First blog post

I’m just looking to get this site up and running so I’ll keep this brief!

I’m someone with a tendency to obsess. The call of a distraction in my pocket on a smartphone is irresistable. Like many, I look at it any time things stop moving around me. I look at it when I’m waiting for my coffee to brew. When I’m walking to my next meeting at work. When I think of a question and I NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER RIGHT NOW.

Rarely do I use it as a “phone”. I didn’t like how my device use affected my sleep, sense of well-being, connection, etc. It’s handy, it’s expected, but it’s also a wedge between my face and the rest of the world. I decided to change that!

I started using a “dumb” phone yesterday. I’ve already called my grandmother back, felt more focused at work, and also felt the urges to reach for the smart device that used to be there, to look up who was in that one movie, or check the stock prices, or check Mastodon, or LinkedIn, or see what I’ve been missing in the world. It’s an urge that will continue, until it doesn’t.

So, that’s the big news. It’s an experiment, to see if I can live like we did in 2002, with T9 texting, flip phones that you could slam shut decisively, and no way to know what restaurants within a 5-mile radius had the best kebab- unless you actually asked someone!