During these last 12 months of my life, I’ve survived in this Internet Era without an smartphone.
Being an 18 y/o university student, every single recurrent person in my life has one of them and spends a substantial amount of time staring at one of those little (not so little nowadays) flashing screens.
But while it’s true that smartphones do facilitate so many aspects of our lifes, there’s a lot we’re missing by having such a powerful device glued to our hands.
The first shock I had was actually not being able to watch youtube videos while lying on bed before sleeping. Now that I’ve stopped doing do, I’ve never slept better.
It all began when I lost my smartphone a year ago: I left it on a public restroom. - I’m a mess, I know. Sorry, mom and dad.
My father gave me a discontinued phone so that I could communicate while he bought me another one. The other one never came and I, up until today, still use the discontinued one. And I’m in love. It was like a whole new POV on life had been unlocked by me.
Even if I’ve never watched the whole Aladdin movie before (I know, I know, that’s on my bucket list), the first thing that comes up to my mind when I recall this last year I’ve spent without my smartphone is “A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view, no one tell us no or where to go or say we’re only dreaming…” being sung by an unknown character called Aladdin.
The first shock I had was actually not being able to watch youtube videos while lying on bed before sleeping. Now that I’ve stopped doing do, I’ve never slept better.
Without whatsapp and sticking only to SMSs and regular voice calls (and always having in the back of my brain that the consume it’s going to be debited from my dad’s credit card, obviously) I’ve learnt how to say only what’s needed (and I’m able to) when communicating through my phone and to seize every second I spend with people face to face. And they do say I speak a lot, but the thing is we all do. We could speak the same 15,000 words a day, but Imma say them in little chunks of time because I’m not going to be able to do so when at home; when you, on the other hand, are going to be writing texts and sending voice notes the whole day through.
Now, whenever somebody wants to get in touch with me, they send me e-mails or call me. And, who uses e-mails as a regular chat? They always say "to be honest, I only open my inbox to read your messages, and to write you back.". And that completely shows they truly want to stay active in my life, and want me to be part of theirs (more than a simple "hey, how r u?", anyways). And that at the same time has made me value more the seconds I spend next to my friends.
I mean, I do speak with my dogs when I get home, but I’m not going to get the same feedback. Some beings talk back, some lick faces. And I’m pretty okay with the positions such beings have currently taken, haha.
Sometimes I feel like a Neanderthal while everybody is using their phone and I’m just sitting there admiring the ceiling, the rocks.
But it also feels dreamlike when you can engage in a substantial conversation with somebody, when you can see their authentic smiles -and not just a well-designed emoji- when they speak about things they love. And don’t get me started about how magical it is when little tears appear on their eyes and cheeks when they laugh too much. Real tears, I mean.
Sometimes I feel like a Neanderthal while everybody is using their phone and I’m just sitting there admiring the ceiling, the rocks.
Smartphones can actually be used as a tool to gather people. Just imagine a regular guy showing his friends an interesting video about whales and dolphins. It summarizes a story so well. But then, when it is positioned in a way that creates a barrier, let’s say between the one who speaks and the one who’s “listening” while multitasking at the phone, it creates a disruption in the communication process, where the former doesn’t feel appreciated enough and the latter is not putting enough attention and effort into the conversation. And, because I observe rocks and people, I can always tell when somebody is so up in the cloud that they are not fully engaged in the conversation. And it doesn’t feel right. Even if that couple of people is standing in the other side of the room, I can tell the discomfort it evokes in one half of the formula.
I’ve also eavesdropped conversations where one of the speakers goes “So… tell me about your day” and the other just says “well, I already told you what I did yesterday through whatsapp”. And yes, people tell every single detail of their life through those chats and those instastories; leaving face to face conversations meaningless, tasteless. Like, you can have them, but when the other person already knows everything you’ve been through the last 24hs, there’s not a special thing they can tell you about in that precise moment of time. And, as a simple fact, people do like your post in front of the mirror when you’re showing your cute outfit, but may not be able to remember what you were wearing 5 hours ago when they met you in person, because they were too focused of their screens.
But it also feels dreamlike when you can engage in a substantial conversation with somebody, when you can see their authentic smiles -and not just a well-designed emoji- when they speak about things they love. And don’t get me started about how magical it is when little tears appear on their eyes and cheeks when they laugh too much. Real tears, I mean.
And don’t get me wrong, apps like that can be a blessing when you live far away from your loved ones (I myself have a brother living 3,000 miles away from me) and you use them to communicate with them. Facetime is a blessing. Facebook is a blessing. Skype is a blessing. Social Networking is a blessing. People do work online, and it’s a blessing. But the disappointed face that one little kid had the other day at a gathering I attended, because her mother was ignoring him while she was on the phone (a few seconds later we found out she was on instagram, liking some photos of the event), could break your heart in a second and leave you sadly regretting the existence of such devices –but only for a couple minutes, before you also get a notification from instagram and spend the whole night liking strangers' photos, starting in a pic of your cousin Sam and ending up liking Kylie's photo.
Those little things I’ve learnt this year.
As every tool, it can be used in good, productive ways or in bad disruptive ones. But, in the long run, communication is what keeps us alive. So, don’t give up either on smartphones or on us, the owners of outdated phones. We still love you.