Back to the Dumb Phone

It was about a year ago that I decided to switch back to a flip phone and ditch my smartphone. Now before you think that I went back to the dark ages, I will add that we have a family iPad on which I still do my online banking, shopping and the like. Perhaps someday I will even get rid of that convenience. It all started when I began to remember what my mom's days were like when my siblings and I were growing up. I had memories of slower, quieter and more peaceful days, the kinds of days that I wanted for me and my kids, but that I did not have.

There I was with four children all under the age of six years and a newborn; my life felt anything but slow and quiet. Then, add in phone calls, text messages, email alerts and 25 other app notifications. Talk about over-stimulation! I know all the common responses: "Well, you can turn the notifications off", "You can limit your screen time", etc. And I say, that is true. I was just not disciplined enough to be able to control my screen time. Smartphones are sneaky. Five minutes always turned into 15 for me, and I always found myself justifying why I needed more time on my phone. At the end of the day, it was not how I wanted to live my life; it was not how I wanted to spend the precious days of motherhood. Also, I did not want my children's memory of me to be a woman who was always staring at an inanimate, brain-sucking device. I do appreciate technology, but I want to live my life instead of watching other people live theirs, and going back to the dumb phone was how I needed to do it. 

Now that it has been a year, I will say that I never plan on going back! There are many reasons that I could give, but one of the main reasons is the peaceful state of mind that I have now, more than I did when owning a smartphone. Initially, I was scared of giving up my smartphone (a little too scared) and that in itself was an indicator that I needed to be able to let it go. I went back to the old days of taking notes on paper and reading actual books. Living this way may just be a personal preference, but I love it! 

It is interesting to me that, although I still have the same number of duties and responsibilities as I did before the phone switch, I feel more peaceful, relaxed and grounded. I am not saying that this is the way every mother needs to be; some cannot forego the smartphone for work purposes. Yet, in a world where we find female stress in abundance, I do think that this is something that women should consider, or at least try for a while. I believe that if a woman gave up her smartphone for at least three months, she may find that life has so much more to offer her than a screen does.