Published on 12, July, 2020
So as of this last week I no longer own a smartphone. I have decided to go fully old school. I have an old LG phone that looks like a Blackberry and just texts and calls with a basic VGA camera and no internet. I have even bought myself an old cassette walkman and I am going to put some of my favourite albums onto cassette so I have something to listen to
I tried all this a few years ago and it helped my mental health so much, made my head so much clearer not having the visual stimulation and endless sensory overload of having the internet in my pocket all day and endless apps and social media sites. After a couple of years I ended up getting a smartphone again, mainly cos of work and the fact that everyone there talked on whats app. Im not at work anymore now though, at least not in an office full of people at least
Might even get a camera and develop photos!
Feels like everyone is living their whole lives through these little screens in their pockets and I just want to get away from it and feel alive again. Also, society keeps saying its impossible to live without one these days so kinda makes me want to try!
I’m one of the small minority here who love my smartphone, these are the reasons:
I have excellent control over who can and can’t contact me
I have all my key needs in my bag when out and about such as the banking apps, maps, and comms with my partner
It is a brilliant way to help with my sound world, a particular and problematic part of my ASC, so I have a hefty downloaded collection of music and podcasts I access any time any where
The camera is excellent and a joy, my captures of modern architecture and cats especially being particularly pleasing
I can see the important comms from health providers, tax, benefit, volunteering etc as soon as they appear
I do though maintain strict and secure control over it. So I do not allow unnecessary apps to proliferate, I keep it’s iOS updated to ensure security features are up to date, I regularly check all the settings to maximise privacy, eg: microphone, camera, tracking, geo location.
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I do all of this but given the choice, I’d rather not have it despite the convenience - I’d resisted getting one before Covid, but my current job has an app for shifts at work, the buses have an app for monthly tickets - in many ways we are being effectively forced to have one, which even the guy in the Apple Store was saying the other day - I have an iPhone 12 Pro, which iPhone 13 came out only 3 weeks after I’d bought mine - the guy in the Apple Store said that there is not much difference between it, 13, 13 Pro, 14, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max and not many people are even bothering to upgrade anymore like they used to before Covid