Posted on 01/24/2022 1:06:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
In a world where many of us are glued to our smartphones, Dulcie Cowling is something of an anomaly - she has ditched hers.
The 36-year-old decided at the end of last year that getting rid of her handset would improve her mental health. So, over Christmas she told her family and friends that she was switching to an old Nokia phone that could only make and receive calls and text messages.
She recalls that one of the pivotal moments that led to her decision was a day at the park with her two boys, aged six and three: "I was on my mobile at a playground with the kids and I looked up and every single parent - there was up to 20 - were looking at their phones, just scrolling away," she says.
"I thought 'when did this happen?'. Everyone is missing out on real life. I don't think you get to your death bed and think you should have spent more time on Twitter, or reading articles online."
Ms Cowling, who is a creative director at London-based advertising agency Hell Yeah!, adds that the idea to abandon her smartphone had built up during the Covid lockdowns.
"I thought about how much of my life is spent looking at the phone and what else could I do. Being constantly connected to lots of services creates a lot of distractions, and is a lot for the brain to process."
She plans to use the time gained from quitting her smartphone to read and sleep more.
About nine out of 10 people in the UK now own a smartphone, a figure broadly replicated across the developed world. And we are glued to them - one recent study found that the average person spends 4.8 hours a day on their handset.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I wish I could go back to my Nokia, but no carrier I can find will connect it.
The smart-phone was an amazing invention.
However, now that the elites have shown their hand—that they plan to use it to track us for things like vaccine certificates and eventually social credit scores—it has become an enemy of humanity.
We will need to do without—and reclaim our right to be treated as human beings instead of cattle.
Same here. That little candy bar form was great. I think they’re all 2G, though.
“”I was on my mobile at a playground with the kids and I looked up and every single parent - there was up to 20 - were looking at their phones, just scrolling away,” she says. I
thought ‘when did this happen?”
Around 2007.
dont have one dont want one- might need one one day- but have lived many decades without one- hopefully i can get to the end without one-
I’ve used my smart phone once in the last week, and that was to pay my Verizon bill.
I still have mine, still works. (2002 model)
I value being unreachable. Don’t carry any phone.
Leave it in the car when you go to the playground, or in your purse and don't take it out.
I’m on my iPad when I’m home, but I forget my cellphone all the time, I usually pick it up after days of no use at all. If I leave the house, iPad and phone are usually left behind.
Friends get worried when I don’t answer their texts but are used to hearing “sorry, I forgot to charge my phone”
I finally switched from a flip phone to a smart phone when my carrier dropped 3G.
The flipper was light and easy to carry. It’s a love/hate thing with the smart phone.
If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?
“I still have mine, still works. (2002 model)”
Till February 2022 then it becomes a brick.
So the mini phone god controls people against their wills?? Is there anyone who takes responsibility for their own choices anymore? Anyone?
Back in the day, those people at the playground would be reading a book, a newspaper, or a magazine.
Sounds like we need a new law to make it illegal to look at or operate a personal cell phone when the user does not want to do so.
Right. The phone MAKES you look at it 20 hours per day.
Just like those SUVs killed all those people.
If my carrier supported it, I too would go back to my Nokia.
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