We all already know our over-reliance on phones, social media, and technology in general are ruining our brains. At least, that’s what it feels like to me. I used to be on my phone up until the very moment I went to sleep, and as soon as I woke up in the morning I had my phone in hand. It gave me headaches. It made my eyes hurt. It made me unhappy, but I didn’t know how to stop. I hated how I spent hours on end doing nothing, just endless scrolling.
This year, I decided to make a change. I decided that I would control my phone instead of letting my phone control me. I taught myself to have a healthy relationship with my phone, social media, and the technology that surrounds me. It’s hard at first, but it’s worth it. How did I do it? For me, it took four main steps.I drained the life out of my iPhone
Okay, that might be an exaggeration. I didn’t exactly drain the life out of my phone, but I did take away it’s color, which seems pretty darn similar to me.
In one of the many Slack groups that I’m in, someone suggesting turning your phone screen to grayscale, one of the many display accommodations Apple gives us. Why on earth would I do that? This message from a friend who’s also done it explains the reasoning perfectly:
It looks boring. Drab, dull, and gray. There’s none of the whimsy fun of my Instagram app beckoning me to scroll endlessly through colorful photos. There’s no glaring red of app notifications begging me to check in. Apps aren’t certain colors for no reason. Color theory is an entire field I admittedly know very little about, but I know that every part of an app’s design has a purpose.One such purpose is to get us to spend as much time on the app as possible.
In this pre-Oz color scheme, my phone is no longer a fun place to be, and I’m fine with that. The utter monotony makes me want to set it down and take a break. Even better: when I do decide to use it, the muted colors and tones are a lot easier on my eyes. Flux has nothing on this.
I killed social media
Not so much. But I did kill its presence on my phone. A lot of my job involves social media, which means I’m already on Twitter and Facebook for longer than any human being has a right to be. And yet, when I would get home from work I would pick up my phone and start scrolling some more. Even when nothing new was happening on my timeline I found myself scrolling. It became a habit, an instinctive urge that I didn’t know how to fight.
I limited my personal social media use to desktop only. It took time getting used to it, but now I’ve gotten to the point where I do about 5–10 minutes of scrolling before I do my nightly routine, just so see what’s been happening. When I get to work I do the same, catching up with the news, pop culture, and memes of the day before. If something super huge happens, my friends usually text me in all-caps screaming about it, anyway.Of course, these new changes have left me with a lot more free time. And like I said, being on my phone, scrolling down something is a habit that’s been pretty hard to kick. So I decided to turn this habit into a positive one.
I read
That’s it. That’s the secret. Instead of mindless scrolling on Twitter, I scroll on my Kindle. I downloaded Libby, the app that my local library uses for e-books. Wherever you live, I’m sure yours has one too.Nicole Zhu, an engineer at Vox, inspired me to try reading 52 books in 52 weeks. Reading for fun isn’t something that I’ve done since high school, and I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to get back in the game. Since I have my phone on me all the time, I’m taking advantage of that and using it for good. I’ve read seven books so far and about to start on my eighth.If reading isn’t your thing, there are so many other ways you can use your phone to be productive. Learn a language using Duolingo, or one of the many language learning tools in the App Store. Sharpen your mind with Sudoku. Learn an instrument. We have the entire world at the tips of our fingers. Why not make some good out of it?
I take time to have fun
I keep a few game apps on my phone for those times when I’m having a bad day and just need a break from my brain. My favorite at the moment is Adventure Communist, an idle-clicker game that’s similar to the well-know Adventure Capitalist. In my opinion, Adventure Communist is more fun.
I check it every so often to see how many resources I’ve accrued, buy some in-game items, rank up a level or two, and then it’s back to idle mode. Idle-clicker games are perfect for a recovering phone addict like me because the more time I spend away from it, the better I do.
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