Okay, so you want to look important and play with your cell phone in public. I get it, but it’s getting to be a ball-and-chain for more and more people.
Nobody wants to admit it, but smartphones are making us dumber by the minute and causing addictions as well.
Addictions to technology are just as detrimental as addictions to drugs and alcohol. The consequences may not be the same, but it is just as serious.
How many distracted driving tickets are given out daily? People even walk across the street without looking up from their cell phones. Um… bus!
How many accidents have cell phones caused?
How many deaths?
This insanity has got to stop!
Instead of making eye contact, we stare at our phones. That encourages avoidance behavior. Do we even know how to have a real conversation anymore?
How many times do you visit a friend hoping to have a real conversation, only to end up staring at an anti-social dummy with her head bobbing back and forth between you and her cell phone?
“Oh, sorry, I just have to get this.“
Has society digressed that much that we can’t even visit without hearing a ping from a Facebook notification?
I tell you, it’s a real shame. We are losing the art of communication, and I fear it will only get worse if we don’t stay vigilant and nurture healthy human interaction.
As the old saying goes, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. That is so true in regards to communication skills.
If we stop talking and just message people, we will forget how to have a real conversation. If we stop focusing on the person we are with, we will lose that relationship.
Is that what this is all about? Are we losing relationships because of that stupid cell phone?
Let’s find out how to stop using your phone as much.
Maybe if we try even just one of these suggestions, society will regain some of what it lost when cell phones started replacing real conversations, and communication skills will come back from the dead.
DON’T MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE
If you think about it, you only use your cell phone because it’s accessible. It’s either in your pocket or your hand most of the time.
So, don’t keep it near you. Get out of the habit of keeping it right beside you wherever you go.
Stop using it as a technological pacifier.
Tuck it away where you can’t get at it easily. Put it in a zipped-up compartment in your purse. Put it at the bottom of your gym bag and forget about it.
Keep it in a zipped-up jacket pocket or backpack. Forget it at home one day. You may find that liberating.
Nobody can get a hold of you.
Oh, my goodness! Whatever will they do if you are unreachable!?
The world will survive. You will cope. People will just have to wait to talk to you.
The world won’t stop spinning.
I grew up in a generation where cell phones didn’t exist. I’m old-school and proud of it. Do I have a smartphone? Yes, but it isn’t my ball-and-chain.
I don’t NEED it. That is the difference.
The moment you NEED something, you are addicted. Stop being addicted to your smartphone and put it out of reach so you aren’t tempted to use it all the time.
Trust me, you do NOT need it all the time.
USE A SECONDARY DEVICE
Okay, so you say you need your cell phone for work. I get that. You say you need it to keep in touch with your family and friends. I get that too.
I agree.
But wait, what if you could have your cake and eat it too?
What if you had a tether?
I understand the need for smartphones, but the moment I got myself a smartwatch, my world changed completely.
I could tuck my phone away and forget about it, and still get notifications and calls.
If I’m busy at work, I can still see that my husband is calling me. I can’t answer the call, but I know he called and can choose to either run for my cell phone to answer or call him back later.
That delay in answering really taught me discipline with my cell phone. It taught me that the world won’t fall apart because I didn’t answer a call or message RIGHT NOW!
So, they have to wait, so what!
People had to wait for me in the ’80s when cell phones didn’t exist. That was perfectly fine then, and it is perfectly fine now.
Smartwatches are like tethers to a cell phone. They help you realize you don’t need your phone as much as you thought you did.
And you know what? It also helps with communication and safety. Instead of cell phone distractions, just look at your watch for a split second and then continue on with what you’re doing.
Trust me, communication will improve and so will your relationships, especially if you have kids.
When I’m with my grandkids, I don’t want them to feel less important than my conversations on Facebook.
If I’m on my phone all the time when I should be focussing on building a relationship with my grandchildren, shame on me.
Instead, if I get a text, I’ll be notified on my watch. The impact of looking at your watch is not as detrimental as looking at your phone, and then being distracted by it.
Smartwatches are a great solution but don’t make them too accessible. You want limitations so you don’t replace one ball-and-chain for another.
I deliberately chose a smartwatch that I couldn’t respond to. Sure, there are many on the market that you can answer calls with like the Apple watch, but I didn’t want that.
Notifications only.
I wanted to see when someone called me, but not be able to pick up. I wanted to see when someone texted me that they were on their way, but not have to go to my cell phone to see it.
I chose the Fitbit because it did what I needed it to do without creating a new dependence on that kind of technology.
You can take a peek at the kind of smartwatch I use by going to the following Amazon affiliate link, Fitbit Versa!
You don’t need a very expensive smartwatch. You just need the basics so you don’t feel like you need your cell phone beside you at all times.
I actually wrote a Fitbit Review, if you want more information on this great smartwatch.
