What happens when you switch off from the world for 48 hours?
As a busy Mum of two aged 18 months and 3, a business owner, a Trustee for a group of schools and Vice Chair for the Chartered Institute of Marketing, you can imagine that the trusted mobile phone plays a huge part in my life. Whether I am planning my life on our synchronised family calendar, researching things to do with the kids, blogging, responding to clients, photographing my kids (I’ve taken a photo every day since I found out I was pregnant with my first born) or just catching up on social media when the kids are busy/asleep/eating, there is always something to be done.
My mobile phone gives me the freedom to do so much on the move as I no longer sit behind a desk for
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I could see the familiar red number of my inbox increase. I could see notifications from Whatsapp popping up. It felt difficult and alien to just see them and not react. This carried on, on and off for hours, made all the more difficult when that usual glow of the phone lit the tent. I felt embarrassed with myself that it was this bad. Was I really that reliant on my phone?
However, the longer this exercise continued, the easier it became. I started to feel less anxious about what I was missing. The FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) subsided and my head began to clear. I felt great, really relaxed and refreshed to the point when I wasn’t even thinking about my phone, freeing up my brain! A two night stay in the great outdoors felt like twice as long and I returned home vowing to take some applied learning’s with me:
1. Repeat the experience again. Like a muscle, I figure the more I exercise the no phone muscle, the better for my mind, body and spirit. And the easier it will be to do.
2. Be more conscious around my phone. I try and pick up my phone less, asking myself if it can wait. I find myself wasting less time doing the things that don’t add value.
3. Review my notifications. This one has been transformational for me! Not only does my battery last for days on end but NOT seeing the notifications for all of my apps pop up on screen seems to have a really positive effect. I’m so used to them not being there now
Smart phones have become such an important part in our lives that we lose focus with or without them. When they’re in the palms of our hands we can’t seem to stop using it; when we don’t have
Over the last four decades, mobile devices have become the trademark of our society.cell phones and other mobile devices have inundated our society At any given time; we can see drivers talking or texting in a moving vehicle. According to Brenner (2013), 87% of American adults and 78% of teenagers own a cell phone. The scary part is that almost two-thirds of
After monitoring my phone use for 4 weeks I learned a few things about myself. One, I use my phone way more than I ever suspected. Without consciously putting my phone down I spend a little over 4 hours on my device daily. That is a lot of time wasted in an 18-hour awake period. I questioned causes such high rate of phone usage. I kept track of hours I go to
In today’s society, the use of mobile devices has taken over our lives in every way possible.
Teens are becoming more distracted than ever before. “Experts say each beep, chime, or chirp seizes your attention, triggering [a] fight-or-flight response” (Kaminski). The urge to look at the notification that popped up on the screen of a cell phone, “comes from a chemical called dopamine” (Kaminski). The chemical makes it difficult to resist all the notifications a teen receives. “After [the] false alarm pumps adrenaline through [his or her] body, it takes [his or her] brain up to 30 minutes to regain focus” (Kaminski). “Technology [also] makes it harder for [one] to focus and get work done” (Lewis). When using a cell phone it takes the brain 30 minutes to attain a state of concentration needed to conclude a task in hand (Lewis). However, “It takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a single task, and one makes up to 50 percent more errors” (Kaminski). How much time does a teen spend looking at a phone-in-hand? [An] “average teenager spends more than 7 hours a day looking at a phone, tablet, laptop, or TV” (Lewis). Furthermore, a teen spends more than 53 hours on, or in front of a technical device per week (Lewis). Is the communication on a cell phone overwhelming the lives of teens? Despite the daily conversations a teen has in person, one will send and receive more than 3,339 texts just in one month alone (Lewis). Kristen Lewis, author of “Your Phone Could
As previously stated, I struggled to not use hair products or my cell phone. I wore my hair up for the entirety of the five days due to the fact that it would look horrible in any other style without hair products. It was hard at first because I planned the way I was going to style my hair for a test I had, but I had no other option than to wear it up. Even more difficult than forgoing all hair products was not using my cell phone. I am constantly on my phone; there is not a moment that i keep it farther than 10 feet from me. I always check the group chats I am in and I promptly respond to my notifications. Knowing that I was missing out on conversation was difficult, and it was hard to resist the temptation to check my notifications. Even though I disliked not using my phone or hair products, I quickly became accustomed to my life without them by the fifth day of the experiment.
