I want to be bored again
There was a point when all my screen time happened while I sat in the computer room in my parent’s house. Since I first went online, I’ve found that the internet, at its best, deepens and widens my curiosity. It connects me to my friends and facilitates making new ones.
Over time, the distance between me and the friends I connect with on the internet has grown exponentially, while the distance between me and internet access has become nonexistent. I’m considerably more connected, but I’m not considerably more curious. I don’t want to ignore the lopsidedness of my relationship with the internet anymore.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.
– Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
I’m taking a step back from constant connectivity. I’m replacing my smart phone with a feature phone, and I’m going to use my laptop more like the desktop I grew up with: It’ll be there when I want to dive into something, but it’ll stay out of reach when I don’t need it.
In the short term, I’ll have two phone numbers. My primary number will still be connected to my smart phone while I take my feature phone for a trial run. I want to work out the kinks of life without a smart phone before diving in head first like I have before.
My primary number will be attached to my smart phone, but my feature phone will be my primary device. If you need me, call me or text me at the new number1. If you forget and text me at my existing number you’ll get an auto-reply telling you how to reach me.
I’ll be checking my smart phone and social media2 during this little trial period consistently, but infrequently.
Once I’ve convinced myself I can confidently move over to the feature phone full time I’ll port my existing number over to it and get rid of the temporary one. I don’t expect it to take much convincing.
I could talk about how I read more, or I write more music, or I think I’m a better listener, but all of these are small changes in the face of being rid of this horrible gut feeling I’ve been used to having. The feeling that if I just kept digging through the void hard enough, I could find the one scrap of it that made it worth all the digging.
– Leo Aram Downs, Six Months of the Light Phone II
I have good libraries nearby, a record collection I don’t listen to as much as I’d like to, and projects I’ve been wanting to start but never get around to. Plus, I started this blog. I’ll post long stuff, short stuff, pictures, books I’m reading you name it! You can come back to check in on me here anytime you think to, or pick up your phone and give me a ring.
I hope you’ll call, and hope you’ll pick up when I do.
-
If I haven’t given you my new number, just ask me for it. It’s not a secret! ↩︎
-
I’m playing around with Beeper so I can check social media messages without actually going into the apps where I know I’ll get sucked into seeing what the Rizzler’s up to. However, right now it looks like Instagram is flagging my account as suspicious for what I assume is the connection I set up with Beeper. Stay tuned. ↩︎