“Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge.” -Ray Kurzweil
“When it comes to social media, there are just times I turn off the world, you know. There are just some times you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you’ve got to set those phones down.” -Michelle Obama
On the 6th day til Christmas, another truly valued item agreed on by Amalia and I is our phones! If you think I can mention phones without going on a rant about the negatives than this may be your first time here so buckle up and get ready. The ability to have a device that can help us reach out to family and friends while also being able to find any answer you could possibly want is truly incredible. This is the simple part, the face value appeal of a phone and the reason why everyone has one. Now, a perfect person would be able to use this device for only the useful reasons but none of us are perfect. Another big positive is fighting boredom. I hate being bored so I have little games to play and things to keep me busy if i’m in a waiting room or airport. If I could somehow just do those things, my phone would be the #1 thing on my list. The main issue is how distracted I get with my phone, something I plan on tackling when our challenge is complete this year.
Where we all need to be careful with phones is screen time, the amount of time we spend on them. I’m on it too much and a lot of it is from getting distracted on social media and game apps. I know I am not alone but others either don’t notice or don’t care enough to improve on this. Nothing is worse than having a conversation with someone who is on their phone and I will say that I have done much better with that this year, kudos to me. The other thing that helped this year was getting rid of the stuff I didn’t need on my phone. Deleting social media apps (not my account, keep the memories/pictures) helps lessen screen time. I deleted the Tik Tok and Facebook app and never missed either. However, some of the screen time was replaced by other social media. Progress is still progress. My twitter dilemma is that I follow the Cowboys writers and I enjoy reading the things they say during the season. Maybe I can tackle it by doing a mass unfollowing and limiting the time on it but it’s a challenge I hope to take on and overcome in 2022. The other culprit is Instagram, which I just deleted it off my phone during this post (good for me). Realizing your own problems and trying to fix them is always a good thing. If this rant helps one person with their phone, I will call it a victory but I digress.
Phones when used in moderation are very useful and it deserves a spot on our list. Not overusing them is another story as you can tell but it would be hard to meet someone without a phone. As the minimalists have said many times, love people and use things because the opposite never works. Use the phone but don’t love it and it will be a much more enjoyable experience. To recap, we now have discussed bikes (12th), kitchen appliances (11th), a table for gathering (10th), our computer (9th), the couch (8th) a coffee maker (7th) and now our phones! What do you think will be next?
Item 353 of 360+
Today’s decluttered item is coffee filters! We don’t need them anymore because we have a more environmentally friendly, reusable filter now that rocks! We highly recommend making the switch, we’re happy we did.
Minimalism Everyday 