I am working on uncoupling from my phone. Not the whole phone but when did these features start replacing stuff in my life.
The convenience of it is so seductive. is this a take-over of the chosen kind. In that I have chosen it?
The flashlight, the camera, the notes, the photo file, the calendar, step counter. All come to mind in a second. What features of your phone have you come to depend on?
I am going to work on uncoupling from my phone. Not all of it. But it has replaced too much in my life. I am horribly dependent now.
I am going to write about it in Sundays newsletter so do you have some ideas for me?
For example:
The flashlight.
I need to use my lovely long baton torch more often. It sits neglected beside my bed and is far superior to my phone torch. The light is wide and bright. I clamp it under my arm and can still use both hands.
The camera
That’s it! I am getting out my old Nikon – named Camera House – right this minute (it is covered in dust!). When did I set it down and not pick it up again! How did it end up sat in the corner of the desk all friendless.
I will go back to taking photos intentionally not opportunistically. (Is that a word?).
Can I even work the damn thing now. Or has the phone made me dumber.
The notes
I will bring back my wall of sticky notes and reminders.
Carry my notebook and pen again. Set it by my bed at night like I used to.
The photo file
Print those photos. The problem with online photo storage is they get forgotten. Thousands and thousands of them! Forgotten into the cloud.
The calendar
Find a wall calendar! I used to write everything onto my calendar. Hung above my desk. Plus I made notes into my work diary. That will be a hard one to bring back.
Step counter
The Fitbit will replace the Health app. Because if I don’t count them they don’t count. I am a little addicted to counting my steps ( another story). So shoot me.
Books
I even read on my phone. Though to be fair it is SO much cheaper (I must read three books a week at least) and I don’t own an iPad.
This is hard!
All these features in a phone are beyond useful when I am traveling. Or rushing through the fields when I see a wonderful shot or have a wonderful thought.
But.
Is this an insidious takeover of our whole lives?
What apps can you not do without? And where are the apps that do the dishes and make the beds!
This is just written fast and on the fly. The first things that came to mind.
And in the interests of transparency this post was also written as usual on my phone in my bed with my first cup of tea before going out to do chores. When did I stop grabbing my laptop? It is like this all happened without me noticing.
What has your phone replaced?
Good morning.
It is another dry sunny day. Cool this morning.
And settled.
Yesterday I sent out a TKG TAKE TEN to everyone who subscribes to thekitchensgarden farm on substack. Go HERE for the gentle ambient sounds of the farm. These go out twice a week to all those subscribers who have upgraded. But yesterday’s recording was so sweet I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to see it.
Take care until Sunday when I publish your TKG (the kitchens garden) Sunday newsletter. Which has a round up of the whole week!
Happy Friday. (or Saturday!).
Love Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
29 responses to “Are our phones staging an insidious silent coup?”
I’m not addicted to the phoone – I prefer a big screen and have no liking for apps. I do take an occasional picture, but most of my photography is done with a digital SLR and prime lens.
you are our inspiration!
🤣 I just can’t look at a small screen and I hate endless apps with adverts. People go into shops or get onto buses, then fumble for 5 minutes, fiddling with their phones to pay. I get out a card and it takes seconds. I use What’sApp quite a lot, but mostly on the computer. It’s much easier to type with a keyboard!
Couldn’t agree more BullDog. I totally refuse to do business with companies who’re constantly attempting to insert their info-grasping apps. Ooo, it’s just SO EASY to do business; order stuff; get our newsletter; ‘stay in touch’; blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!!
And, while reading on small screens in your pocket may be ‘handy’ (wink) it’s harder to follow and maintain focus (insert advert here/skip advert/locate article & refocus on the point where you left off) than turning the pages of a book; hearing their whisper coming from your fingertips; or pulling out that scrap of paper to read just for a few minutes/another couple of pages… Reading a book that way can be a measure of time for those with the discipline but I love getting so engrossed in a story that the pages cease to exist. You are suddenly in the book, absorbed by the story and the passage of time in our world disconnects…
Even my bank and all the supermarkets want me to have their apps. There’s no way I’d do banking with an app. One accidental swipe and all the money’s gone 😱 …and I agree totally on books!
I don’t want to be an alarmist but do you remember the bombings on the tube. I was in London then. This was years ago – before smart phones.
They shut all the public transport down immediately . And turned the internet off immediately. Now. If the internet was off how would those people have been able to buy the bikes and shoes they bought to walk/ride home.
The internet can be shut down with one switch of a government hand.
