When I was growing up, anytime the phone on the wall rang, everyone would scramble to answer it. Being the youngest of three, I didn’t often get calls, but even so I ran to try to get it first. It didn’t matter if we were eating dinner, or watching TV or in the middle of a discussion, everything took a back seat to the trumpet call of our black rotary phone. It taught us well. It taught an entire civilization well, it seems.
Fast forward 50+ years. Few homes are now equipped with phones or have one hanging on the wall. Rotary dials are only seen in the museum or on Antique Road Show segments on PBS. But, we’ve stayed true to our roots, and the phone, now tiny, digital and living in our pockets, still reigns supreme. I read recently (on my phone!) that the average teen spends 6-8 hours every day staring at some sort of screen. Yikes! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my phone. I won’t say I love it, I’m constantly aware of how much time it can easily sap from my day, but at the same time, I do enjoy being able to check the weather, the news, spend a few minutes on Facebook to see what my friends are about for the day, and get and answer emails. Sometimes I even get or make a voice call with it. The trouble is, I mostly think that I’m using my phone in controlled moderation, when in reality it’s the entity in control, not me. Just like our black rotary, when my phone rings, I drop everything to answer it. It doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t have to ring – just ding, or chime, or vibrate or some other catchy sound to indicate that something new has arrived, and I feel a need to look and see. (And even if it doesn’t make any noise for a while, I still feel the pull to just check…) Often, the chime is a notification that someone I hardly know has posted something I truly don’t have any interest in. It doesn’t matter. Once I have my phone in my hand, well, I guess it won’t hurt to check email, weather, news, play a game, look at Pinterest, and peruse any other site I have connections with. Before I know it, I’ve spent an irrational amount of time focused on updates that are truly inconsequential at the expense of time better spent. I can’t even count the number of times Karl and I have been chatting, my phone chirps, and I ignore or only half listen to him in favor of some Facebook post about someone’s hamster. I really hate that. I’m better than that. Karl is much more important than that.
So, I am trying to reject and reprogram that behavior in myself. Right now, I am doing it ‘cold turkey’. The reason this “Monday” blog is being posted later in the week Is because we’ve been camping in a spot that has absolutely no service. Nothing. Glorious. My phone has been off and ignored now for nearly a week. I feel so free! Instead of attending to my phone, I’ve been finding music in the wind in the trees, actually listening to my husband, watching squirrels and deer and hummingbirds. Thinking my own thoughts. My time is my own. I like it this way.
My goal will be to maintain my distance and retain my self-control when I’m back within a service area… I’ll keep you posted…:)