A Fitbit is a perfect solution. I love mine!
BUY A REAL CAMERA
Um, I know it’s all the craze to use your cell phone as a camera, but how’s that working for you?
Do you REALLY get the best picture possible? Sure, it’s capable of taking high-quality pictures depending on the type of phone you have, but at what cost?
It’s a sellout for the greatness of a real camera.
Gone are the days of shutter speeds and telephoto lens. Gone are the days when you could look at the camera and have your picture taken without appearing off-center.
Yeah, that’s the sellout. You never know where to look when you take a picture with a smartphone.
Taking video is worse. Look at the camera for Pete’s Sake. I have a few YouTube channels, and I’ve filmed many videos with my iPhone.
It doesn’t look good when I’m not looking at the camera.
Sure, there are plenty of tutorials to learn how to use your cell phone as a camera, but come on, it’s not the easiest or the best.
Don’t you miss using a real camera? I do. Maybe it’s my age, but I remember growing up without cell phones and using a camera to take pictures while on vacation.
It’s a different feel.
On my last vacation, I went to Jasper, in Alberta Canada. Beautiful mountains and lakes were everywhere. Instead of enjoying the scenery, I fumbled with my cell phone the whole time, adjusting the selfie stick I bought.
It wasn’t working well.
And EVERYONE had a selfie stick and used a cell phone as a camera. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw that cell phone in the pristine emerald lake and go buy a real camera again.
And if you think an iPhone can do what a telephoto lens can, you’ve got another thing coming.
Sadly, I can tell you it CAN NOT!
So, going forward, my next purchase will be a lovely telephoto lens to go with a REAL camera.
The following Amazon affiliate link, Canon ESO Rebel Camera, will show you the way to freedom.
Buying a real camera will help you lose your ball-and-chain because after all, you don’t want your cell phone to do everything.
STOP USING IT AS A BANK
When people pay bills, sadly, they don’t even look up anymore. Instead, they’re scrolling on their phones.
Again, communication is going the way of the dinosaur because of smartphone addictions.
Fight it, I say. Fight it!
Not only is it disrespectful to not give your full attention to the customer service representative in front of you, but it tells them they’re just not important.
Is that the kind of world we want?
Over the years, with smartphone advancements, it’s only gotten worse. It’s to the point that cell phones have become an extension of ourselves.
A smartphone can store personal information like health stats, IDs, and banking information.
That’s dangerous, especially when it comes to finances.
Sure, it’s handy to use a banking app. It’s supposed to be secure. It’s supposed to be more convenient. But again, at what cost?
In a world of instant everything, do we really need to transfer funds right in front of someone?
Let’s prove how important we are.
It doesn’t hurt to use a real bank. In fact, it actually is more secure. Scammers are continually finding new ways to steal your money.
You don’t believe me? Just ask someone who has been scammed. I know first-hand because my son was a victim of a scam.
He lost everything.
Needless to say, I am not an advocate for using cell phones as a bank. I think the convenience of instant money is an accident waiting to happen.
I don’t use a banking app. I don’t do online banking. I don’t keep personal info on my phone at all.
That’s just me; I’m extra cautious for good reason. You can do what you want. Banking apps are a touchy subject because I’ve had people tell me it’s the only way they can pay their bills.
But I’m telling you there is another way.
If you want to stop using your phone as much, don’t add the banking app.
Instead, pay your bills the good-old-fashioned-way. Go into a bank and do business face-to-face.
It takes more time, but don’t we all need to slow down anyway?
I know I do.
Stop tapping your cell phone screen while paying bills. Don’t be ignorant. Use common courtesy and smile and converse with the customer service representative in front of you. They’re talking to you.
They deserve your attention.
Stop the lunacy of smartphone bank transactions and pay things with actual money instead. You don’t need your cell phone to pay your bills.
You just don’t!
DON’T CARRY A CHARGER
If it has no power, it can’t hurt you. And yes, cell phone addiction can hurt you if you give it the power it asks for.
Don’t bring a charger.
Cell phone battery life is limited depending upon what kind of phone you have and how new it is.
Some batteries last a long time.
If you’re out and about, you might forget that you didn’t charge your phone and start to panic.
Maybe apps are eating away at your battery life and you’re worried you’ll suddenly be without service.
Rest assured, the world will not end if your battery dies. You can get along fine without a cell phone. As I said before, I grew up in an era without cell phones and I didn’t die.
When I went for a walk back then, it was just little old me. My friends didn’t follow me through social media. I didn’t take pictures of everything I was eating, stopping every five seconds to take a selfie.
I had total freedom.
Don’t you want that back?
If so, ditch the charger. If you can’t charge your ball-and-chain, it can’t have power over you.
Let it die!
DON’T GET A DATA PACKAGE
I’ll keep this short and sweet. You don’t need data. Buy your phone outright and your provider won’t make you get a plan with data. It’s only when you finance a phone that you are forced to buy a data package.
