Phone Famine

A week ago, my friend Tyler challenged me to go a week without using my iPhone and if I could do it, he would give me a prize. He challenged my sister and another friend but they both immediately said they couldn't do it. Even though it made me super nervous to even think about going without my phone for a week, I accepted the challenge and guess what?! I won!

I turned off my phone completely and didn't even touch it for a week. The first couple of days were the hardest, mainly because I use my phone for everything, just like everyone does. I had to figure out other ways to connect with my family and friends, which I realized was the hardest part of not having a phone. It was as if just knowing that I can just call my family on my phone was a kind of security and not having that was hard. I felt a little disconnected from everyone and everything. By the third or fourth day, I was mainly just annoyed that I didn't have it, but other than that I was fine. I started using sticky notes again like I used to. If I had a planner, I would have probably used that, too, if it was to last longer than a week. The best was having to look up directions to girl's house on googlemaps and then having to write down the address so that I could know where to go. I was a little worried some emergency would happen and I would have needed my phone to get help, but fortunately nothing like that happened.

I learned a lot of things from this experience, though, that made it all worth it.

Things I missed the most:
Quick texts to my mom and sister
Taking pictures on my phone and sharing them via instagram or facebook
Using my phone for good things like: contacting people when I think about them or they need help, scheduling, taking notes, reading scriptures and conference issues, hymn book, contacting home teachers and visiting teach-ees, getting directions when lost

Things I didn't miss:
Checking my phone when I didn't need to (bad habit I realized I had)
Going on it when I was bored and didn't need to (okay, I missed this a couple times...)
Allowing my phone (including texts and email received and to send) to distract me when I was studying the scriptures or doing other things, particularly visiting with people in person.
(TEXTS CAN WAIT, EMAILS CAN WAIT)

What I did instead:
Actually read a book on my short break at work
Facetime with my family
Emailed my family a little more often
Had focused scripture study and prayer
Had more focused and meaningful interactions with people

In today's world, I believe phones are necessary for many reasons, but this little experiment shows that someone like me can live without one for a little while. I guess the biggest challenge for everyone is to take note of how often we use our phones for the unnecessary things that get in the way of the more important things like face-to-face meaningful and focused interactions with people.

In case you are wondering, the prize was worth it. :)