Scan barcode
A review by angek98
How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life by Catherine Price
5.0
When I was fourteen, I lauded myself on the fact that I could go the whole day without looking at my phone. I could entertain myself with books, with my friends, school, etc. 9 Years later, I can't go five minutes without checking my phone. During that period of time, I thought I was pretty healthy about it. I could leave my phone in the other room while I worked on hobbies, writing, reading... but after lockdown, I changed and I was constantly checking my phone. I can browse twitter for hours, even if my timeline is dead. I can keep mindlessly refreshing and switching apps and trying to distract myself from the boredom that I experienced in lockdown. Boredom? How could I be bored? I had a novel to write! I had wool to crochet! I had school to attend! Leaving my phone in the other room, for some reason, had not become an option for me. My hobbies started to feel like chores and my chores started to feel unbearable if I didn't have my phone with me.
At the beginning of 2021, I resolved to myself that I would break this. I don't need to be on my phone all the time, feeling like a slave to the notifications I recieved, checking if someone messaged me back, looking at the people that I know but don't really Know. Most of all, I just wanted more time to read more books and write more stories! I decided I would take a break from social media at the end of each month for a week. I did it and I... also didn't. I still kept my phone on me. I checked my phone at midnight when my downtime would end and all the notifications would come flowing in. I don't think I've ever successfully managed to go a whole week without checking my phone, even if I managed to use social media a little less. When the week was over I'd spend the whole day on my phone trying to catch up on all that I missed!
That's where this book comes in. It was recommended to me in another book and reading it has outlined what I've been struggling with. It's not the act of deleting the apps on my phone, turning off my notifications thats the problem, the problem is that my brain is now hardwired to be distracted, and my phone is the prime distractor. This book outlined the things I already knew, social media is designed to be distracting, but also things that I should have known but didn't. I check my phone because I'm expecting a reward out of it. A text back, an email, good news. I hope for it, that my phone (not a person), will give me this good news, that the dopamine will be injected straight to my system and I will feel relieved and happy. Has that ever happened? Maybe once, or twice, but the same thing that rewarded me also, eventually, ended up stressing me out. I start to despise slow texters, I wonder why this specific person hasn't liked my photo when she used to do it all the time before. Why did this many people see my story but not reply to it? These problems all felt valid to me, and maybe the desire for connection after months of not being able to see anyone makes it so, but the problem was with me and my phone and the need for validation from other people. And that's why I'm breaking up with my phone, so I can set my head on straight and so I can focus on the people around me who know me, so I can stop being so voyeuristic, looking in on other people's lives trying and hoping to be like them or a part of theirs and so, hopefully, I can start to enjoy things seperate from my phone again, that I don't need to check it all the time, that my mind can stop craving distraction and instead crave creativity instead, because I know my phone has been sucking that dry too.
At the beginning of 2021, I resolved to myself that I would break this. I don't need to be on my phone all the time, feeling like a slave to the notifications I recieved, checking if someone messaged me back, looking at the people that I know but don't really Know. Most of all, I just wanted more time to read more books and write more stories! I decided I would take a break from social media at the end of each month for a week. I did it and I... also didn't. I still kept my phone on me. I checked my phone at midnight when my downtime would end and all the notifications would come flowing in. I don't think I've ever successfully managed to go a whole week without checking my phone, even if I managed to use social media a little less. When the week was over I'd spend the whole day on my phone trying to catch up on all that I missed!
That's where this book comes in. It was recommended to me in another book and reading it has outlined what I've been struggling with. It's not the act of deleting the apps on my phone, turning off my notifications thats the problem, the problem is that my brain is now hardwired to be distracted, and my phone is the prime distractor. This book outlined the things I already knew, social media is designed to be distracting, but also things that I should have known but didn't. I check my phone because I'm expecting a reward out of it. A text back, an email, good news. I hope for it, that my phone (not a person), will give me this good news, that the dopamine will be injected straight to my system and I will feel relieved and happy. Has that ever happened? Maybe once, or twice, but the same thing that rewarded me also, eventually, ended up stressing me out. I start to despise slow texters, I wonder why this specific person hasn't liked my photo when she used to do it all the time before. Why did this many people see my story but not reply to it? These problems all felt valid to me, and maybe the desire for connection after months of not being able to see anyone makes it so, but the problem was with me and my phone and the need for validation from other people. And that's why I'm breaking up with my phone, so I can set my head on straight and so I can focus on the people around me who know me, so I can stop being so voyeuristic, looking in on other people's lives trying and hoping to be like them or a part of theirs and so, hopefully, I can start to enjoy things seperate from my phone again, that I don't need to check it all the time, that my mind can stop craving distraction and instead crave creativity instead, because I know my phone has been sucking that dry too.