No reception: one week without a smartphone
Seven days and 70 WhatsApp messages in the absence later: reunited happily.
I like my smartphone, very much. It also makes me close to people who are not near me. It keeps me up to date. It shows me cute cat videos, if I need encouragement. It's my notebook, my ticket, my camera, my alarm clock, my calendar, my distraction, my city map. In short, it makes my life easier and funnier. But at some point there was this moment when I realized: Often my iPhone is the last thing I hold in the evening before going to bed? and the first one I reach for in the morning. Quite apart from the countless glances I throw at it during the day. For all my love, the relationship to a technology device does not have to be so close.
I'll turn it off, in the truest sense of the word
We need a break. You could also say that I need a cold withdrawal: seven days without a smartphone. Just before I hit the off button, it occurs to me that I do not know a single phone number by heart and have not written it down anywhere. In an emergency, I could not reach my parents or my friend or best friends. So I quickly write down the most important numbers and inform these people about the impending radio hole. My friend is annoyed, mom and dad take it easy. Sure, they can still remember the times without a cell phone. From my girlfriends, I reap a mixture of encouragement ("You can do it"), incomprehension ("It's not that bad again") and mumbling ("That's not friendly at all").
The first morning without a smartphone I throw the laptop right at breakfast to check my emails and Facebook. This is probably not the rule. But after only a few hours I feel somehow cut off from the world? And besides, according to my inner justification, it is part of my job to be well informed at all times.
My brother wants to talk to me in the evening. He calls on the landline, for the first time in years, "It's nice if somebody other than Mom and Dad chooses this number." Right, he has met my landline phone, apart from the leased line to my parents, more decorative purposes. Of course, I do not know the number by heart.
After three days, I develop a certain pride. I'm usually not so strong-minded. The iPhone is always there, for real emergencies. But it stays off. Only once burst my collar: When I work across the city after an appointment to an appointment and I can not buy as usual via app the subway ticket. I do not have change. Crap! After sprawling complaining, I learn that the ticket machine also takes notes. Not bad after almost six years with the Hamburg Transport Association.
When Julia Müller announced on Facebook that she was not available for a week, someone asked, "Are you going to the jungle camp?"
In the subway I look out the window and hang on to my thoughts instead of typing WhatsApp messages. Slowly I notice how I get down. The weekend I spend with my grandmother in the Hessian province, reception is rare there. Perfect. By switching off the phone, I turn off. I have not even thought about why I automatically grab for the iPhone in certain situations. After six days without, I realize: you miss surprisingly little when you get out.
The victim of this smartphone Zen attitude, however, is my friend. Because we can not reach him spontaneously, he has to wait two more times during the week. He also accuses me of sabotage, as I bored his iPhone briefly in between to google something. Is also very convenient, this technique. And I must confess: At the moment, to turn the phone back on, I am happy as a small child. Distance is good for every relationship.
The conclusion: It works just fine without - but it is still nice with it. To discipline me, the smartphone now has bedroom ban. Instead of the annoying cell phone sound wakes me in the morning my old clock radio. And best of all, I can finally memorize the phone number of my friend.
