One Smart Move - Punkt MP02

I never thought of myself as a drug addict.  Even when I started falling asleep next to a device quickly becoming known as the “Crackberry” I believed everything was still normal.  15 years on that slippery slope, however, landed me with this polarized relationship with my “smart”-phone. One not all that different than with a drug.

On one hand, it brought me excitement, joy, and connectivity like never before. It puts a world of knowledge and experiences at your fingertips. Without a doubt, the smartphone delivers truly radical expansion through personal and affordable technology. How was it then that more and more it felt like an electronic leash tugging and whipping me every chance it got.  Throughout the last decade, as smartphones grew to dominate our lives, I occasionally reminisced about my beeper, or flip phone and the freedoms they gave me without all the conditions that come along for the ride. My relationship with my phone and specifically the apps felt like a hostage exchange or silent auction where every action I took published an unspoken need, potential fear, or subconscious desire into a sea of artificial intelligence. I felt myself becoming a victim of the “attention economy”. Simple activities like breaking free for a cup of coffee or jumping in the car for a joy ride became a series of unsolicited prompts, recommendations, and thus unnecessary decisions and unintended consequences. I was fed up with my phone second-guessing me all the time.  Why are you leaving the office? Do you realize how far it is to the gym? Maybe go home instead? What good is knowing the traffic on a route I don’t plan to take or a coupon that would steer me away from my intended destination?

One day in late January, I found myself mentally exhausted navigating through that gauntlet of pokes and prods on my way for a coffee break down the block from my downtown Boise office. Despite that, once I had my hands on that hard-fought cup of mud, I could not resist checking my email as soon as my butt hit the stool. What is the harm in doing a quick scan for any really pressing emergency work items after all? Isn’t that more efficient than waiting 10 minutes to return to my PC? But it never ends that way. Instead, it would lead to a quick look at LinkedIn winding my thumb up for that infinite scroll. Wheeling right on through Twitter and then Instagram.  That seemingly benign motor skill I'd developed started with my blackberry. Now fine-tuned it raced to infinity only to stop temporarily on something as uneventful as a group text circling around the family or office. I would barely think before adding something I thought was insightful or clever to show everyone how engaged I am. On most "breaks" like this by the time I’d settled my coffee was cold and I’d been mentally shifted out of relaxing and retreat mode to seek and destroy. By this, I mean that instead of pausing, getting a little caffeine fix, and listening to the cars pass while I reflect on my day to come, the station had been inadvertently turned from reggae to rap by sequencing media from the palm of my hand. When I came to I could justify my behavior because often I would find myself listening to a new podcast that was geared toward entrepreneurship, running, or in some way living "Your best life". Stumbling my way blindly I might fall upon some inspiring or educational content but still, it was no excuse for pulling me away from time to recharge and calibrate as intended. The phone was controlling not only my next move but my current state. 

Snap out of it Stephen.  Look up for once. Was my environment providing any signals about my own behavior that I could no longer recognize? Oddly enough, everyone else appeared to be doing the same thing so it felt normal to turn back towards my phone and resume. This train of thought might sound crazy but I’d bet most of us are behaving this way to some degree whether we are aware of it or not. I was becoming aware, and more often uneasy and frustrated.

After doing a few digital detoxes and experiencing some surprisingly immediate benefits I began research on a more permanent alternative to my iPhone. I did a good deal of research and was attracted to the minimalistic philosophy of a small digital experience focused company out of Switzerland named Punkt. Fortunately, they had a 4G GSM phone launching in the US called the MP02. In preparation for the switch, I started consuming some interesting book recommendations from their online library. I learned about neuroplasticity, the science of addiction, the attention economy, big tech, and their intentional integration with smartphone technology borrowed right out of the playbooks of your favorite casinos. Reading about the science that explained the impacts on our social and psychological well-being startled me. It allowed me to connect the dots between how my natural biases, fears, addictive tendencies, and emotions were being toyed with by my smartphone.  I was convinced that ignoring this would continue to rob me of my creativity, attention span, memory, and even happiness.  Still, both personally and professionally I could not see myself in a world without technology at my fingertips. There were too many scenarios running through my head where I’d be lost without my iPhone, especially, as a small business owner leveraging social media platforms to market our services. What I needed to create was a balance.  One in which technology had a more controlled and focused role and required my intention not just attention to access.

About 5 months ago my MP02 arrived. Note: This is not a review about the phone but it suffices to say the MP02 works as advertised delivering phone calls and text message (T9 style) in a simple and handsome package you won’t be ashamed to own. Instead, this is an article about a few highlights and reflections on my experience to date. 

First, I must admit, my old habits were persistent and made way into my new environment. I would reach for the phone to check something. That something was now gone. After about 48 hours the instinctual tick and uneventful response from the MP02 started to make me chuckle and eventually stopped. I was sort of relieved by the lack of information on the alert screen. If I didn’t have a call coming in or a recent text message waiting there was nothing to see. No weather, heart rate, invites or reminders to drink water or breath. Not even a battery life indicator makes its way onto the home screen (unless it is very low). No Siri asking me to tell her something.  Just a whisper back telling me to stop looking for something that’s not there.