Instead, go buy a cheaper, more affordable phone. There are plenty on the market that are under $200. They work totally fine. You don’t need to get an iPhone unless you don’t care about how much money you spend.
If you own your phone outright, you can skip paying for a data package.
Connect with wifi only.
Connect your phone to wifi when you’re at home, and when you’re out and about, either use free wifi hotspots or don’t be connected.
If you don’t have data, you won’t be connected at all times. If you aren’t connected, you won’t be tempted to play on your phone all the time. Really, you don’t need to be on it when you’re out and about anyway.
And by the way, your phone will still work without data.
USE A LANDLINE
There is nothing wrong with a landline. People are disconnecting them in droves because they don’t see a need.
I can tell you a few reasons there is a need to keep your landline.
I work in the industry, and let me just say that cell towers go down all the time. True!
When they do go down, you will be left with no way to communicate with anyone. Not your friends, not your family, not emergency services. Nobody!
If that’s not enough to scare you into keeping your landline, maybe the next reason is.
The-cell-phone-only generation creates a TOTAL dependence on technology. Yes, that’s right. TOTAL.
If your cell phone dies, or breaks, or gets stolen, or you just forget to charge it, your whole world crashes.
Why create such a dependence?
I don’t want my WHOLE WORLD to be dependant upon any ONE thing. That’s not even healthy.
Instead, just simply keep your landline. Have it as a backup for emergency purposes, and rest assured there will always be a way to communicate.
And you won’t need the old ball-and-chain quite as much as you think.
It’s archaic, but the landline will help you stop using your cell phone as much.
I know, people say they only get telemarketing calls on their landlines so why bother and keep it. But I can tell you, I once received 30 telemarketing calls on my cell phone in one day.
Yes, it was crazy.
So, don’t think telemarketers and scam artists can’t find you just because you get rid of your landline.
They can, and they will.
Just don’t answer the call if you don’t know who it is. And if you do, hang up immediately without explanation.
Use a landline for the sole purpose of having a secondary way to call for help, keep in touch, and communicate with your loves ones instead of being TOTALLY reliant on a cell phone.
STOP USING IT FOR GPS
The trend is to use your cell phone for GPS. I’ve been told it’s better than a paper map but I don’t agree with that.
When you use a paper map, you generally look at it before-hand because you can’t drive and look at a map at the same time like you can with a cell phone.
I say this loosely because technically you can. I remember a time when my husband and I were both stupidly looking at a map at the same time while driving in downtown Niagara Falls.
We didn’t realize it until we went through a stoplight and heard the honking afterward. Thankfully we didn’t cause an accident.
We both suddenly looked up wondering who was doing the driving. Um… for the record, that wasn’t me!
My point is, usually mapping out your route is done before-hand when using a paper map. With smartphone GPS apps like Google Maps, you let it guide you as you go.
That guiding-you-as-you-go is dangerous. Not only does it distract the driver, but anything can go wrong.
Your cell phone can lose connection.
It can malfunction.
It can cause you to play with it when you’re supposed to be driving and cause an accident or even kill an entire family.
That’s disgusting!
Yet, in the days of distracted driving laws, people still use GPS to guide them everywhere, even to the simplest of places they already know how to get to.
Cell phone GPS apps are a novelty.
Could they also be a security blanket?
I understand it’s better than getting lost, and in many instances, it has saved the day. But really, what did people do in the days before cell phones?
Oh wait, I can answer that because I have lived both then and now.
You just muddle through.
You get lost. You ask directions. You get out the old-school map, and you find your way again.
Done!
There is no reason you NEED your cell phone to help you find your way around the city.
And if you can’t see yourself going back to the old-fashioned paper maps to help you, you can still get a GPS system that is not connected to your phone.
You can buy a new car that has it built-in, or you can check out the following Amazon affiliate link, TomTom GPS, and still buy the old-style units.
They are a great alternative to using your phone for GPS.
TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS
When it comes to notifications, just turn them off. Really, that’s all there is to it.
You don’t have to be notified of every social media message you get. You don’t need to hear a ping when you’re driving or visiting with someone.
You don’t need to be interrupted because a friend of a friend just tagged you in a group photo or put up a picture of their cat.
Free yourself from the constant need to check your phone by turning off all your notifications.
If you can’t turn them all off, just turn off most of them and leave the more important ones.
By turning off all or some notifications, you are more available to your friends and family, and also to yourself.
Think of all the time you will have if you don’t constantly hear your phone calling you, and run after every beck and call.
It takes discipline to turn off notifications, but you can do it!
Just try!
REDUCE YOUR APPS
There comes a time when you just have to purge all your apps or as many as you can.
You don’t need them all.
When will you need that coloring app or silly game you thought you’d use last year and never touched?
