How Different Would Your Life Be Without Your Phone?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. I’m not sure why exactly; maybe because I’m struggling a bit at the moment and things in my phone have hurt me, or because I’ve been thinking over my life quite a lot recently,  and it’s made me think about how absolutely, totally different certain situations would be if we didn’t have mobile phones.

I’m old enough to have grown up without mobile phones really existing. I remember my uncle drove a van and he had this big brick of a thing that he used when out and about for his work, and that was really the only reason you would have one then. Then as I got a bit older and mobiles started being around a bit more a few people at school got one, and I remember thinking why on earth would we, at about 13, need a mobile phone. I could see no reason why we could possibly have a use for one.

It seems so crazy now that something which had absolutely no part in my life back then can play such a significant part in it now, and I don’t really like it. I don’t like how attached to it I am and how many times I check it a day. But the thought of not having or using a phone now just seems crazy.

I literally can’t imagine how we’d cope or what it was like without mobiles before. How did we speak to people that we didn’t live with? How did we arrange to do anything with anyone? Did we just trust that if we’d said in person to someone that we would see them at Revolution at 8pm on a Friday night that we would all just actually be there? What if we fancied going to the pub for a drink with a friend one night on the spur of the moment; did we really actually ring them to ask if they fancied it too and did they actually pick up the phone?! Doesn’t it seem so bizarre now?

I do remember spending hours on the home phone chatting to my friends after we got home from school, but we don’t even have a home phone anymore! So if Ava wanted to speak to her friends after school she would need to have a mobile too. She’s already desperate for one, but I wouldn’t really want her to have one for many years yet; she’s only seven.

For me I don’t think I would want her to have one until she was old enough to be going out with her friends on her own, so that it would have a purpose other than using it for messaging her friends and social media. We would be able to contact each other and I could make sure she was alright. But I’m guessing that nowadays children often get their first mobile before that stage. And then the thought of her having access to social media at her fingertips scares the hell out me – that’s a whole other conversation.

I find it so fascinating how certain things in my life could have turned out so differently if mobile phones had been around so much when I was young, or how different it would be if they weren’t around now.

Relationships from the past could have continued if we were able to contact each other so easily, and make plans and just generally stay in touch. There are lots of people that I would never have rung up on a home phone and spoken to, but to whom I might have sent a quick message. I feel like so much of my life could be quite different which is just bizarre thinking that a piece of technology can have that power.

And then when I think about how different things are now it just seems crazy that a bloody phone can affect my life so much. It distracts me from conversations with loved ones, it distracts me from work, it messes with my head when I compare myself to other people’s highlight reel that they show on social media. I’ve said things I shouldn’t in a message, I check my emails that are right there far too many times a day, I’m way more anxious that I should be because of my phone, and I spend too much money on ASOS because it’s right there tempting me with its new offerings that might make me look amazing.

Even just during writing this post I have looked at messages on WhatsApp, checked my emails more than once, gone on Twitter to see if a PR has messaged me back, and checked my bank balance. It’s ridiculous. No wonder I feel like I struggle to concentrate and feel like my head is so full all of the time.

I love that I can contact those in my life so easily, and I love social media and being able to access such a vast range of people and their different opinions, but my god, the constant looking at it all so often affects how I’m feeling right at that moment and can make me feel like shit, and it shouldn’t bloody have that power over me.

I also don’t like that I am not fully present when I with my friends or family because my phone beeps, or I suddenly have to check my emails whilst we’re in the middle of a conversation. It’s ridiculous and I hate that I do it. If I’m honest my phone use probably has affected some of my relationships and that is crazy.

Having a mobile phone that I can do so much stuff on is so useful and from a practical perspective, it makes my life easier. However, I think my life would be way, way simpler without it. I literally think my life would be a bit different now if certain conversations had never happened, certain friendships hadn’t been made. I’m so grateful for what it has given me, and for the wonderful people I have in my life literally because of WhatsApp, the companionship my phone gives me as someone who works from home. It’s wonderful. But it’s also crazy to think how different my life could and would be without it now.

But what can we do about it? How do I stop myself from picking up my phone once more and it playing such a large part in my life? It should be so simple; just don’t do it right? For some reason, it’s not that easy though. I don’t want to be so reliant on my phone and have it affect my head so much, and I am getting very slightly better at putting it to the side when I’m talking to my daughter. It’s something I need to keep working hard on though; I need and want to take away it’s power over me.

Do you feel like your phone has had a major impact on your life? Or do you not think things would change much without it? Let me know – I’d love to hear your thoughts.