Of course, my mind was not done with me. I quickly figured out a way to scare myself into a digital retreat. Imagine a world without navigation! I’d be lost or I’d never make it to my appointments in time. What would I do without my calendar prompting me before every event? Committed to the experiment however, I cleared those errors with viable alternatives that had been working perfectly fine for the last 100 years.  I knew my entire operating system needed some rewiring. It had to look more like that of my grandfather’s. I remember him wielding a car phone in his Cadillac looking super important when he had to make a business call or opening a nice roll of cash to pay for a soda. He survived fine without navigation and went on plenty of vacations. He never carried a cell phone on his person. If someone needed him they found him with a page or waited until he reached them. So to stay on track I borrowed from my grandfather and used visualization to create a path forward even though many of the images came from the past. 

Now, because most of my contacts were on my iPhone, I was forced to handle it occasionally transferring names and numbers over to the MP02. In only a few days picking up, my iPhone felt so foreign. It was too bulky, heavy, and way too bright. I thought a few times how did I carry this with me for so long. It’s got buttons on the side but none where my eyes can see? I couldn’t believe how quickly I felt like my new phone was the natural fit and my old phone was like lugging around a toolbox.

I had hooked the phone up on a Friday carrying it cautiously and familiarizing myself with the form and function psyching myself up as though I had never used a cordless phone before. On Sunday morning I was ready. Time to go for a run.  And for the first time, in a while, I was without music, audiobook, or a camera. No tunes were sure to be a major bummer. I was reminded that just a few months prior I’d seen a mountain lion on the same trail. So perhaps having my ears available this time around would be a good precaution. I also noticed the music was not dictating my tempo and with no podcast or audiobook occupying my mind, I didn’t conjure up a bunch of action items during the run.  Instead, I’d been craving a cup of coffee. See I run early and on an empty stomach when I've come to notice people are usually cooking Sunday breakfast. With my senses free and more focused on my body a cup of hot coffee was more than enough motivation to consume my thoughts on a brisk run. I didn’t feel pulled back to my house prematurely or distracted to take a photo or check my Strava run stats when I was done. So, I wandered over to my favorite coffee spot where I noticed a seat by the window where the sun was inviting me in to relax for a minute. I didn’t have any photos from my run to check or alerts about how much snow was in the forecast for the local ski mountain. I just had my coffee. Not only did I soak in some rays and get to my coffee while it was still hot enough to warm me up but I started to observe my surroundings from a slightly different lens. Not everyone was on a smartphone as I’d previously concluded so many times before. The people working the counter, for instance, were heads up and eager chat. I caught up on the snow report and weather the old-fashioned way. I don’t think fewer people were on their phones. It's simply that I was free to notice those that weren't scrolling all along. On my ride home I realized the memory of that experience was crystalized unlike many others recently. I actually felt absorbed by the moment in a way I had been missing because I had finally been in the present. Same with the run. My fear of not having a camera was sort of solved because I realized what had been proposed in some of the books I read. My mind was free to do one of it’s most amazing jobs which is taking its own pictures. The wide-angle 3-dimensional ones that my iPhone hadn’t figured out yet. All in all, I felt truly content with my run and appreciative of the time I was afforded to be alone, in nature, and then with others. After all, I originally fell in love with running because it gave me time to prune my mind of less important thoughts and distractions not load it with more of them. With so many new concepts to get excited about I was never contemplating the underlying concepts, they all share or discarding the ones it was time to forget.

Later that day we went to the aquarium with my family and had a less spiritual awakening than the one I just described. While my kids were enjoying a small feeding tank I saw a mother snapping photos of herself. Then she took a handful of her friend. Then she grabbed the friend, pulling her in close for a selfie.  Amidst the photo opp, she noticed her baby had started crying. Her motherly instincts kicked in and she quickly snapped a flurry of pics of the irritated newborn. Wow! What I’d witnessed in no more than 5 seconds was the commercial for what could become of us should we deny how overpowering a smartphone can be. This socially awkward behavior is a cliff many teens and young adults have already gone off and worse so many younger children and even grown-ups are heading towards. Clearly, in this situation, the mother's frontal lobe had been somehow overwhelmed or hijacked but by what? The excitement of the moment or the idea of documenting it? The child was too small to even understand what was happening at the aquarium. The mother surely had seen fish before. The experience didn't seem worthy of the paparazzi but clearly her perspective was different. It was as if the only one present and conscious was the infant. Whether the baby had recognized a lack of attention or quite simply was hungry it's actions and expressions were consistent with its age and environment.

