Unplugged

Photo lifted from Flickr here

I gave up my iPhone yesterday.

I'm not going to lie - I'm pretty pissed about it. The circumstances were not the best, all resulting from a screaming match between my husband and I. Frankly, I got really, REALLY tired of fighting for time with MY phone. It was constantly in someone else's hand/pocket/room, etc.  "Can I see your phone?" was uttered before a simple "Hello" most days.  And the fact that eyes were glued to the little glowing screen more often than looking at each other was becoming a bit unbearable.

I gave up a lot of my games/apps a few weeks ago when I felt they were all-encompassing.  Do I REALLY need to collect money from AJ's dinosaurs in his Jurassic Park game? Do I REALLY need to plant more crops on my Castle Story game? And so on, and so forth. It felt good to give up the need to constantly be checking something so stupid.  But, the need for the smooth glass screen still proves to be tough for the guys in the house.  My husband, in-particular.  And it kind of makes me sick.

The easiest thing for me to do was to give up the phone so that *I* wasn't dependent on it anymore.  Let the boys do whatever they want, but this way I won't be asking, repeatedly, where MY phone is.  Because now I have a shitty 5-year old brick basic phone. And no one gives a rip where that one is.

I'll miss checking in using Foursquare.  I'll miss posting pictures to Instagram.  Need a quick social networking at 2am during a bout of insomnia? I'll miss Facebook being so readily available.  Get lost on the way to the mall? YAY, Mapquest!  And so on, and so forth.  But, is there anything so earth shattering that I can't live without it?

Nope.

I may be pissed, but I think it's a good thing in the long run.

(Now I'm off to buy a paper calendar - WOAH! Stone ages!!)

Links of interest:

• Six Signs of iPhone Addiction
• The iPhone Killed My Creativity