I'm ba-ack!

Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..

I've just been to the PostOffice to pick up my phone, coming back from repair, and there wouldn't be a better time to reflect on the last couple of days, than just before turning the phone back on, right?

Okay, most important finding first; the first day I was so restless! I reached in my pocket all the time, and felt kind of naked without the rather large phone in there. Sometimes I took out my 'new' Nokia dumbphone, just to unlock and lock it again, since it is capable of nothing, but I just had to check and do something! (Kind of frightening?!) But quickly, after the first day, I got used to not pulling out the phone to check everything all the time, and it was actually kind of liberating! Unbelievably quick I went from checking everything, all the time, to just check the different media once or twice a day (this was during the weekend, so I wasn't sitting in front of my computer all the time, but anyway). Yesterday and today I have been checking roughly three-four times a day, and the interesting part is, due to my 'limited' use throughout the day, I'm checking everything in large chunks, instead of all this small-use I usually do.

Overall the weekend was a success! An interesting thing though, was that I was much more aware of my girlfriends use of her smartphone. I don't know if it was because I was missing checking my own, but every time she used her phone, I was sort of aware of her sitting with her phone, using it. I found the use interesting, not the actual content, but which medias she was checking, and why. I could feel her presence decreasing every time she took out her phone, and it was like the whole mood in the room changed, when she used her phone, or when I occasionally took out my iPad.

I would say that being without my smartphone for a couple of days has been quite healthy, and I believe that I'll be much more aware of my use, and especially my presence to the people around me! I noticed a personal change, when not being able to check my phone, and to some degree I found it disturbing when people around me, took out their phones, when in a conversation, "just to check". This experience has made me take a step back, and see others use, and compare it to my own use, and have been quite and eye-opener! (of the more unpleasant kind..)