280 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
280 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "Cell Phone Experiment"
|
|
date: 2020-04-02T02:02:07Z
|
|
draft: false
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
### TL;DR
|
|
|
|
I will not use my cell phone during March to learn more about how much I depend
|
|
on it.
|
|
|
|
### Explore/Exploit
|
|
|
|
Ever since I read Charles Duhigg's book, [The Power of Habit](poh), I try to
|
|
habituate as many aspects of my life as I can.
|
|
|
|
Making my bed every morning is an example of a habit -- so too is flossing at
|
|
night before bed.
|
|
|
|
The *exploit* axis of the [explore/exploit tradeoff](exp-exp) endows habits with
|
|
their power. Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths explain this concept more clearly
|
|
than I can in Chapter 2 of their exceptional book, [Algorithms to Live
|
|
By](algos).
|
|
|
|
Habits are powerful, but if I overly exploit an activity, I may settle on a
|
|
local optimum in lieu of settling on a global optimum; these are the opportunity
|
|
costs of exploiting (i.e. habits) versus exploring (i.e. spontaneity).
|
|
|
|
But what if it was possible to habituate exploration?
|
|
|
|
### Monthly challenges
|
|
|
|
Every month since October 2018, I challenge myself to try something new. In the
|
|
past, monthly challenges have been things like:
|
|
- sign up and take Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes
|
|
- buy a guitar and learn [Freight Train](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUK8emiWabU)
|
|
- study Italian
|
|
- learn a handstand
|
|
|
|
Typically for an activity to qualify as a challenge, I must spend *at least
|
|
fifteen minutes* working on it *at least five days* each week.
|
|
|
|
This month (i.e. March) I'm challenging myself to avoid using my cell phone.
|
|
|
|
My parents gave me a cell phone when when I was a freshman in High School; I was
|
|
14 years old. I am now 28, so I have been using a cell phone semi-daily for over
|
|
a decade.
|
|
|
|
While I enjoy the convenience that my cell phone provides me, I am curious to
|
|
suspend my usage to more clearly understand how much I depend on it...
|
|
|
|
### April
|
|
|
|
Now it is early April, and I completed March's challenge. So how was it?
|
|
|
|
Below I outline the parts of using a cell phone that I missed and the parts that
|
|
I surprisingly did not miss. I will also mention the two times that I used my
|
|
cell phone and why.
|
|
|
|
The first three things that I missed all relate to time.
|
|
|
|
#### Timekeeping
|
|
|
|
On the first day I realized that unless I was near a computer, I did not know
|
|
what time it was.
|
|
|
|
I exclusively use my cell phone as my watch; I do not wear a watch. To adapt, I
|
|
started looking for clocks around my office and while I was taking public
|
|
transportation. Thankfully London posts the current time on the digital train
|
|
schedules. This oriented me while I was traveling, which was also when I needed
|
|
to know the time the most.
|
|
|
|
Most of the month, however, I never precisely knew what time it was.
|
|
|
|
#### Alarm clocks
|
|
|
|
While I anticipated living without an alarm clock prior to the experiment, I
|
|
decided against buying a substitute. Prior to this month, I theorized that
|
|
morning alarms probably disrupt the quality of my sleep. If I'm tired, shouldn't
|
|
I keep sleeping?
|
|
|
|
As the month progressed and my 24 hour day morphed into a 25 hour day, I learned
|
|
that I would prefer waking up at a set time every day and synchronize my
|
|
schedule with the rest of my timezone.
|
|
|
|
I am still unsure if alarm clocks are helpful in the long-term. I would have
|
|
slept with the curtains drawn to allow the morning sun to wake me
|
|
up. Unfortunately, I live on the ground floor nearby a brightly shining street
|
|
lamp that spills into my bedroom.
|
|
|
|
If I lived somewhere more remote (perhaps even a suburb would do) I would like
|
|
to repeat an experiment where I live for a month without an alarm clock.
|
|
|
|
For now, I must return to the Temple of Chronology and supplicate until Father
|
|
Time restores my sanity.
|
|
|
|
#### Timers
|
|
|
|
Using timers motivates me to do a bunch of short tasks like cleaning my flat for
|
|
fifteen minutes, stretching, or reading before bed. Thankfully, I already owned
|
|
a physical timer that I keep in my kitchen. This replaced the timer on my phone
|
|
without disrupting my routine.
