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Day without a phone

Gaelle

Gaelle

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Pollywog
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I hear that today is a day without phones.

Can you go without your phone ?

With today's smartphones, the "phone" function is a bit outdated. What do you do with your phone ?
 
Can you go without your phone ? With today's smartphones, the "phone" function is a bit outdated. What do you do with your phone ?
I can do without making phone calls.
But I use my phone for many other reasons.
I use it to keep track of my children's grades, to send emails, to scrapbook, to play games, and as a GPS. It's a jack-of-all-trades device.
And of course, when I'm not with the computer, I come here at The Lilypad with my phone :giggle .
So a day without a phone is impossible (for me).
 
No I cannot go without my phone.. LOL Sad but true

I have to have it on me for emergency as it makes me feel safer.

I text with my BFF and family, I check different things, I take photos with it, and I use it for my books that i read from the library.

I think I could go without it for a little bit but I feel safer and relaxed when I know I have it.
 
I don't use a smart phone. I have a small basic pay as you go mobile phone and I only have it because we no-longer have public phone boxes in every neighbourhood. So if I ever need to make an emergency call I need to carry a phone to do that. Most people don't have the number for it - only those who might need to contact me in an emergency. I have a landline that we use for phone calls and it has an answer phone on it. So if I'm out when people call they can tell the answer phone or call back later.
 
Can you go without your phone ?
I could, but I still always have it with me. Sometimes I wonder how I "survived" my previous life without a smartphone.
With today's smartphones, the "phone" function is a bit outdated. What do you do with your phone ?
Chating, get information, and redeem coupons when I shop. Don't forget photos ... :whistle
 
I would be lost without it. I play games on it, listen to music, listen to my books on Audible. I use maps to get to places. I sometimes use my phone for shopping, paying for stuff.
 
I often think about the days before we carried our phones everywhere.
If I was at home, I would survive without it for a day, but I would probably worry that my kids might need me for something or I'd miss a call from one of the grandbabies.
If I'm out, I need it! I use Apple Pay for almost everything and I want to be able to get in touch with someone if something comes up.
I mostly use my phone for chatting with the kids and friends, taking photos, GPS, paying for things, and scrolling social media. I very very seldom actually talk to someone on the phone. I do FaceTime with the kids/grandkids several times a week.
 
I don’t think I could go a day without my phone. I grab it first thing in the morning to check the weather and TLP. In fact, I’m on my phone right now typing this reply… Lol :giggle

I use my phone for FaceTime with the grandkids, GPS, checking in at TLP, reading/listening,my scriptures, playing games, checking the news/weather, taking photos, social media, clipping coupons for grocery store apps, shopping lists, recipes, etc. The list goes on and on.

It’s definitely weird when I don’t have my phone with me. I don’t know how we survived before cell phones.
 
I would absolutely NOT be able to go without my phone! I have alarms set for when to take my medicine & when to have lunch (cuz I always forget and then gets so hungry before dinnertime I could kill people). I keep track of my eating with the WeightWatchers app. I have my meditation app. I have a habit tracker to help me remember things like brushing my teeth, go for a walk etc. The calender keep track of appointments, trash pick up, birthdays, holidays etc.

Life with ADHD is special. LOL The mobile phone is such a blessing for us with neurodivergent brains.

But to be honest, I probably use it mostly to play Happy Color.
 
First, I want to say that I definitely could spend a day without my phone, in the right circumstances. Like if it were intentional, not an ordinary work day.

I have been awake for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Today is a semi-ordinary work day. We're going in 2 hours late because we're still digging out of the storm that lay a blanket of ice over the region nearly two weeks ago.

Here are the ways I've used my phone already.
  1. The alarm woke me up.
  2. I listen to podcasts every day. This morning I think I got through about 3 (I skip bits sometimes).
  3. I play games most days, while listening to those podcasts, usually including, as it did this morning, Word Wow Around The World and Zen Coloring.
  4. One of the pictures I colored was Susan L. Taylor, in honor of black history month, and since I didn't recognize the name, I googled her and read the beginning of her Wikipedia entry.
  5. The Reminders app gives me notifications reminding me of things I want to do.
  6. I warmed up on the treadmill with my phone in hand to count my steps (just ten minutes, around 1000 steps).
  7. Next I do yoga, using my computer and YouTube, so my phone gets a break from me, and gets plugged in to charge. But it's still working, giving me notifications. This morning I've received notifications from Substack (an article was published) and Crossplay (my friend has taken her turn in this new-to-us Scrabble-like game I'm loving, highly recommend. MUCH BETTER than Words With Friends!!!)
  8. I've already taken 5 screenshots and 3 photos with my phone.
  9. I put those into my Day One Journal, in which I've already written ~1000 words this morning. You've probably seen I like to write. :lol2
So that's just in the last few hours. I also use it for my calendar. I text with people a lot. I bank with my phone. It's my clock. I currently keep open Notepad with the list of this year's Click Project 52 photo themes. Storygraph (a better alternative to Goodreads) is always open so I remember to record in it to keep my streak going. I'm 5 days away from completely a full year of daily reading! Paprika, my recipe/grocery/mealplanning app is always open because I use it all the time. When I walk and hike I track my mileage and route with Goals-Fitness (a great app with a boring name), when I go somewhere new I use Apple Maps or Google Maps. My family has a Discord server, and I'm a not-very-active member of Planet Wild and the Kurzgestat servers on Discord. I check my personal mail and occasionally work email on my phone. I look at Apple Weather most days even though it's unreliable. I request and renew library books with their awesome app, which I can even use to check out the books in the building (though sometimes I still choose the more sociable option!). I "check-in" for haircuts at Great Clips with their app. I love it because I can be 5 miles away, see the estimated wait time and decide if now is a good time or not. I read Reddit on my phone far more often than on my computer. I have medical care apps I've used a bit. I called a tow truck with the Geico app a couple months ago. And probably more I'm leaving out even though I'm looking at my phone to type this!