We wrap things up at the aquarium and the lobbying began for souvenirs which quickly turned into a negotiation that landed on ice cream. Normally, by this time I might think to myself let’s call it a day. In this case, however, I felt the burning desire to return downtown. The lasting impression of the earlier experience was luring me in and with no phone to interfere with that impulse or a reminder of how much traffic I’d hit on the way home it felt like ice cream was the only thing to do. When we arrived that same sun was bursting through the window of the ice cream parlor. As it melted the ice cream off my kids' cones faster than they could lick them I felt rewarded by my decision to extend the outing. While watching the feeding frenzy I realized how close we were to a local attraction – Freak Alley. With a guest visiting that loved art a plan came together to take advantage of the unseasonably warmer weather and pep in the kids' step.  We were off to explore where local artists display graffiti on the walls of the buildings and I was ready to call an audible to let technology play a role in this visual experience. I had received a pocket-sized HD video camera for Christmas – Digi Osmo. That’s right I had some additional tech with me all along. This device is unique because it serves one very specific purpose which is hi-res 4k video on a gimble that fits in your pocket. And because it's is not internet-ready it never begged to be taken out. I’d been waiting a few weeks for a chance to try it out and capturing video an art walk seemed worthy and it was. Typically any good would pictures or video on my iPhone would get lost amongst all of the other photos from the weekend.  That evening I found myself free minded enough to learn the software required to transfer and edit the footage into a short movie in my office.  Best of all I shared it with everyone on TV to end the weekend.  I couldn’t help to notice that my ability to focus on a creative task, while still using technology had been adjusted in only a short time.  Since then I have not used the video camera more than a handful of times. It had served its purpose without overreaching. I didn't find it controlling or addictive.  Perhaps there was potential for the balance I was after. Certainly, with these first few experiences over one short weekend, I started to see myself using the tech in a more compartmentalized and focused way.

I fell asleep Sunday night feeling somewhat accomplished in my experiment. I woke up early Monday a little less confident about how I would survive at the office. A bit ironic someone in the business of telecom would regress on towards a dumbphone. More still, I am heavily engaged with LinkedIn, email, video conferences, and chat. The wheels could have been only a few hours from falling off.

Fast forward a few days and despite a week that included a major vendor crisis, I found myself not only calmer but more dialed into the impact and attention the issue deserved. I spent more hours on the phone than I had in years trying to fix the issues, avoiding distractions. Even though I felt as if the week was consumed by this interruption looking back I found I had written a lot more content and caught up with at least 3 people I’d been reluctant to catch up within months. I noticed that my personal texts were starting to die down and my urge to text others the same. Even once I relearned T9 I realized how difficult it made typing compared to full qwerty. Not as many texts seemed worth sending when a just little more effort was required.

Now, it’s been almost 5 months since I made the change to the Punkt MP02 and nearly everything I do has changed largely because I don’t carry my smartphone with me everywhere. The things you want by your side are loved ones, not technology. Any reason to effectively have a computer in my backyard, bed, bathroom, or dinner table seemed silly no matter how compact it was. Finally, I have to mention the renewed sense of focus that returned when I got in the car. Previously, one of my growing fears was becoming a victim or worse offended of distracted driving. I found myself ashamed and scared a few times of how quickly I could lose focus even with the best intentions. Now I would check to see if I forgot my phone, or wallet, adjust my seat and mirrors like I was taught in high school vs. making sure my playlist or audiobook was ready and all texts were answered.

I have some new tricks and tools I’m using to stay on track but mostly taking advantage of free resources I was otherwise ignoring.  Most cars these days have navigation. It’s good to check a map anyway and you can look at one from your computer before you run off and write down the cross streets.  I’m finding it’s increasingly easier to commit these things to memory. Study’s show the hippocampus which aids in navigation and memory can regenerate if exercised in fact. I learned to manage text from my desktop with an app from T-Mobile called Digits. When texts pile up I attack them like a batch of emails. My old smartphone is now an overpriced MP3 player. I stole my wife’s kindle and have been reading more. I listen to public radio in the car and I don’t feel anxiety from an onslaught of inquiries and prompts I had become used to from my smartphone. I am finding joy in contemplation and boredom and repairing diminishing skills like observation, daydreaming and paying attention better. 

In the age of pandemic I expect growing oversight, perhaps contact tracing, health restricted permissions, and tradeoffs for previous freedoms.  Add to this 5G, and I can't help to imagine the smartphone will play an even more crucial role as the pawn for some personal liberties and overall sanity in our future. I’m relieved to have had the opportunity to reset this component of my life before those choices become real. Whether I return to one in the future I respect the power of a smartphone more like firing a gun for the first time. These are not one-way terminals. They are extensions of our physical and mental space. I can’t see myself turning back and would encourage anyone feeling disrupted by their phone to give it a break for a while and start with a weekend detox.  I admit it's not always easy and I've run across some real compromises. I'm a firm believer that if you want to see a change in the world you need to try to be that change first. If at the very least it delays my children from begging for a smartphone prematurely it will be worth any small sacrifices I have to make.