study Italian everyday when I walk Bunk; there are lots of ways its integrated in my daily routines. So I’ve convinced myself it’s become a necessity to live and breathe, without which I’d be like a fish out of water.
Perhaps I’m being lazy; maybe I’ll try again with the Light Phone? Or maybe I need to check myself into gizmo rehab or…?
Cal Newport’s new book, Slow Productivity, reminds me that deep work and deep focus depend on our attention being protected rather than constantly interrupted and fragmented.
I’m going to experiment (again) by leaving the enemy of my focused attention in a separate room more often and will try not to take it everywhere I go. Out of sight, out of mind.
One starting place: get an alarm clock for your bedroom— do not bring the slithery monster into your place of rest.
Yesterday I crossed paths outside my home with a young man just walking up and down the street, doing nothing besides pacing slowly. We spoke and he said “I’m trying not to use my phone first thing in the morning; so I’m just walking for a few minutes phone-free to let myself breathe.” He enjoyed meeting Bunk and I enjoyed speaking to a neighbor.
Worth reading:
In case you missed my conversation with one of the most graceful and powerful poets writing today, Joanna Klink, do yourself the favor: