Breaking Bad (habit)

Paper books are getting replaced with e books, news papers with news apps and alerts. Instant messaging; expressions over emoji’s; Google searches, that’s all the next generation will know I think. I wonder if they will ever need to open Wren & Martin grammar books because we have auto correct; spelling correction and grammar correction.

I love this picture from the web. It so very well describes every cell phone addict.

--Unaware of the surroundings;

--All alone smiling and pouting;

--Completely into the phone;

The irony is that there are articles and blogs that say “7 ways to quit your cell phone addiction” and its read on a cell phone rather smart phone.

I won’t be surprised if alcohol de-addiction centers add Cell phone de-addiction as a service offering. 

Phones have this unique tendency of running out of space leaving us with a difficult decision of figuring out what to keep and what to delete.

I'm sure you know what app I’m talking about! I needed to compromise on what app to keep so I can keep 'whatsapp'. 

I decided to do this experiment for myself. The aim of this experiment was to understand my behavior based on my usage of smart phone.

Here's is what I needed for my experiment:

1.  2 sim cards 
2. phones; One phone with whatsapp and one without.

Stage 1:

I went cold turkey. I discarded the phone that had whats app and i put the other phone on silent and rarely made and received calls. 

How did people react to this:

• In general people reacted pretty badly. Most people just assumed that I was ignoring them.

How did I react:

• Old habits die hard! I kept checking the phone more frequently than I usually did but i still missed all the calls. I had to keep calling back.

How this changed me:

• My time was under my control. I was happy I was doing this but at the same time i was scared of people/society. As a side my phone bills were on the rise.

Stage 2a:

Then I realized I went too far and not receiving calls wasn't an option.

Things changed a bit, with people and myself.

How did people react:

• Every one got used to my way.
• I only got calls from people who really wanted to speak to me.
• Family and close friends always communicated through sms and calls. People stopped saying: "you checked the message but didn't respond".
• There were still people who complained but they would have complained irrespective.

How did I react:

• This absolutely worked for me
• I always called people when I needed to or smsed

How this changed me:

• I learnt to wait for responses as well instead of continuously checking whatapp to see if they responded.
• I was happier. No one to complain. I did things that were important to me. I spent more time with my child.
• I continued to be addicted to my phone but only now for a different reason i.e playing games.

 Stage 2b:

I didn't use the phone that had whatsapp. Its was always on aeroplane mode and silent mode and it did not work unless there was wifi: all notifications were off. 

This phone was away at home and I checked it only once a day. 

I told everyone that i was not on whatsapp and this made it easier to manage expectations. 

Its funny how brain works. Here I was doing an experiment on deleting whatsapp but at the same time scared and worried about loosing out information (Including the gossip) and contacts. 

In a way, I did not have whatsapp since I did not respond, but I also had it!

This was very confusing for others, but it worked for me 😊 (can’t express without emoji’s)

How did people react:

• By this time, people mostly understood that I didn't check whatsapp.
• I was not their favorite as I wasn't available for quick chats and gossip. They spoke or chatted less with me. Some of them even thought I was ignoring them.

How did I react:

• As a habit for the first 15 days I checked wahtsapp as often as I used to.
• After about a month it reduced to once a day. I kept it less handy at home.
• I conveniently ignored what anyone thought or said. I only concentrated on what I wanted to do.
• I always called and spoke to people if I needed.

How this changed me:

• I had lot more time.
• I felt calm
• Holidays were more relaxing. There was no stress about sending pictures to friends and family.
• When I checked whatsapp in the night, there always were a lot of messages from groups and individuals. This helped because it was impossible to get throought all the messages. I only responded to personalized messages and ignored the rest.
• Funnily enough, I didn’t miss anything important. 
• Husband’s whatsapp became a mode of communication for pictures etc..but this was just for 10-12 days before I figured an alternative.
• In general I got less messages.

Results of the experiment:

Using the phone is not a priority. There are still times when I instinctively pick up the phone but I made it a point to force myself to let go. Even though I speak to people less, it hasn't changed my relationships.

I still use whatsapp occasionally but there is no social pressure to respond to every message since everyone has been primed.

I started the experiment without knowing what the end result would be but I'm thrilled with the results.

p.s: I hope you are not reading this blog on your phones