Digital Detox: Week 1

The Declutter

The first step of Cal Newport’s digital declutter [1] is removing apps, services, or websites that are distracting and unnecessary from your daily routine. And yes – that first step is uninstalling relevant apps from your phone.  I couldn’t understand why my phone always seemed to be running out of space, but it didn’t occur to me just how much space all of these apps were using – or how much battery power!  After the digital purge this week, my phone already seems to be doing better.

Apps

There were many apps on my phone that I had not touched in years, but I kept them around “just in case” I needed them for something.  I had at some point in the past gone through and turned off notifications for many of them as they became overwhelming, especially the news apps. I have learned over the past few years that I really need to be in a good mental state before reading headlines… I don’t even have my alarm clock set to NPR anymore, a necessary mental health adjustment that I made sometime between 2016 and 2020.

But as for my apps, here is what I deleted from my phone:

• AllTrails (hiking maps)
• AP News
• BBC News
• Booking.com
• Chess Pro
• Chipotle
• NYT Crossword
• Dictionary.com
• Fresh Thyme Farmers Market
• IMDb
• LinkedIn
• Messenger Lite
• MeterFeeder (1 of 2 parking apps)
• Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel (a very large app for a self-led tour that never worked but was still taking up space)
• Netflix
• NPR News
• NYTimes
• Post-Gazette
• Ritual (food app for a coffee shop near my old job)
• Runkeeper
• Southwest Airlines
• Sudoku
• Uber
• Wordscapes
• Yelp

And what is staying, at least for now:

• Amazon (I’ve had some password issues lately and want to make sure I can log in from my computer before deleting it – notifications are off)
• Ameritrade
• Audible
• Blue Light Filter
• COVID Alert PA
• Duolingo (I want to make sure I can log in from my computer before deleting it – notifications are off)
• Kanji Recognizer
• Kindle
• Nest
• Nextdoor (I would delete it if I didn’t have trouble logging in from my laptop – notifications are off)
• ParkMobile
• Perfect Piano
• PNC Bank
• QR Reader
• Skype
• Smell PGH (Crowdsourced pollution alerts)
• Spotify
• The Conqueror Challenges (Christian and I are doing a virtual hike up Mt. Fuji)
• Google Translate
• Untappd (I use it to track beers I try and like, less for the social aspect)
• WordPress

Internet 

As I mentioned in last week’s post, YouTube is the biggest offender when it comes to being a time sink for me on my own but also for Christian and me as a couple. We will often sit down in the evening and start with one video in our “to-watch” list, and then all of a sudden it will be hours later, and I’ll be asleep on the couch.  It also means that we don’t have quality interaction time, which is what I most want.

Christian forgot that it was Ash Wednesday this week and asked if I wanted to watch a video together – one I had missed most of earlier in the week after passing out on the couch.  One of my guidelines for using YouTube during Lent was that it was not entirely off limits: I could watch one video if I needed to for educational purposes, and I could watch one with Christian – but only one at a time – if it was something we wanted to watch together and then talk about later.  The video in question was a list of everything great about the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which was a favorite of both of ours from 2022.[3] 

After the video was over, Christian remembered it was Lent and apologized, but I explained the rationale, and then we continued talking about how much fun the movie was and how we hoped it was recognized accordingly at the Oscars.  We haven’t watched anything else together on YouTube since then, but we’ve also been traveling since Thursday.  Christian has shown me a few memes and videos on his phone over the past few days, but I haven’t looked at my own Facebook feed.

Since we are currently back in my hometown for my dad’s birthday, I have used Facebook messenger briefly to get in touch with friends whose numbers I didn’t have in order to try to organize a quick drink or meetup.  I recognize that it’s bending (if not breaking) my own guidelines, but the result of going out for a beer and introducing Christian and one of my closest friends from high school was well worth it.

Surprises

Although I have bent/broken the rules a little bit over the past few days to communicate with select friends in out-of-the-ordinary situations (such as congratulating a friend about her new baby on a group text), I was surprised at how little I’ve actually wanted to be connected.  It is possible that after a breakneck pace at work all week, followed by a flurry of packing and five-hour drive across the state, I have really just needed some mental downtime, and it’s possible that the feelings of isolation I expected will show up in the coming weeks. For now, however, I’ve had very little desire to be online, even when Christian picks up his phone. Maybe I’m just tired.

I have noticed that I’ve even been using my phone camera less in just the past few days.  Usually I have my phone out all the time when I’m visiting my parents, snapping photos of their cats and Siegfried playing or of the general silliness we get up to when we’re together.  The only photo I’ve taken since we’ve been here was of a particularly attractive pizza I made when we were cooking dinner from scratch.  I certainly like taking photos of my kitties or particularly delicious-looking food (probably my two most frequent subjects) – it feels like a small way of practicing appreciation or gratitude… but even my urge to do it has felt diminished without access to an immediate audience.

The other thing that surprised me was that, as someone who has really only been texting for slightly over 10 years, picking up the phone to call another human being felt far weirder than I thought.  I use the phone to talk to my parents, who don’t text, but I played phone tag with a friend on Thursday who had called to thank me for the Christmas presents I (finally) gave her on Fat Tuesday.  Knowing I would be unavailable through social media, she left me a voicemail while I was at work (commenting on how it was outside her comfort zone), and I called her back during our drive to my parents’ – though I felt some trepidation placing the call because I didn’t know when her family ate dinner, and I didn’t want to disturb anything she might be doing.  She didn’t answer, and I left a voicemail for her in return.  

My mom and I also called and left a voicemail for another friend for her birthday on Friday… It’s a weird feeling, but also a very clear reminder of how we used to live our lives.  Over beers Friday night, a friend from high school and I reminisced about how we would drive around without the assistance of Google Maps, get lost, and find our way back to civilization eventually, with no cell phones to tell our parents where we were.  We marveled at how we made it work, but we always did.

Christian has been less than thrilled about my prohibition on texting, but we haven’t needed it much thus far.  Although no one really loves the drive across Pennsylvania, I enjoyed having that much time to just sit and chat with him.  I think we hadn’t spent that much uninterrupted time together (while conscious) since we were in Italy.  And, honestly, the only thing that is really limiting quality time with my family this weekend is my documentation of it for this blog.

~

I look forward to seeing how this adventure continues to unfold in the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading!

Keep Reading –>

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[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism

[2] https://saamvisual.com/process/2020/7/21/calnewport-digitalminimalism

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kowvooNQhs

[4] https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/56146628/Lewis-Black

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