I have largely committed myself to not using that device unless absolutely required. I know what life was like before it existed and I want mine to still be like that.
I still remember a dinner of coworkers where we all had to put our phones in a stack in the middle of the table, and see who caved first (well, the person on call got to keep their on-call phone…). There were probably 10-12 phones in the stack and they stayed there the entire dinner, which was so fun, the team started doing it every time we met up (we were a distributed team). Victory for real life over phones, which was especially sweet since we were all IT/Infosec nerds who spent our days looking at computer screens.
I've seen sights like this many times. The first time was probably 8 years ago, when my sister invited me and my husband to brunch with her friends. ALL of them were on their phones throughout the whole brunch. Now, I often notice her and her boyfriend on their phones at family gatherings.
I, too, have to actively fight the call of my phone (no pun intended) during conversations that I find less stimulating, even with people I love. We have a no phones at meals rule that we slip on from time to time. I'm still trying to decide the best way to put boundaries on my own phone usage. For me, post-election, the first step was giving up "anxiety Googling." That's a habit that's becoming less automatic and I don't miss it at all. This is definitely a fight worth fighting.
I have largely committed myself to not using that device unless absolutely required. I know what life was like before it existed and I want mine to still be like that.
I still remember a dinner of coworkers where we all had to put our phones in a stack in the middle of the table, and see who caved first (well, the person on call got to keep their on-call phone…). There were probably 10-12 phones in the stack and they stayed there the entire dinner, which was so fun, the team started doing it every time we met up (we were a distributed team). Victory for real life over phones, which was especially sweet since we were all IT/Infosec nerds who spent our days looking at computer screens.
I've seen sights like this many times. The first time was probably 8 years ago, when my sister invited me and my husband to brunch with her friends. ALL of them were on their phones throughout the whole brunch. Now, I often notice her and her boyfriend on their phones at family gatherings.
I, too, have to actively fight the call of my phone (no pun intended) during conversations that I find less stimulating, even with people I love. We have a no phones at meals rule that we slip on from time to time. I'm still trying to decide the best way to put boundaries on my own phone usage. For me, post-election, the first step was giving up "anxiety Googling." That's a habit that's becoming less automatic and I don't miss it at all. This is definitely a fight worth fighting.
This was beautifully written (as I read it on my smartphone!!). Thank you for this reminder.
Thank you!