Come on! There are too many apps these days and you need to free yourself from the distraction.
A smartphone can hold a lot of apps, but you don’t have to fill it to compacity. Just keep the most important apps and minimize them.
By minimizing I mean put them into groups so you can’t see them all. Only keep the main ones on your front screen.
That’s what I do.
I also set my husband’s up that way because he only uses his cell phone for calling. The odd time he messages the kids, but really he is a minimalist when it comes to smartphone usage.
I tease him all the time, but what freedom he must have to not feel that ball-and-chain of constantly needing his cell phone around.
I try to be like that, and I am for the most part, but I still use it more than he does.
I think the ultimate is to develop discipline when it comes to cell phone usage, and reducing apps is a great way to be proactive so you can avoid the need to constantly check your phone.
BUY AN ALARM CLOCK
Almost everyone uses their cell phone as an alarm clock these days. Everyone except me and my husband that is.
At one time I really wanted to, but now I’m glad I still use an old-fashioned clock radio.
It’s annoying because it’s old, but at least it doesn’t force me to constantly use my phone.
If you use your cell phone as an alarm clock, it will feel like you never get a break from your phone.
Again, you can use the tethering technique and use your Fitbit. That way, you can set your phone alarm to get you up, and your smartwatch will vibrate instead.
For some, that may be a great solution to picking up your cell phone first thing in the morning.
Your cell phone shouldn’t be the first thing you pick up in the morning and the last thing you touch at the end of the day.
It just shouldn’t.
If it is, you definitely need a technology break. You need to free yourself from the old-ball-and-chain.
Buy a real alarm clock. They still exist. Check them out through the following Amazon affiliate link, Digital Alarm Clock, and go back in time.
If you do that, you won’t use your phone quite as much, and that’s a good thing!
CARRY A PAPERBACK
I love eBooks. I’m an author, and I’ve written many eBooks, but paperback novels are still my favorite.
Paperbacks are nostalgic. They represent a time when life wasn’t so busy.
They slow down the rat-race.
They also prevent you from using your phone as often.
We read almost everything on a smartphone these days, and that’s all well and good, but it creates an unhealthy dependence.
If all we ever do is read on our smartphones, we will feel constantly connected to them. We will feel like we never get a break from technology.
Reality is, we don’t read novels on a cell phone as much as we think anyway. Most of the time, that reading just turns into scrolling because there are too many distractions.
You have to check your Facebook. You want to pin something on Pinterest. You need to post on Twitter.
Before you know it, you’re so distracted you haven’t even finished that eBook you wanted to read.
Instead, just carry a paperback in your purse or backpack so when you have a long commute, you will actually read that novel instead of getting distracted with the scroll.
You will also find that you won’t be so dependent upon your cell phone. You will be able to put it away and have a technology break.
That’s a good thing. That means you are free!
USE A FLIP PHONE
The ultimate freedom is not having a smartphone at all. It’s too smart for its own good anyway.
A lot of people are going back to the old-style flip phone because they want their old lives back.
They want to feel free again.
They don’t want distracting apps and notifications going off in the middle of dinner, or while they’re supposed to be watching their grandchild play soccer.
Go, Junior!
How would you feel if you missed their first goal because you were on your phone?
Yet still, I see parents and grandparents alike, scrolling on their phones when they’re supposed to be paying attention to their kids.
How sad is that!
You know they copy everything you do, don’t you? Be a better example so they grow up communicating with you!
To avoid this from happening, more and more people are going back to the old-fashioned flip phone because it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles.
The less you have on your phone, the less you’ll be tempted to use it.
You won’t be on it all the time.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I just wanted to say that there are many ways to stop using your phone as much.
Just be creative. Turn off notifications. Buy a real camera. Use an old-fashioned GPS or paper maps.
Stop using your cell phone for banking, and go to the bank instead. Don’t put all your personal information on your cell phone. Be safe.
Use a landline.
Don’t carry a charger.
Don’t keep your phone near you. Hide it away in a purse or backpack.
You don’t need all your notifications on.
Get notifications on your Fitbit so you don’t need your phone right beside you.
Use a flip phone instead and carry a paperback to read on long trips and commutes.
Buy a digital alarm clock instead of using your phone to wake you up in the morning.
There are so many things you can do to avoid cell phone addiction.
Just choose one of these suggestions or all of them, and feel the freedom you once had when you didn’t have a ball-and-chain following you everywhere you go.
Cell phones are wonderful pieces of technology, but they can quickly become more than you bargained for if you’re not careful.
Don’t let them control your life.
They don’t have to be your ENTIRE world.
Put it away for a while and BREAK FREE!
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Author Kathleen Morris
Kathleen Morris is a successful published author, blogger, and Youtuber. She enjoys writing about things she’s passionate about and making a difference in the world.