iPhoneless: On Returning

Patrick Rhone:

That 2013 will be the year of opt-out. That disconnection will become hipster cool. More and more people will be replacing smart phones with dumb ones, digital with analog, social with solitude, sharing with journaling, etc.

Nick Heer, in response:

Technology is like food: have everything in moderation, and don’t go overboard too often. Fad diets don’t work, and neither will unplugging. When Paul Miller of The Verge comes back to the internet, and when Stephen Hackett gets his iPhone back, both will probably resume their usual habits. There’s nothing wrong with that, provided that you moderate your own usage.

I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few days about what life will be like when I have an iPhone in my pocket again, actually. While it won’t be nearly as shocking to my systems as the change Paul is in for in a few months when he takes his iPad out of Airplane Mode, I’d like to think that returning to my iPhone after a year away will result in a change.

The “fad diet” of turning off my iPhone was extreme, yes, but I did so because it was the only thing I could think of that would break the habit, and break it all the way. Hopefully I’ll prove Nick wrong, and form new habits when I return to the iPhone in November.