You, your mobile, and your relationship with it

[Chris_K]

Hey all,

Just a bit of off-topic discussion I hoped to kick-start, based on a new focus that mobile vendors seem to have had for the past few months, and thinking about my own relationship with my mobile.

Digital Health
This is the new trend and focus I mentioned above. On Apple devices this is called Screen Time, where iOS will give you real-time reports on how you’re using your device, and give you ways to manage it. Android users aren’t missing out either, as Google have created their own Digital Wellbeing tool, intended to give access to similar reports and management options.

The problem with these tools are that they’re entirely optional, and rightfully so – but if you never look at these or enable any kind of time management or reporting, you’ll never know. I think for many of us, we’d probably be pretty shocked at just how much time we spend on our mobiles… And that’s my question to you all…

Is using your mobile ‘too much’ a bad thing?
I’m in split minds. I do *everything* on my mobile – weekly grocery shopping, keeping in touch with friends and family, photography, gaming, entertainment, alarms, calendars, notebook. I won’t lie, I would be completely lost without my phone so I realise and understand I do have a bit of a dependency issue when it comes to my mobile – and I’ll bet it’ll be the same for all of us. That, in itself, I don’t believe is that much of an issue… The way the world is moving, it seems like more and more of us are communicating with or via machines/computers, and less with real humans, so over time (decades or generations) will we start losing our social and non-digital communication skills?

Bad habits, or just part of modern life?
If I wake up in the middle of the night, I like to think it’s just because I had too much water before bed and I need to “get to business”, but more often than not I tend to spend 2 minutes quickly scanning notifications on my phone before going back to bed. But am I waking up sometimes because I *need* to go for a pee, or is there something deep in my conscious where really, I’m waking myself up to check my phone?

Final thoughts, and some digital health suggestions
If I could sum up the experience I have with my mobile, it would be this: “Ultra convenience at my fingertips, with distractions everywhere”. As I said earlier, I do everything on my phone – heck, nearly all of my purchases made in physical shops is done via contactless, because why fumble about getting the card out of my wallet when I can just tap my phone? But all that convenience comes at a cost; A cost that I can live with and make peace with, but I do think there’s some things we can do to try and improve our relationship with our mobiles.

Enable screen-time or digital health. Check it maybe once a week to get an idea of how you’re using your mobile, for what, and how long – If it shocks you, it probably tells you you’re on it too much, and it may make you think about limiting yourself somewhat, or at certain times of the day.

Night time routines. Put it down screen first and out of sight – that way potential distractions if you happen to wake up should be minimised. This will work best if you enable do not disturb mode… I have mine on a schedule, activating every weekday at 10pm, and turning off at 7am.

Create backups of your phone/data. I think part of my dependency on my phone could be the horror idea of losing it – and all my data. So I’m thinking that by creating regular backups, saving my photo memories to the cloud etc, it will lessen that fear of ‘losing everything’, and thus improve the me/phone relationship.

What’s your phone/you relationship like, and do you have any tips or thoughts of your own for improving it?

[Anonymous]

Mine is very important considering I have learning difficulties & have to access to carers & family via phone. Also a lot of the social media apps are very useful for my photography & friends. I also listen to a lot of music so iTunes is no 1. I don’t use screen time much as it gets boring 

[pgn]

My phone is my alarm clock, my scheduler and my entertainment centre, as well as my camera and note-taker. It's my window on the news, my encyclopaedia (with Google) and my satnav.

I think I use it too much... 🤔

[jonsie]

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@pgn wrote:
My phone is my alarm clock, my scheduler and my entertainment centre, as well as my camera and note-taker. It's my window on the news, my encyclopaedia (with Google) and my satnav.

I think I use it too much... 🤔

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[TallTrees]

Hi @Chris_K 

Interesting low profile topic!

I use my mobile phone for ~calender reminders

I get text messages for reminder appointments ~ very helpful

I use it as a phone text messages all communications it tells me missed calls etc.

so I can call back.

I use it to research other stores prices when shopping!

and check whether in stock.

I don't fret over using it too much ~ it is a marvellous asset

I use it to research all sorts of things I am interested in

I use it to take photos perfect for that instant photo

and if I am looking for something I take a photo of the price!

(yes a bit price orientated)

I use my computer a lot but since I bought the larger screen mobile

I find it more useful for on the go use, when computer not available.

I don't game on it ~ don't find that interesting

I don't use it for watching movies, not interesting

Not used for any health things.

The Alarm is useful but I rarely use it.

The calendar/appointments are just replacing the diary kept in pocket!

The camera is just replacing the camera you could never remember to take with you.

The phone/text was never available before mobiles and this is a safety factor for help or assistance

and maybe telling someone you will be late for some reason, fantastic.

I wouldn't be worried about losing my face to face communication skills but 

don't know whether it would have an on-going affect on other generations.

Night time is no problem it gets left in the hall

I would not like to lose my phone but if you said you will never have a mobile

phone again it wouldn't worry me alot ~ I would certainly miss the communications

side of it and the ability to call a friend when on the move and lots more but

hey 

[gmarkj]

I use my phone for most things!
The normal - calls, texts, emails, taking and sharing photos and social media.
Watching videos (either YouTube, Netflix or other), reading books (mainly Kindle App), listening to the radio, music or podcasts.
Searching the internet either at home or out, sat-nav (either Google Maps or more often Waze).
As an alarm, calendar and note taker.
Playing games, checking the weather forecast, keeping up with the news, checking bills and bank accounts, adjusting the temperature at home, booking holidays or days out, ordering food, seeing how many (or how few!) steps I have taken and how much sleep I have had (or not...).
So not much really...

I rarely wake up in the night unless disturbed, and don't look at my phone when I am unless that is what disturbed me.
I should turn it off earlier, but watching a film/ TV show is my way of switching off.
I have just downloaded the digital wellbeing app, so it will be interesting to see how I use it (and how that knowledge changes how I use it).
As for backups, the only thing not backed up are my texts and things I download - everything else goes through google (which is probably a concern in itself!) so is auto backed up.

[pgn]

This article I wrote a few years ago should give you some idea... Give it a minute to load, the site is now defunct, so this is pulling the article off The Internet Archive's servers...

https://web.archive.org/web/20150915055649/http://www.ciao.co.uk/Do_We_Depend_Too_Much_On_The_Smartp...

[Cleoriff]

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@pgn wrote:

This article I wrote a few years ago should give you some idea... Give it a minute to load, the site is now defunct, so this is pulling the article off The Internet Archive's servers...

https://web.archive.org/web/20150915055649/http://www.ciao.co.uk/Do_We_Depend_Too_Much_On_The_Smartp...

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It loaded pretty quickly @pgn. Still relevant today

[TallTrees]

Read your earlier article @pgn interesting.
The mobile phone
An inadequate description really.
I can't fault the facility this fantastic piece of equipment gives the user I love the versatility of it. Amazing in one flat little handset/screen complete communications , boundless information, entertainment, not much it can't do. I marvel at it.

[pgn]

In Germany, it's called a "handy" - which is what it is, @TallTrees.  Thanks for the nice comment.