Smartphone Self-Care
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For a High Quality Quarantine, I'm Switching Off My Smartphone
WFT: Work From Tub
Our digital lives have taken on a whole new significance during this time of coronavirus. We’re all trying to find ways to maintain our sanity, especially in regards to technology. As we restructure our lives to flatten the curve, we recognize how necessary our smartphone/the internet/social media can be as lifelines to our friends, family and work. But we’re also being confronted with the flip side to all this “connection”: distraction, mindlessness, and anxiety.
As Cal Newport says in this interview with GQ, how we use technology affects the quality of our quarantine. And although we don’t have much choice about the challenging circumstances we’re in, we can choose how we interact with technology.
Several of my friends have noticed the negative ways that overuse of technology impacts their state of mind. The feeling of falling into an Instagram black hole and reemerging two hours later, dazed and confused. The tightness in your throat as you immerse yourself into one doomsday news article after another. The staggering loneliness you feel after a deep dive on Facebook. The racing heartbeat and sweaty palms as you sit glued in front of the television for most of your waking hours. The disappointment with yourself at the end of the day when you realize that you haven’t been mindful or intentional with your time and energy.
As a result, many of us have started implementing makeshift rules in order to regain control over technology and curtail its negative impacts. One friend decided that she would only check the news during odd-numbered hours of the day. (When I suggested that she limit her news consumption to odd-numbered days of the month, she said “No way!”) Another friend has deactivated her social media accounts for a much-needed break from the noise. Someone else I know has vowed to call one friend a day to connect meaningfully.
As for me, I’ve also developed a new quarantine self-care habit: turning off my phone for most of the day.
One of the guests on Hurry Slowly (can't remember who!) made the passing comment that he was vastly less productive and creative if he started his day on his phone. The idea stuck with me. I started getting into the habit of turning off my phone at night so that I wouldn’t turn to it first thing in the morning. Sometimes I would meditate and then rush to switch on my phone and dive into all that I'd missed in the eight hours that I'd been asleep. Other days, I’d last until lunchtime.
But this practice has taken on a new dimension in the last few weeks. As it turns out, I feel more healthy, creative, and serene when my phone time is strictly limited.
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, I was living for my group chats. Every day, there was new information as we all struggled to figure out what was going on and how it would affect our lives. My relationship with WhatsApp started to resemble the relationship I had with AIM in the early days of instant messaging, back in high school, when I’d spend all hours of the day and night chatting back and forth with friends. WhatsApp became this very dynamic and alive place where multiple conversations were ongoing all the time. And, as a loquacious extrovert, I gravitate towards these type of scenarios, always one who’s happy to talk and interact with others.
But let me tell you what – it was exhausting. I realized that I was getting little else done because my mind was always preoccupied with what was happening on the chats. Hence, the era of the great smartphone shutdown.
Don’t get me wrong—I still adore chatting with my loved ones. And that’s why I’ve informally dedicated the later part of the day for communicating and connecting. I know that, as soon as I switch on my phone, my attention will be zapped for quite a while, so I just try to delay that as long as possible.
I must say, I’m quite content with the results. Without my phone as a constant distraction, I can spend my time mindfully doing “deep work,” a term coined by Cal Newport. Sometimes that “work” involves working with clients (I ghostwrite memoirs for a living) or working on my own memoir about my father’s illness. Other times, that deep attention goes towards preparing a meal for my partner and me, or indulging in a soak in our patio bathtub (my saving grace right now--summer has arrived in full force here in the tropics).
Instead of my phone being a constant source of distraction, I am using it more intentionally to tune in and connect with my community. As a result, I am using my smartphone more as the tool that it’s intended to be, instead of feeling used and abused by my device. And it’s an empowering feeling!
It’s a makeshift rule in a dynamic situation, so I stay flexible about it and try not to be punishing with myself. Sometimes, I get around my own rule by using my husband’s phone to text someone. Other times, I ignore the rule and find myself falling into a smartphone rabbit hole—but I try to catch myself and regain my sanity by switching off my device. I’m a work-in-progress, folks.
An Ask
I made a short survey about your digital life during the pandemic and would be SO GRATEFUL if you filled it out--and passed it around! THANK YOU!
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