Seven days. No phone. No texting or calling friends and family. No music. No taking pictures. Now who would ever even think of doing that? Pointless! Phones are so helpful, so convenient and a great distraction from life. When you want to escape your problems in the easiest way, what do you do? Lie on the couch and scroll. When you want to plan a hangout with some friends, what do you do? Go to your phone and text them. Want to create a memory? Take a photo or make a TikTok with your friends on your phone. Need help with an essay? Ask AI. You’re bored? Watch a movie. It’s just all so easy.
Anything you need or want is right in front of your face, on a little rectangular device.
That stupid phone. And yes I’m using the word stupid, because what happened to using our brain G-d gifted us with? What happened to living in the moment? What happened to figuring things out on our own? We think we aren’t capable of living without a phone, but we are, because phones didn’t always exist. And here I’ll prove to you how it is possible to live without your phone.
Wednesday afternoon I walked onto a plane to fly home. It was after a two day trip with my school where we barely had our phones. I looked to my right and every single person’s eyes were glued to a device. I looked to my left, same thing. The back of the plane? Not even one person was paying attention to the world around them. I thought to myself, wow, this world is sad, everyone’s lives just revolve around a screen. Although I’m only 17 and my life has basically just started, I decided right there and then, I’m not living like everyone else, my life is going to be different.
Once we landed, I handed my phone to someone and asked them to hold onto it for me. I needed a break from the thing taking away my chances of enjoying life and figuring things out the hard way, the way we were meant to all along, with our brain.
It’s been four days without my phone; my goal is to go a week without it. Now I’m gonna be honest, I still have a laptop I can use and my mom’s phone if I need to communicate, but let’s skip over that. I want to share firsthand how much my life has improved in just four days without a phone. It was a choice I made spontaneously but had really only done good for me.
The first day was difficult, I felt very disoriented, tired, bored, annoyed, and all I wanted was my phone, but I kept going. The second day was magical: I felt human, I felt myself again, I spent the day relearning old hobbies, hanging out with my family and ended off the night going to a Bat Mitzvah party, where I actually felt present for once. Best day of my life. The third day was an extremely productive day: I cleaned my room after pushing it off for a while, I did laundry, I played basketball with my younger siblings, and went on a walk with some friends. The fourth day was a repetition of the second and third and I’m hoping it will stay like this. The best part? I’ve been falling asleep quickly and much earlier than usual.
People have judged me for trying this experiment because they don’t understand the beauty of life without a phone. What I have to say so far is I’m so glad I made this choice and I already see how much happier of a person I am. I really recommend a phone detox even for just a day.
It’s amazing to see what this world has to offer.