|
|
|
|
#### Maps
|
|
|
|
Speaking of being disoriented, what about living without maps software? On the
|
|
few occasions where I traveled somewhere that was unfamiliar to me, I had to
|
|
memorize the directions from my computer before I departed.
|
|
|
|
At least I didn't need to visit gas stations or museums to buy trifold tourist
|
|
maps...
|
|
|
|
I once left my office mistakenly assuming that I would download the directions
|
|
to my destination while commuting. As I awaited the office elevator, I realized
|
|
that I had no clue where I was heading.
|
|
|
|
Thankfully I wasn't far from the safety, comfort, and familiarity of my desktop
|
|
computer -- with its fatty WiFi connection. In no time I was studying Google
|
|
Maps in my web browser and memorizing the directions.
|
|
|
|
Overall this was hardly an inconvenience, and I think I even enjoyed
|
|
stress-testing my memory: a job that I so often outsource to hardware.
|
|
|
|
#### Rendezvouses
|
|
|
|
A couple of times I met friends in various parts of the city. Organizing these
|
|
particular rendezvouses was a novel (read: anachronistic) experience. For all
|
|
you young whippersnappers reading, take out your stone tablets and chisels. I'm
|
|
going to explain how this works:
|
|
|
|
First I would tell my friends where and when to meet me. I emphasized that I
|
|
would be quite helpless to any changes they might make to the plans once I began
|
|
commuting, which made the commitments unusually more binding.
|
|
|
|
On one occasion my friend -- who is characteristically prompt, and even chides
|
|
me for when I'm late -- was twenty minutes late for our engagement. My friend is
|
|
German, so I figured I should do my civic duty of alerting the German embassy
|
|
that my friend had broken German code, is obscenely late, and should therefore
|
|
hand-in his passport and renounce his citizenship. After awhile my conscience
|
|
advised me to reconsider.
|
|
|
|
It was fortunate for both of us that I did not fully understand how late he was.
|
|
Remember: I didn't know what time it was.
|
|
|
|
I decided this would be a useful opportunity to test my patience, so I loitered
|
|
for twenty minutes outside of our meeting point. He couldn't text me to tell me
|
|
that he was late. I couldn't listen to music, call family or friends, or partake
|
|
in any of the other rituals that modern-day loiterers observe to pass the
|
|
time. In the end he showed up, and it was scarcely a big deal.
|
|
|
|
This experience made me wonder what the policy for abandoning plans is when
|
|
someone is running late. Before smart phones, how long did people wait? Maybe
|
|
the proper etiquette is to wait long enough for you to absolve yourself of the
|
|
guilt of flaking in the unlikely event that your friend arrives shortly after
|
|
you leave.
|
|
|
|
So... thirty minutes? I'll call my grandma tomorrow and ask her.
|
|
|
|
#### Boredom
|
|
|
|
My phone couldn't entertain me while I queued at the grocery store. Same too
|
|
when I commuted.
|
|
|
|
I also found myself listening to less music than I usually do. I decided to read
|
|
to occupy the void when I could; this helped me progress towards completing this
|
|
year's [GoodReads challenge][gr-annual].
|
|
|
|
### Cheating
|
|
|
|
I used my phone twice during March.
|
|
|
|
1. Once to use my bank's mobile app to internationally transfer money from my
|
|
U.K. account to my U.S. account. I could have used [TransferWise's][tw]
|
|
website, but I didn't.
|
|
2. Another time I used my phone to take pictures of an item that I wanted to
|
|
sell on [CraigsList][cl]. I could have and perhaps should have used my laptop's
|
|
webcam, but at the time, I didn't want to. I am accustomed to using my phone
|
|
to take pictures, and I wanted to sell something.
|
|
|
|
In both of these cases, prior habits eroded my resolve to stay the course. These
|
|
are useful reminders that habits don't distinguish between helpful and hurtful;
|
|
they just exist.
|
|
|
|
In total I would estimate that I spent somewhere around fifteen minutes using
|
|
my phone in March. While not perfect:
|
|
|
|
> Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without (Confucius)
|
|
|
|
### Substitution = Dilution
|
|
|
|
While the explicit goal of this challenge was to avoid using my cell phone for a
|
|
month, the implicit goal was to disengage from many of the
|
|
[nonessential][essentialism] activities that compete for my attention.
