{"id":221138,"date":"2025-10-17T21:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221138\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:26:09","slug":"i-spent-five-days-without-my-phone-and-heres-what-i-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221138\/","title":{"rendered":"I spent five days without my phone and here’s what I learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size<\/p>\n

My average screen time of more than eight hours a day betrays the fact I\u2019ve \u00adreally made an effort not to use my phone so much. I\u2019ve taken to reading books on public transport, and once paid almost $100 for an app that attempted to block me from accessing Instagram and TikTok by serving guilt-trippy quotes about how Ed Sheeran gets so many of his saccharine lyrics \u00adwritten because he doesn\u2019t use a smartphone. Some of my addiction is legitimate \u2013 I respond to Slack work messages and send emails and update spreadsheets \u2013 but most of it is a subconscious belief that the next good joke or meaningful revelation or big idea will come with another scroll. And I\u2019ll devote endless hours to chasing that possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a desire to always be connected and we don\u2019t know how to be bored anymore,\u201d says sociologist Caitlin Begg, who studies the effect of smartphones on everyday life and relationships. Begg shares her observations, experiences and research on TikTok: the place where people deep in their attachment most need to hear about the possibility of disentangling themselves.<\/p>\n

But how possible or plausible is that extraction, when so much of our daily conveniences exist purely through a 5G \u00adconnection? Our means of accessing transport and \u00adordering food and locating friends in a crowd are \u00adinextricable from our phones, not to mention our ability to be productive. \u201cThe always-on culture of work means people feel like they have to be on their phones for their jobs, then it leads into, \u2018Oh, well I\u2019m on my phone checking my email,\u2019\u2009\u201d Begg says. That\u2019s where the vortex holds our heads under.<\/p>\n

Before I begin an experiment to see just how possible it is to participate in some common daily activities without my phone, I make a call to comedian Ryan Shelton. The co-host of the podcast The Imperfects once shared the details of his attempt to swap his iPhone for what he called a \u201csmug phone\u201d: a basic flip phone with few features. Sometimes he\u2019d pair it with a device with a little more heft: \u201cI also had an iPad Mini, which I would take out with me if I thought I would need to email or order an Uber. But even then, I was calling 13cabs,\u201d Shelton tells me. One device that does everything we need is convenient, obviously, but the cognitive cost of it only gets higher. \u201cWe\u2019ve convinced ourselves that we can\u2019t live without these devices,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we\u2019ve only had them for 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelton went more than 220 days with his \u201csmug phone\u201d set-up but I\u2019m starting with five. Five excursions out in the world, entirely uncontactable, with only the objects I have with me: a watch, a notebook, a book to read and my analogue camera to document it all. If I\u2019d had access to it, I would have posted a TikTok about how a tote bag filled with these items made me the \u201cperformative male\u201d meme.<\/p>\n

Day one: the cinema<\/p>\n

On my walk to the train station, I can\u2019t help but feel like I\u2019ve forgotten something. A knock-on effect of no phone is no headphones, so I am \u2013 to use one of the worst fragments of viral vernacular \u2013 \u201craw-dogging\u201d this commute. The cinema is the ideal place to begin this experiment and be in this quiet, insular headspace. My preparation for this excursion began a few days earlier, when I dug out my old Swatch watch I\u2019d put aside to donate to an op shop and had its battery replaced.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A book helps the time pass when waiting at the cinema.Credit: Brodie Lancaster<\/p>\n

I approach the box office ahead of a matinee screening of Model, a 1980 film by the legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman. It\u2019s analogue life rendered in black and white, a fly-on-the-wall look at life inside modelling agencies that run on landlines, film photography and public telephones. It\u2019s a reminder that being in the world involves talking to people, looking up, and using my hands, brain and voice. Buying a ticket is smooth and simple, and poring over my book makes the minutes pass quickly before the lights go down.<\/p>\n

After the credits roll, though, I feel compelled to check the phone that isn\u2019t there. Instead of madly cycling through emails and DMs and texts like I normally would, I think about why I feel that itch. It\u2019s similar to the feeling of talking to someone at a party and realising their eyes are glazing over and they\u2019re glancing past my head in search of something better. So much of the time I spend losing myself in my screen, I realise, is observing other people\u2019s lives or trying to prove something about my own. When I get home, it takes me a few hours to remember to log the film on my Letterboxd account, something I\u2019d usually do before even exiting the cinema. Waiting didn\u2019t cost me anything.<\/p>\n

