When is the last time you grabbed your phone? If it's been more than an hour since you've touched your phone then you are either busy doing something, or you have a stronghold on your will to keep you from something taking your focus. If it's been around 30 minutes then you are working toward that full control of your life instead of the phone. If you are like me however, it has been less than 10 minutes and there is no chance it goes on a minute longer without staring at your phone for another second.
What is it about these devices that keep us hooked on to them? The culture within this day and age has become heavily reliant on these devices. From alarm clocks and calendar reminders, to the pinnacle of keeping in touch with everyone and anyone through social media. We have become interlocked with the use of our phones daily. How much are we really missing out on from our phones?
Rob Walker wrote a book entitled, "The Art Of Noticing", which is a book filled with 131 challenges for creativity and inspiration. For the sake of this blog, this book helps with opening up a person to focusing on the actual world over the world our phones have created for us to crave. Within these challenges, My professor, Dr. Vrooman, has given us a few to focus on through our social media class at TLU.
Surfing through the options I found one that stuck out to me since I live on the 3rd floor of my apartment building: Look Out A Window.
The results of this were more radical than I imagined. The idea of this challenge was to simply identify three objects I don't usually notice from first glance. I came across some crazy discoveries. Shingles indeed are the roof protection to any housing was my first observation. It was the second observation that began my discoveries. Grass is green. How in the world does it decipher itself as green? Yes science is a huge role in that of course I am aware of all that good stuff. However, isn't it crazy how objects and the things of this earth are just the color that they are? I began to even question how our brain is able to make things function on its own without pressing buttons to create actions like a video game. I ditched the challenge at this point but you get the idea.
How does this connect to the original idea behind this post? I am not sure. What if we are missing the whole concept behind the use of phones?
Every time we see challenges like the one I used, it is all surrounded on the idea that we are the problem with an addiction to a device that is without fault. The problem seems to be forced on to the user and their innate need for social interaction, and that interaction has been filled with the capabilities of social media through phones.
I feel like there is another way to prepose the idea of getting more blame on the phone over a person. I prepose people mimic the concept of window shopping!
When someone states they are window shopping, they are simply looking and not buying. In the same way, the challenge will focus on people looking without interacting, but at the time that they CHOOSE to. How does one do this? Turn off your notifications to every social media application. Our phones become a distraction from the buzz it gives in our pocket. Taking away that distraction may get us to look up more and not be pulled away from what we are focused on within that certain time frame.
Give it a try! This isn't the absolute answer of course, but it is worth a try!
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