Your smart phone is subtly destroying your soul and you know it - Part II

The greatest quality of life change since ditching my smart phone is the freedom I've gained from not feeling like I need to be in the presence of my phone.

I cannot overstate how powerful this is.

It's a weird atomic essay to write, but it's important to share the nuances to my life with my smart phone.

Some of my basic smart phone quant:

• Unlocked my phone 100+ times a day.
• Actively in my phone 4+ hours a day. Way over this if I was playing a game (Clash Royale)
• Touch and think about my phone hundreds of times a day.

My qualitative observations on my smart phone use:

• Wake up and the first thing I do is grab my phone. No good morning to my wife or kids.
• Constantly placing my hands in my pocket (I use a fanny pack) to just touch my phone. 😑
• Mini-panic attacks when I can't find my phone.
• Literally, cannot leave my house without it.

Are you reading this and nodding your head? I'm sure you can relate.

Herein lies the real problem: Our smart phone usage and the negative impact it brings to our lives is very subtle and thus difficult to face.

Smart phones and the accompanying social apps are so part of our culture that it almost seems silly to asses the idea of ditching it all together.

I know I'm being real critical on smart phones. So let me make explicit, I do not think smart phones are evil. On the contrary, I think they're incredible devices that are ultimately net-positive for society.

However, we are still learning how to properly integrate them into our lives.

For those of you (like me) who are below-average disciplined human beings, it's just so easy for us to get addicted to powerful things that do fun.

We'll unpack more of my realizations and flip phone setup over the next few atomic essays.

For Part I check out https://www.allarde.com/your-smart-phone-is-subtly-destroying-your-soul-and-you-know-it/