Day two: the suburban mall<\/p>\n

\u201cCheck you have all of your belongings before leaving the bus, especially your phone, or that would really change the outcome of your day,\u201d the bus driver announces as we arrive outside Chadstone, Melbourne\u2019s massive suburban mall. It\u2019s the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere, and I\u2019ve booked a ticket on its free shuttle bus to zip me there from the city and back again. This required a visit to Officeworks the day \u00adbefore to print the tickets I\u2019d pre-booked. Everyone else boarding the bus flashes their passes on their phones.<\/p>\n

Arriving early for the shuttle pick-up in the CBD \u00adreveals the purpose of a phone in \u201cdead\u201d moments: it\u2019s a digital gap filler. And sometimes, during quiet days or weekends, as a single person living alone, my life can have gaps of up to 12 hours. Today, without my phone filling them, I finish a book before boarding the half-hour shuttle.<\/p>\n

Collecting the physical directory of stores when I step into the bright, air-conditioned retail maze makes me feel as if I\u2019m a tourist in my own city: my movements and tasks are driven solely on instinct and checking co-ordinates on a map.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, I discover the lack a phone-less shopping trip reveals. I\u2019m limited by what I can order at a tea shop whose counter is covered in QR codes \u2013 the only way to look at the menu. I\u2019m flying blind in the Korean skincare store without my translation app. I find myself aimlessly wandering a bookstore; I never before realised that my folder of screenshots and my notes app work together to dictate what I shop for.<\/p>\n

\"Navigating<\/p>\n

Navigating a mall involved a physical directory.Credit: Brodie Lancaster<\/p>\n

For a while, I revel in the absolute anonymity of no one knowing me or where I am or being able to contact me. After a couple of hours, though, I\u2019m shocked to find myself feeling a little uneasy. Sad isn\u2019t quite the right word, neither is lonely.<\/p>\n

When I attempt to describe this reaction to friends later, I try for more universal terms: it\u2019s a bit like being on a long flight alone and feeling unexpectedly emotional, or being at home alone during long stretches in lockdown and realising not a single person on earth knows you\u2019re alive. I\u2019m eager to get home to my phone, not for mindless scrolling, but for the possibility of connection. If I\u2019d had it in my bag, I absolutely would have cheated on this experiment and pulled it out to call an Uber.<\/p>\n

With a few more tasks left to complete in this experiment, I realise I need at least one of three things in order for them to be, not just successful, but possible: more purpose, some company, or shorter stints without my gap-filler and immediate problem-solver.<\/p>\n

Day three: the waiting room<\/p>\n

Caitlin Begg categorises screen time into three categories: productive, mindless and fun \u2013 \u201cSo not all screen time is created equal.\u201d While she says the most important spaces to avoid the anxious creep of phone use are in social settings with friends and family, waiting rooms are \u201cthe in-between moments, where reflexively checking all the time \u2026 can really contribute to phone addiction.\u201d She refers to phones in these contexts as \u201cdigital pacifiers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"There\u2019s<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always old magazines to read in waiting rooms.Credit: Brodie Lancaster<\/p>\n

As I wait for my anxiety meds to kick in \u2013 my medical pacifier before I get dental work done \u2013 I flick through a 2014 issue of New Scientist magazine with a cover story on the dangers of \u201cthe white stuff\u201d (sugar). My dentist is running early, so I\u2019m inverted on her chair in no time, and within an hour stumbling back out onto the street, feeling a little foggy and a lot puffy. I have a bus to catch \u2013 I wrote my public transport route in a notebook before setting off for this morning of appointments \u2013 but being sans phone, I have no way of knowing how long it\u2019ll be before it gets to my stop. In this moment, I wish I could Google \u201cHow long for anaesthetic to wear off\u201d.<\/p>\n

After delicately navigating my half-numbed mouth around a chicken wrap en route to my next appointment, I\u2019ve got another navigation task: remembering how to get to my facialist. I\u2019ve only been there twice, always by Uber. I pass two construction workers on a smoko who are looking at their phones, but when I double-back to ask them for directions, they shake their heads and shrug. I take a chance on walking up the block and am grateful when I see the recognisable logo on the door. I\u2019m shocked at my own capability, which can\u2019t be good.<\/p>\n

