• Do you really need that tweet notification?
• Do you really need that pop-up?
• Do you really need to check your “likes” every 43 seconds?

I lived the first 50+ years of my life before the smart-phone. Advertising¹ came in a big fat insert to the Sunday newspapers. You had to make the choice to look at them. There were no annoying phone notifications. You really didn’t need to look up trivial facts² every time you wandered about something. Authenticating to your bank meant signing a check or walking into the branch. Sure, there were ads on the radio (remember radio?) and in your TV shows³, but you were much more in control of your attention.

I know what life was like without the smart phone, and I know what life is like now. I’m bothered by the attention-sucking nature of the phone and I’m running an experiment in just leaving it off.

Sure, my wife won’t be able to text me. I might not listen to as many podcasts or anything on Audible or Amazon Music (cancel the subscriptions? Bonu$$$ !). I might have to make the choice to sit down at my computer to read news/blogs/etc, etc, but I’ll be getting my mind back. Time is our most precious commodity. The phone steals our attention and, our focus, and, by proxy our time.

I’ve got old patterns to go back to. I know what phone-less live was like. For those born after, say, 2000, I’m pretty sure you’d have a different experience.

You can never go back in time. You have to live in the world and time you’re in, but in this case, I’m going take a principal, that I want to control my own time and attention, and try to apply it to the modern context. In this case, the means to the end is minimizing use of smart-phones.

Wish me luck, but don’t text me. Unless it’s on my Google voice number.

Footnotes

¹ The Latin roots of “Advert[ising]” literally mean turn (“verto”) towards (“ad”). Advertising in and around cars is designed to take the drivers attention off the road. Not good.

² Who were the backing musicians for Lurch’s recording of ‘Monster Mash’ ??? Just because you can know, doesn’t mean you should.

³ Go watch, for instance, old versions of Star Trek TOS and imagine local car dealer commercials where every scene break is.