|
|
|
|
There were some activities that I didn't miss while living without a cell
|
|
phone. This wasn't because I don't value these activities, but rather because I
|
|
can adequately replace them with alternatives.
|
|
|
|
For texting and making phone calls, I used [Telegram][wtf-telegram]. Telegram
|
|
helped me sustain a healthy relationship with my girlfriend while still honoring
|
|
the constraints of the challenge.
|
|
|
|
While I appreciated the convenience Telegram provided, I felt that I remained
|
|
about as [available][wtf-availability] during March as I was in February. If I
|
|
ever experiment with drastically reducing my availability, I will be more
|
|
explicit about my objectives.
|
|
|
|
### Distraction displacement (whack-a-mole)
|
|
|
|
Because cell phones and other electronics have conditioned my behavior, I
|
|
habitually avoid boredom and seek entertainment. On its face this may not sound
|
|
like a harmful practice. My generation drills the aphorism "you only live once",
|
|
suggesting that we may want to embrace a Hedonistic lifestyle.
|
|
|
|
Hedonism may or may not be a wise way to play the game of Life. All I know is
|
|
that living a life in which I am often stimulated but proportionately distracted
|
|
appeals increasingly less to me as time progresses.
|
|
|
|
During March I noticed that once I freed my attention from sending/receiving
|
|
texts, my brain quickly reassigned my attention to maintaining a vigil over the
|
|
other social media outposts that I maintain.
|
|
|
|
I should also admit that I habitually checked Telegram now that it served as my
|
|
new cell phone. Didn't see that coming...
|
|
|
|
In another case, once I discovered that I could use Instagram in a web browser
|
|
instead of on my phone, I filled my newfound time and attention on
|
|
[Instagram.com][ig] (don't click!): displacing the time that I spent on an app
|
|
on my phone to time that I spent on a website in a web browser.
|
|
|
|
Holy whack-a-mole!
|
|
|
|
Halfway through the month, I wrote a [program to block websites][url-blocker] on
|
|
my computer. Surprisingly this worked and forced me to more deliberately fill
|
|
this hard-fought, foreign time with other activities.
|
|
|
|
### Easy come, easy go?
|
|
|
|
As the saying for making friends goes, "easy come, easy go", implying that
|
|
friendships that you easily form can just as easily be destroyed.
|
|
|
|
Habits invert this creation/destruction relationship. In my experience "easy
|
|
come" implies "difficult to go".
|
|
|
|
For example, I could easily form the habit of eating chocolate around 15:00 at
|
|
work; curbing this habit would require more effort. When I compare this to the
|
|
difficulty I experienced habituating a meditation practice, and how easily I
|
|
can dislodge my meditation practice, it seems to me that the laws of habits
|
|
dictate "easy come, difficult go; difficult come, easy go".
|
|
|
|
I suspect that while my cravings for using a cell phone have temporarily ceased,
|
|
they will return shortly after I start using my cell phone. And as if nothing
|
|
happened, I return to where I was at the end of February just before I decided
|
|
to curb my cell phone usage.
|
|
|
|
Because of this, I'm planning on keeping my cell phone in my closet where I
|
|
stored it during the month of March. As noted, enough substitutes exist for me
|
|
to live a mostly normal life: one where I am not unnecessarily straining the
|
|
relationships of my friends and my family. After all these are the people who
|
|
matter most to me and those who drive me to explore new ways to improve.
|
|
|
|
I recognize that the "self" in self-experimentation is a misnomer. Can you truly
|
|
conduct an [N of 1 trial][nof1]? My decisions impact the people in my life, and
|
|
I want to thank everyone who tolerates my eccentric and oftentimes annoying
|
|
experimentation.
|
|
|
|
Thank you for reading.
|
|
|
|
[pod]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-habit
|
|
[exp-exp]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-armed_bandit
|
|
[algos]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25666050-algorithms-to-live-by
|
|
[gr-annual]: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/19737920
|
|
[cl]: http://craigslist.com
|
|
[tw]: https://transferwise.com
|
|
[url-blocker]: https://github.com/wpcarro/url-blocker
|
|
[wtf-telegram]: https://telegram.org
|
|
[wtf-availability]: https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/chapters/availability-table
|
|
[essentialism]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077875-essentialism
|
|
[ig]: https://instagram.com
|
|
[nof1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_of_1_trial
|