Day four: the farmers\u2019 market<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re choosing to put yourself thru this!\u201d my friend Emily texts me the night before we meet at Cam\u2019s, a cafe inside Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne\u2019s inner northeast, when I let her know I\u2019ll be there at our agreed-upon time \u2013 but won\u2019t have my phone. \u201cThat\u2019s my version of torture!\u201d It\u2019s a tradition for me to meet Emily, her partner, Mike, and their daughter for breakfast at Cam\u2019s, a meal we bookend by a lap of the monthly farmers\u2019 market in the grounds of the old convent. Depending on toddler moods and bus frequencies, one or both of us is generally texting updates on our ETA until the moment we have eyes on one another.<\/p>\n

\"Market<\/p>\n

Market meet-ups mean you have to be on time.Credit: Brodie Lancaster<\/p>\n

I\u2019m exceptionally early, with a fresh novel (my third book since starting this experiment) in my bag, and nothing else demanding my time or attention. \u201cWhen you haven\u2019t got the internet and everything on your smartphone for your entertainment, people become your entertainment,\u201d Shelton had told me when I\u2019d asked him about the biggest positive to come from his analogue experiment. \u201cIt felt a lot more connecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once, about a year ago, my friend Georgia joined us for a morning at the market. As we all chatted aimlessly, I felt struck by a kind of impatience and tried to wrap up the conversation and move us all along. It wasn\u2019t out of the ordinary for me to be in a rush like this. Georgia clocked it and asked, \u201cWhy are you doing that? Where else do you have to be?\u201d The mental image of my Google Calendar blocking out my day in multicoloured squares was looming large over my leisure time, I realised. That I couldn\u2019t eat a croissant and listen to an anecdote with my closest friends because I\u2019d told myself I needed to tick off imaginary tasks was a real issue that my friend had observed.<\/p>\n

That moment came back to me as I left the market, some hours after arriving, feeling rested and the \u00adopposite of rushed. My mind was in just one place for an entire morning.<\/p>\n

Day five: at the gym<\/p>\n

My final task requires me to rise without my phone\u2019s alarm \u2013 something the spring sun and my needy cat often conspire to ensure I do \u2013 and spend the morning at the gym. No phone means no fitness tracker, no headphones and no way to mindlessly pass the time between sets the way I normally would. Waking up is the simple part; resisting the temptation to \u201cjust check\u201d my phone while I\u2019m still in my apartment with it is more difficult. I need to physically move it out of my line of sight and onto a high shelf to ensure I avoid it.<\/p>\n

My friend Kane is meeting me at the gym, which is a 20-minute walk from my home. As I cross the train line over the river and walk through the industrial backstreets that make up this shortcut on my route, I recall something I mentioned to Shelton about the feeling of being uncontactable: I\u2019m no safer with my phone than I am without it. Still, as a woman walking alone alongside an abandoned warehouse, I realise the feeling of safety \u2013 even if it\u2019s imagined \u2013 is a valuable thing.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/p>\n

No phone at the gym means no mindless distractions.Credit: Brodie Lancaster<\/p>\n

Kane and I had confirmed our plan the night before, and as I sit waiting for him in the reception area of the gym, I\u2019m doing nothing. To be in public with no distractions is enough to make a person feel like an oddity. I know that no one else is thinking about me as much as I\u2019m thinking about myself, a mantra that provides \u00adcomfort on days when your outfit is bad or you cry on the train or, I guess, you sit alone without a phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I don\u2019t have my iPhone with me,\u201d Shelton told me, \u201cI get to choose what to think about, as opposed to being told what to think about by an algorithm, and that\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been bored and sad and chatty and silent these five days. I\u2019ve been engaged and withdrawn and present and moving. And for the most part, it\u2019s been my choice. While Shelton\u2019s \u201csmug phone\u201d still allowed him to connect and be contactable and get online when it was necessary, mine was an all-or-nothing experiment. And its extremity revealed how simple it really is to be screen-free for an hour or three, for a day or five. It doesn\u2019t guarantee major life changes but it also shows how little there is to lose from letting your mind stay in one physical and emotional space for a while.<\/p>\n

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>,The Age<\/a> and Brisbane Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size My average screen time of more than eight hours a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,63,203,105],"class_list":["post-221138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}