Social media free Sundays

Another tactic to get me off my damn phone

My phone and I are at war. I like to lie to myself and present it as a balanced battle, each of us darting in and landing a shot before springing back and circling one another again; a game of violent chess, if you will. But the reality? The reality is different: my phone’s beating the ever-loving shit out of me.

This fight’s not taking place in a well-lit ring surrounded by the upper echelons of society, oh no no no, we’re in a scabby basement, the pair of us stripped to the waist and greased up with lard and enclosed by the howls of toothless, leering men.

And it’s not a fair or balanced bout, I’m a mess. A terrible mess. Blood pours down my face, my lip is busted, my eyes are swollen, I’m staggering from side-to-side. But my phone? It looks fresh. Bigger and brighter than ever. Powerful. Oh so powerful. And rich. Really rich. And so so handsome. It seems certain that my phone will win.

But I won’t accept that. I can’t. I’ll prevail. Eventually. I may be beaten black-and-blue, but I’m crafty. I have tactics that lead me to victory. Tactics like social media free Sundays.

The fight looks a lot like this.

My fight against my phone addiction is a recurring topic in The Rectangle. At the risk of repeating myself, I spend too much damn time on my mobile. And that’s not good. It makes me feel bad, impacts my ability to concentrate, and stops me living in the moment. In response, I’ve tried a lot of different things, from avoiding my phone early in the mornings, and making use of Screen Time, to using a tablet to avoid doom scrolling.

These have had… varying degrees of success. They’re habits that ebb and flow. The best of them is bookending each day with two hours I don’t use my phone, and the worst is undoubtedly Screen Time, mainly because I turned it off pretty damn quickly.

But momma didn’t raise a quitter. I’m committed to reducing my dependence on my mobile — and that’s where social media free Sundays comes in.

I wish I could say it was my idea, but the reality is far, far more embarrassing. I saw it on LinkedIn. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Where hope goes to die. Yet even a stopped clock is right twice a day and, as much as it pains me to say, social media free Sundays is a solid gold idea. Admittedly, it’s something I’ve only done for three weeks, but, friends, what a three weeks.

Sundays are the worst days when it comes to my phone use. I’m often hungover and/or exhausted and, in those instances, it’s easy to spend hours on the sofa not really doing anything, just flicking between different social media apps and whittling away the hours in a vaguely depressing haze. Avoiding social media has made me feel better not only during the day, like I can take action and actually do something, but has also given me a better start of the week.

This doesn’t mean I can’t read articles or play games on my phone on Sundays, it’s just a tactic that’s helpful in making me slightly more mindful about how I spend my time. It’s easier to pick up a book, watch a movie, or discover some new music when I don’t have the spectre of social media whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

Social media free Sundays gives me space to get bored, something that’s missing from many of our lives.

The years of fighting has taught me one thing though: there’s not such thing as a simple fix to phone addiction. It’s a journey. A war. But social media free Sundays could help. And, when your phone is beating the shit out of you, anything you can do to fight back has to be worth a shot.