Put It Down

 

Are you a nomophobe?  Does the thought of losing your cell phone give you cold sweats and keep you up at night?  Are there callouses on your thumbs and forefinger from endless text messaging and scrolling?  Do you dream about the next great upgrade?  Do you go into sheer panic when you realize you left the house without your phone?  And then turn around and go back to get it?  Even if it means you’ll be late?  Is your cell phone and the case you keep it in fancier than your car?  Does it have a name?  Do you love your phone more than your first born?  If so, for the love of all that is holy, put it down!

 

All joking aside, the majority of cell phone users have an unhealthy relationship with their device.  Many are addicted to it to the point that it never leaves them.  Ever!  The mere thought of putting it down causes such emotional and physical anxiety they simply cannot do it.  But the fact is, hanging onto it all the time causes even more stress and anxiety than they could possibly imagine.

 

Consistent cell phone use leads to sleep loss, unhealthy behaviors, low self esteem, increased stress and anxiety, agitation, mental health issues, low physical activity, unhealthy habits, poor nutrition, physical injuries, car accidents, the list goes on and on.  Why do we invite this into our lives? 

 

Don’t believe me?  Research it.  For our own sake and sanity we need to put them down and take a break.  We all need to take breaks from pretty much everything, except for maybe breathing, but for the rest we need take time away.  Nothing in excess is ever good for us, including oxygen, so put down the phone.  It is amazing how much better you feel when you do.

 

My unhealthy relationship with my phone is that I wish I didn’t have one.  I don’t like what they do – eavesdropping, tracking, distractions, targeted advertising, loading game apps without my permission, etc.  I hate intensely dislike them and everything they represent.  In retaliation I have a very basic android with a very basic pay as I go plan.  It is used for phone calls or to text someone a message and for them to answer me back.  Please don’t send me memes.  I have never set up my voicemail and I don't want to.

I will admit Google Maps comes in handy on occasion unless it gives me the wrong directions and gets me lost in which case I will curse it like a sailor.  I rarely use it for anything else.

 

I don’t live for my phone and I don’t expect it to live for me either.  I can leave the house without it and I am completely fine with that.  In fact, I feel FREE whenever I do that and I do it often.  If I let it go dead and miss half a dozen phone calls or a dozen text messages I don’t care.  Sorry, but I don’t.  I also know that I am not the norm.  “But what if you need to make an urgent call while you are out?  There are no payphones?”  Seriously?!  I know that everyone around me has a phone and will call 911 if something bad happens.  And film it too.  Yeah, there’s that.

 

My favorite things about my phone are Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb.  Sometimes I forget to take those off.  Oops!

 

The average person spends 4.5 hours a day on their phones.  Not me!  We are not friends.  I have more important things to do like eating, going to the bathroom (no way is that puppy going with me!), clipping my toenails, taking out the trash, getting a colonoscopy, just about anything you can think of.  If I go outside to check the mail my phone stays in the house, somewhere.  I do not need to know where it is at all times because I don’t care.  There is no endless stash of selfies on my phone either.  I know what I look like and that I’m good looking, I don’t need proof.

 

My phone is just another tool, kind of like a screwdriver.  When I need it I use it and when I don’t, I don’t.  To be perfectly honest, on any given day, I’m more apt to have a screwdriver in my hand than a phone.  How about you?  How important is that cell phone to you?  How much time do you spend mindlessly scrolling on your phone each day?  Are you a nomophobe?