So . . . as a person who did not have a smartphone until I was 42 years old (2013), of course I know how to live without a phone. But would I want to? No! I think I'm coming to understand the movement against smart phones, the ones who are taking breaks from their phones, etc. I think it's more young people who have grown up with them, and maybe got too absorbed in them, maybe especially the negative aspects of social media and such . . . There's a backlash to that. But I have loved the convenience of a digital calendar and automated reminders and not having to read germy old magazines in waiting rooms (though, honestly, I was not a germaphobe until the pandemic and slightly miss magazines). I learned a lot of good non-digital habits and such before having a smartphone. Now my phone is like an EHD for my brain.

To go a day without my phone would just mean changing a lot of habits that I've developed over the last decade and I don't feel a need to disconnect from it completely. I joke sometimes, when I leave my phone in another room, "oh my gosh, I went an hour without my phone!" pretending to be alarmed. The last time that happened was because I was playing a game with my family, the only ones from whom I'd be sad to miss a message. Notifications can usually wait.
 
Believe it or not, I left out something I meant to include in my previous post. I use the TLP app every January to check the MOC challenge every morning minutes after I wake, and, extremely rarely, I will attempt to join TLP chats with my phone (it's just so difficult to navigate them).

This has given me a creative idea for journaling and maybe a scrapbook page. I'd like to imagine a day without my phone. I mean, in detail. And write about what I'd be doing instead. Like, going back to a paper planner and having to take those little cards from dentist and doctors offices that note our next appointment. And so on . . .
 
Could I go a day without my phone? Yes, if that just means ignoring that it is sitting on my desk. I actually do that quite often.

I don't live on my phone. I use it mainly for the few phone calls I do make or texting. And, some days neither of those happen. Although I have been using it for the camera more often, especially on vacations.

I do take it with me whenever I'm out of the house just for the ability to call for help if needed. Besides phone calls, texting and the camera, I have one other app that I use and that is a gas mileage tracker. However, since I don't drive very often it can be months between fill ups!

On vacation I do use the Ring app to check on the house while I'm away. I found a music app and loaded my music to listen to on those long bus rides. I do sometimes check on the weather app while I'm on vacation as well.

The phone is too small for me to read so internet surfing is not something I do. I have a tablet that I use to play games. And on vacation I will use it for some internet stuff and read thru the Kindle app.
 
I mean, I probably could go a day without my phone... but I certainly do NOT want to. Lol! I use it for so much every day! So far today I've used it to text with my sister and BIL to hear about their driving trip through the treacherous up North of Michigan. I checked my email. I tracked a package of art supplies that I want NOW!. :giggle I texted another friend. I looked on Find My to be sure my hubby and MIL arrived safely to a meeting this morning. I looked up a recipe (photo) to check ingredients while making my grocery list. I checked the weather. I checked the calendar. I think that's it so far, but that's only in a few hours! Lol!

My phone has definitely made a lot of things easier and right at my fingertips. I know I could do a lot of it on my computer, but not the texting and my phone is my camera, so I NEED that!

I don't love talking on the phone, but my youngest son is away at college this year for his first year away from home and he calls me almost every day for a few minutes. I think he would have had a much harder transition without that link.
 
I could definitely go without my phone. I do like to read on it, but there are days I just turn the ringer/notifications off.
 
I suppose I could go a day, but I would definitely miss it! I read, scroll social media, listen to audio books and my Spotify playlists in the car and at the gym, send & receive texts, my calendar is on there, and I have my NYT games I play every day.
 
I definitely could, but I wouldn't like it. I want it with me at all times basically so I feel safer in case of an emergency. We have Life360, so our family can see where we are all the time. As far as for other uses, I check email on it and go on social media like Instagram and Facebook. Oh, plus it's my camera now that I haven't pulled out the SLR in like a year. I also listen to Audible on it (currently doing a trial on Everand to see if I can switch to that since it's a better price). I feel like all of those things are pretty non-essential. Aside from IG and audiobooks, most everything else can be done on the laptop.

I get annoyed with everyone having a phone in their hand every minute of the day, but they've become so useful for so many things that it makes sense. I try to leave mine alone as much as possible, but it's such a distraction.
 
Phone calls are my least favorite way to use my phone lol I could survive without my phone but I’d probably forget all my to-do’s (like school pick up).
 
I go through long stretches of the day without looking at it, while I'm at work. In the evenings when I'm here at TLP. When I'm asleep. I miss lots of calls and texts because I keep it silent 24/7. But I do use it to track a lot of things, keep my calendar, shop, and most recently listening to books on audible, which I am doing right now while I type this! I could do it for sure, but I would wonder what I'm missing out on.
 
scrapchyck said:
I miss lots of calls and texts because I keep it silent 24/7.
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I have mine on DND (Do Not Disturb) all the time. Except in my settings I can have it so that a call/text from anyone in my contact list will ring. Had to start that 7 years ago because I was getting so many calls about health plans since I would be turning 65 a couple years later. Yes, the calls (and mailings) started for me at age 63!
 
HavaDrPepper said:
I have mine on DND (Do Not Disturb) all the time. Except in my settings I can have it so that a call/text from anyone in my contact list will ring. Had to start that 7 years ago because I was getting so many calls about health plans since I would be turning 65 a couple years later. Yes, the calls (and mailings) started for me at age 63!
Click to expand...
Oh, lord...is THAT what I have to look forward to this year? I'm now 63! If you don't mind me asking, what did you end up doing for your medicare supplements or whatever they call them.
 
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