Depending too much on our apps is actually dangerously insecure.
I remember that the mobile networks shut down, but I don’t think they turned off the internet. “Vodafone reported that its mobile telephone network reached capacity at about 10 a.m. on the day of the bombings, and it was forced to initiate access overload control to prioritise emergency calls. Other mobile phone networks also reported failures. ” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings
Oh ok.
It was reported in the news that they shut the phones down to keep the bad guys from communicating and remotely detonating bombs. Just a rumour then. And I believed it all this time! 😂
Cecilia Gunther THE KITCHEN’S GARDEN THE SUSTAINABLE HOME Storyteller | ENVIRONMENTAL Content Developer | Maximising Minimalism The Kitchens Garden Newsletter https://ceciliaatthekitchensgarden.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=299i3z
Farm Blog – kitchensgarden.com https://thekitchensgarden.com/ Linkedin – cecilia gunther https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilia-gunther-34444b31/
I think there was a lot of gossip on the day and it has been recently proved that phones and pagers can be detonated.
Yes. Wish I had known you when I was there.
Me too!
Each baby step away from it if you back a little bit closer to real life
You are so right about pictures being lost in the phone. I often take pictures and then never even go back and look at them again. Crazy! I do like using it to listen to books on Audible while working in the garden.
I keep an old-fashioned date book that I can actually write my appointments in and take notes about the weather, menu ideas, stuff I need to do, and more importantly, doodle. Tried the phone calendar for a while but it takes too much time! Not a convenience at all.
Yes, the phone camera makes us lazy, and our photos are not any better. I have made a point of getting prints made once every month or two of the best, and am keeping up with my albums. They are much more fun to look at with the kids because you don’t have to scroll through a bunch of junk to find a good picture.
I hate the flashlight because sometimes it comes on by itself, and sometimes I can’t shut it off.
The steps tracker is not accurate in any way because I don’t carry my phone with me all the time!
I make calls, I text, occasionally if I am not home, I access my email and internet for information. I find the weather aps handy, and I like having my music synched from my computer to my phone so I can access it wherever I go. That is what I use my phone for.
You are so right about this phone business. I have from the beginning just said that I wasn’t going to get involved and have managed to stay pretty much “unphoned”. It’s hard for people to understand that I just don’t want to be connected all the time. You start carrying it around and are always reachable by anybody, then you start texting and suddenly anyone who wants to get hold of you can and you become expected to be there texting back immediately. Well, wait a minute. My life is my own and it shouldn’t be ruled by a device no matter how convenient. Don’t get me started on people carrying around all their financial information on their phone. Bad idea——sure it can be locked but a determined miscreant can probably get in and do all sorts of damage. Yes, I do have an iPhone but it lives in my purse and is not turned on unless I need to get in touch with someone and am away from my landline or can’t speak to them in person. That way I get to decide when the phone is in use, not the other way around. Call me a stone age person (well, I guess I pretty much am) but I am also very human. My life, time, and attention should be under my control.
I have a love/hate relationship with my phone. The camera, Google Keep for notes, texting with kids and grandkids and sisters, and my calendar are all things that add value to my life. But scrolling on Instagram–ugh, I do way too much of that. I still keep a paper planner and of course a journal, without which I would be lost!
As others on here have commented, I prefer my laptop to anything–I still don’t feel I can see as well on the phone screen, even though my phone has gotten quite a bit bigger! So I guess for me it’s a matter of balance. In other words, I need to get the hell off Instagram so much.
Congratulations. You’re right, going back to desk/wall calendars is one quick and easy way to accomplish that goal! Luckily, there are printable ones online and there are so many great ones to choose from. We still use post it notes and always keep flash lights handy, different sized ones for different jobs. Keeping an actual camera handy is just as important, you’re right again. Love this post and your awarness to the solution! 🤗
I hate how dependent I am on my phone-for communication, mostly texting, reading on my Kindle, taking photos and looking up information. I do use a paper calendar though! Although I do order actual books from the library, they aren’t as portable or convenient and lugging a camera around, then transferring the photos to my laptop seems like a lot of work.
Right? Plus my favorite editing app is an app that simply won’t transfer to my laptop. Though to be fair I have not tried lately.
