12/27/15 edit: I’ve been very conscientious of my phone usage, but did not stick to 30 minutes a day. I officially failed this goal, but I learned a lot, so I don’t consider this a total failure.
Like most humans with smart phones, I spend entirely way too much time on mine. I mostly waste my time on Facebook, taking pictures of my dogs, getting deep into the guts of Instagram, reading articles, looking up weird ailments, watching videos of pop singers who sing without auto tune, or checking to see if I have salad in my teeth with the selfie camera.
The one good thing about my phone usage is that I have good etiquette. You cannot say the same about others.
Even though I have good phone manners, all that time quickly adds up, the minutes fly by, and I lose track of time. I downloaded an app on my phone that tracks my phone usage and sends me a notification for every 15 minutes I’m on it. The timer kind of sucks and sometimes tracks me even when I haven’t touched the phone, but I know that I’ve spent far less time on it this year. I can’t confirm that I’ve spent less than 30 minutes every single day, but trust me, I’ve been doing a great job limiting myself so far.
More real-life reasons why I want to stop using my phone so much:
- I don’t want my attention span to suffer because I’m always multitasking.
- I don’t want to be one of those asshole couples at a restaurant who are sitting across from each other, not talking, and looking at their phones instead.
- I don’t want to be like the guy at a funeral I recently attended who was face timing and “checking in” at the church.
- I don’t want to be that mother who was in front of me on a hiking trail one gorgeous day who was too busy taking selfies to witness nature and her kids having fun.
- I don’t want to be so consumed with my phone that I literally run into someone while walking in the street.
- I don’t want to miss out on conversations with my family.
- I don’t want to be like that woman I saw who didn’t put her phone down during a fireworks display and never actually saw the fireworks unless it was through her shitty camera lens.
- I don’t want to prematurely give myself a double chin from looking down at my phone so much.
- I don’t want to look like this:
- I don’t want this to happen to me (that’s a whale passing him, but he was probably too busy selecting an Instagram filter for his selfie to notice):
I want to be present, focused, and taking in every second of life that I possibly can, so I’ll continue to work on limiting my phone usage to 30 minutes a day.
– Lyssa
This is an amazing post. It really puts life into perspective. I’m going to share your post when I get a chance to be on the computer tomorrow. I want to start living by this as well. It is so sad and sometimes I feel embarrassed and so consumed in this stupid device. Sure it is helpful and great, but the point is living and not through a device. Thanks so much for the share.
That’s so nice of you to say, Sami. Thanks for sharing and we wish you lots of luck (it hasn’t been easy)! 🙂
Oh thank you so much. I’ve checked out some more of the work you guys have done. I love everything that you guys do! I follow a lot of people on here but when I find people in my niche, I just get so excited. So now I’m following you and I am super excited. Maybe we can inspire each other. You guys done a few big ones that we want to (like hot air balloon) and ah, glad I found you both.
Love your bucket list website here.
I posted one on my very first blog post and again on my travel blog when I started it.
It is hard to put down the phone. I figure I will have worn mine out by now. I hope to check off many more bucket list items in future and I would hate to miss anything as wondrous as a whale, which I love, because I was distracted on my smart phone.
Glad I found this blog through Flowers and Wanderlust and I hope to read much more on the adventures you have had.
Flowers and Wanderlust is a great blog. Thanks for leaving a comment and will definitely check out your bucket list!