Some of the main things most people like to use are our phones, tablets, computers, etc. If I had to choose my favorite of them all, it would be my phone. The reason why is because my phone is something I use daily, when I’m in school, when I’m at home, and when I’m in the car when my family and I are going somewhere. Not having my phone with me makes me feel strange and uncomfortable because I wouldn’t know what to do with my time.
Exercise is a very important way that improves people’s mental health and something that also slows mental aging. There are many ways that moving in certain ways not only helps people’s body but their mind as well. Moving around for health is something that every person will benefit from, and exercise can be made to be just right for one person. Exercise can be made custom to anyone’s personal needs and there are many ways to exercise to the extent of what is comfortable for the person. Activity using someone’s body can help with depression, improve the brain’s executive function, improve immediate mental performance, and it helps people with their memory.
What I learned about my media usage is I use and depend on my phone a lot. I noticed I couldn’t go 10 minutes without checking my phone for a notification. I really got to thinking, why I depend on it so much. It was to the extent that I would run as fast as I could if my phone was about to die because I was worried I was going to receive a notification or I was going to be bored. I learned that I’m on my phone way too much.
In this chapter, I learned that many people tend not to workout due to them not having time. However, I will change that by applying moderate workouts to my daily lifestyle. Instead of taking a car to school, I will walk to school. When I have some free time, I will also lift weight to build my muscular strength and muscular endurance. No more being on the couch and watching TV. Instead when I am not tired, I will try to workout while watching TV. I won’t exercise everyday to avoid from getting hurt. Saturday and Sunday would be rest days. As I begin to workout, I will start off slow to avoid injuring myself. It is a long journey to go down and I am ready to follow it to better health.
with smartphones providing internet services, people are using their cell phones more than ever. As for me, I am completely glued to my phone. Usually one would think that when my phone needs charging, I would go and do something that doesn’t require electronics, but when I am at home, normally I’ll just go to watch my recorded programs on TV. Once there is nothing else that I want to watch, I then go on the computer to surf the web. Even when I’m not at home, I always use my phone to keep myself occupied during the day, therefore I thought four hours without any electronics would be challenging.
Blacker (2006) discusses how researchers from the Henley Management College interviewed people about their mobile phone usage and almost half of a study group of men and women in their twenties and thirties revealed that they "could not live without" their mobile phone.
I know that I 'm pretty dependent on my phone; I love scrolling through my tumblr feed to like selfies and retweet funny videos. Even though memes are frequently amongst the content, I also tend to get a few notifications throughout my time spent glued to my phone’s screen. A vibration will indicate notices from CNN, The New York Times, and my app called Countable, which allows me to keep up with legislation being decided over and how my representatives vote. I am able to laugh at relatable
Conclusion - In summary, there needs to be a balance between time spent with these devices, and without the devices especially Smartphone. Sometimes need to create no-phone time zone in daily life. It’s because time is most valuable thing that we can never reverse back. So when spending time with family, friend and surrounding people gives them your attention, focuses and show them how value they are for you. Besides that, teach yourself to love yourself and others more than your gadgets especially while driving and walking. It is clear that many members of generation Y are aware of addictive behaviors they picked up and the accompanying negative
If I were to ask each of you if you were able to go an entire day without your mobile device, very few can say they`d be able to do so. In fact, in a recent TIME Magazine Mobility Poll, 84% out of 5000 people surveyed in 8 different countires, admitted that they couldn’t go a single day without their phones and a third of respondents admitted that being without their mobile device for even short periods of time leaves them feeling anxious. It is clear that whenever we`re waiting for those last five minutes before the bell rings to every class, our automatic impulse is to reach for our phone. Do you really need to check anything that important? The sad truth is that we have become far too dependent on our phones. The fear that we might miss the latest gossip, or the most recent updates on all of our social webesites seems more like an addiction than anything else. We`ve clouded our vision as to what is really important, and that is-quality human interaction.