Dumb Phone Experiment Results

Recently I experimented with a four-week abstinence from many of the "smart" features of my mobile phone. I shared why I was doing this in A Holiday From My Smart Phone. I also detailed in Well Being Hacks how I turned my phone into a "dumber" phone, which included removing or hiding apps and turning off many smart phone features. My goal overall was to reduce dramatically the time I spent on my phone and document whether it improved my sense of well being.

I learned a lot about myself and our society's increasing reliance on mobile technology through this experiment! Overall, I reduced the time I spent on my phone by over 40% on average. The number of daily notifications that popped up on my phone dropped from 67 to 1. I picked up my phone 18% less times a day. During the process, I captured three insights about the positive benefits of a smart phone holiday, as well as three reflections on the key challenges.

Positive benefits of a smart phone holiday

• Increased focus and head space: By week two, I was already feeling significant benefits of a clearer head. For example, I found that I was able to listen to a full news story without checking my phone for emails. I realized how much information I've been missing through constant interruptions. In week three, I found that I was far more able to sit and wait for an appointment without filling the time by looking at my phone. This gave my brain time to rest without external inputs.

I had glimpses of how quiet mental time contributed to better thinking and allowed my thoughts to flow without interruption.

• More joy when not working: Leaving my desk at the end of the work day and really leaving emails behind helped me become far more present to my family in the evenings. Also, typically when I go on a two-week vacation with my family, it takes me the first seven days (at least) to stop checking my work emails. This time, when we left for a family vacation on August 10--ten days into my smart phone holiday--I had already developed positive behavior changes around not checking emails outside of work hours. I immediately let go of work emails and experienced a full vacation.
• Increased efficiency: Over the month of August, not checking emails from my phone actually improved my efficiency. During weeks when I was working, I was only on work email at my desk, when I was able to take any action that was needed. Previously, I might read an email at 10:00pm and then worry about it over night, spending unnecessary energy without any results. Then, at the end of August when I returned to work, I read with fresh eyes for the first time the new inbound messages, and quickly dispatched them with less stress and greater clarity.

Challenges that got in the way

I'll be totally honest that this experiment was more difficult than I imagined, especially for the following three reasons.

• The forces of modern life: Not having easy internet and email access in my hand all the time made me realize all the different ways that modern life has become designed around smart phones. For example, many restaurants now provide QR codes to menus rather than printed menus, and some vendors encourage mobile payment methods rather than cash or credit cards. Several times during vacation when we were eating out more, I had to ask a restaurant if they could provide me with a printed menu (good news, most places still keep a few on hand). Also, many concerts and tourist attractions we visited during our vacation delivered tickets exclusively via email and text, requiring an internet browser. Several times I wound up using my Safari browser that I had hidden from my phone home screen because it was the only way to show proof of purchase to enter an event we were attending. Finally, I went to return some items to Target, and had planned ahead by printing my receipt at home. However, the store required me to pull up the receipt from my email to verify the bar code for a few of the items, foiling my plans to not access email from my smart phone.

It made me think a lot about digital equity, and how so many services may be less accessible for people who for various reasons don't have a smart phone.

• Behavior change takes constant vigilance: I noticed especially for the first week that I was constantly reaching for my phone, almost from the moment I woke up. This got easier the second week, but only through serious vigilance. On occasion, I found myself backsliding, such as the day when I was forced to use internet from my phone to access e-tickets to our Architectural Boat Tour in Chicago. On that day, I found myself "cheating" more and justifying to myself the need to look something else up on the Internet, like a pair of cute sneakers I'd seen in the window down the street.
• Social pressure: Because I had turned off notifications, I had to proactively look to see if I had incoming text messages. A few times my spouse texted me, and I didn't see his message for a couple of hours. We were also traveling with some friends, one of whom got annoyed at me a couple of times when I wouldn't open links he'd shared over text or wouldn't join a Door Dash group food order. When I explained about my smart phone holiday from Internet and emails, he goaded me that I was just shifting the burden to other people's smart phones, and asked how long I planned to keep this up.

In closing, my next steps will be integrating what I learned from this holiday into daily life. I also learned that taking a permanent hiatus from some of my smart phone's features may be unsustainable without more proactive communication with family, friends, and clients.

Now that I've felt the benefits of greater clarity and focus from spending more time off my smart phone, I want to remain in control of my use of technology rather than have it control me. I'll be checking in with myself on a regular basis, using screen time features to track my usage and assess if I'm returning to old compulsive behaviors.

Sofia Michelakis?sometimes describes herself as a "motivating storyteller." Professionally, she is a philanthropic advisor, helping people turn their vision for social change into action. As former lead strategist and deputy director overseeing the Giving Pledge and past board chair of Social Venture Partners International, she is a trusted bridge between philanthropists, their teams, and nonprofit leaders. Sofia has partnered with influential global visionaries on giving strategy and family engagement, developed engaging curricula and winning models for social impact.