Thank you I love to be kitchen garden one day
Oh boy! I can relate to this post! We held off getting cell phones until 2018. We have always been heavily involved with computers, cameras, video cameras, video editing and teaching with computers. But we really resisted getting a ‘smartphone’. Then my wife ended up with cancer. Our farm was an hour away from her hospital bed. I was outside – no where near the landline. Or, when I was at the hospital I needed to connect with our kids and family after surgeries. So … we decided to take the plunge. That was one steep slide! I find I use my phone all day long. However, yesterday I went and bought myself a good new camera with an excellent zoom lens. It is light – doesn’t require me to use manual settings (although it has them). My iphone has the same resolution. iPhones are darn good at taking great pictures. But not zoom shots. I was finding I took pictures more often when I had my phone … BUT when I was out this morning while the mist was still coming off the lake … I was out to ‘take pictures’. I got myself out there because I wanted to SEE the ducks, cormorants, geese and swans in the early morning. I was taking pictures on purpose. So much more fun. I think going back to my camera will get me PLANNING some hikes and picture shoot locations just for the pleasure of taking interesting shots. I do know how much easier it was when we were still on the farm to take pictures with my phone. It was harder to do chores and have a camera hanging around my neck or tucked into my work coat.
It was the phone option and the camera and texting that really got us hooked. And then it was word puzzles that I could do when we were sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms. Or hospital waiting rooms. Then it was Facebook. It took a while but eventually I was taking pictures and writing my blog posts on my phone. Then reading books – so much easier with our library’s digital collections. I try to use the calendar functions … but only long enough to write something on our paper calendar in the kitchen. Then I started reading the news on my phone.
It has been spooky to realize that my phone gets used and is ubiquitous to my day from sunup to sundown. It does feel a bit creepy at times … but other times I am just so thankful to have such a computer right at hand. I just have to remember to purposefully get outside – DO things like kayaking and hiking – only taking a ‘few’ shots when I’m there. Taking time to make dinner – slowly. Take time to just sit at the window and watch the water. Take time to lift my head up away from the screens that are now in my life.
I’m a little nervous that I can picture myself as an octogenarian in a long term care home happily plugged into my computer screen – which will serve all of my needs in a day. The only thing I will talk to – listen to … Gives me goosebumps. I hope not!
Oh my god!! Your last paragraph gave me goosebumps too. There is a short story right there. I came across AI companions for the elderly the other day. Waaa!
So with you on having a real camera. Poor camera house is out in the sunlight now but looking quite bedraggled. I am
In saving mode so no new one for me.
What is your new camera?
Canon PowerShot XS 70 HS. It is light and easy to carry. But bulkier than the cell.
hello. As I read the last paragraph of your comment it took me back to a blog post. I wrote in 2011 about a Robot that was being trialed in a retirement village in Auckland. At the time it was in all the newspapers but there has been little or nothing about it since. The main robot was Charlie, but apparently they then ended up each occupant having his or her own robot. Pretty scary although I really would love one of those tea makers that have the tea ready when I wake up in the morning. I don’t know if you can still buy them, but an aged aunt had one and I lusted for it.
Ah yes Celi! The insidious, creeping phone-takeover…. It is indeed far too easy to become dependent, is it not?!?
But, having said that, having my camera (almost) constantly in my pocket guarantees I never again have to say “OMG, I WISH I’d had my camera just now!!” (lol. I still carry the photos-that-never-were from the roll of film I didn’t give enough lead (saved a frame to lose a whole roll of fabulous Thunderstorm photos taken while trying to make port – running west from Oshawa to Ontario Place before the worst of the weather hit… The Great Lakes can turn on a dime and it was one of those times. Been many decades now, but still feels like yesterday.
I read this post and did something I have been meaning to do for well over a year. Deactivated and deleted Twitter! I know it is no longer called Twitter, I actually call it Twatter. Everyone refers to it as X, formerly known as Twitter so may as well left it the name it was 🙄. Anyway, did that and felt a tiny bit free! There is so much digital clutter and we don’t see it like physical clutter but is does take up mental space.
Yes!! That is exactly it!!
This is catch up time for me Celi, as I sit feeling.sorry for myself in.bed on a rainy Wellington day with a very bad cold, cough, and sore throat but hey, this is spring in New Zealand and to be expected. Does it bring back memories of holiday weekends Celi when the rain fell and fell and fell.
I really can’t do without my Iphone but I have stopped wearing my fitbit. I decided that I would no longer be ruled by a watch and the watchesI have in my jewelry box are so much more attractive. vanity, thy name is Judith…
Great photos iPhone or camera btw. I do agree though, it’s so easy to get caught by the phone. I hauled out my camera the other day .. so pleased I did too! Used my torch last night hunting for slugs .. No way could I do a post on my iPhone, never .. computer for me 😊 Have a hug