By Haley Evans
Fried eggs, percolated coffee and homemade strawberry preserves . . . this is what Murfreesboro means to me. Murfreesboro also reminds me of deviled eggs, spiraled ham, caramel cakes and Easter—the sun shining, flowers blooming and the sweet breeze from the corsage Granddaddy’d pinned to my dress tickling my nose. I treasure the memories I made at the house on East Main Street: tractor rides with Granddaddy, snapping beans with Grandmother, playing cards at the kitchen table into the wee hours of the night. They were special times—simpler, too.
A lot has changed since then. I have grown up, my grandparents have passed away, and the old house on East Main is no longer as grand as it had seemed to me as a child,not to mention how far technology has come. When my grandmother died in 2003, I had a clunky desktop computer, dial-up internet and a flip phone not conducive to text messaging as we know it today. Fast-forward 16 years, and you have smartphones that function with the sophistication of computers of the past. Corporations like Apple have pioneered these technological advances, and while no one can deny the agility, flexibility and convenience the smartphone offers, research has proven what Grandmother told me a long time ago: “Too much of a good thing is bad.”
Forty percent of Americans are addicted to their phones, most cannot go more than 12 minutes without checking them, and the average person touches their phone 2,617 times a day. These numbers sound outrageous until you consider the average person receives 94 text messages per day, 90 emails per day and countless other push notifications on their phone. Mediakix reports Americans spend 40 minutes a day on YouTube, 35 on Facebook, 25 on Snapchat, 15 on Instagram and one on Twitter. That is an average of five years and four months over a life time. Who has that kind of time?
The answer is: no one. We have had to make time, which means we are on the phone while we are getting ready for work, getting children off to school, during our children’s baseball, basketball and soccer practice, and, worse, while we are behind the wheel of a car. You cannot walk into a coffee shop, restaurant or down a busy sidewalk without seeing 99% of people on their phones. We have become a society of people who make their way through life with necks bent, eyes down, subservient to a 6-ounce box. The phone pings, and we jump—regardless of what we are doing, who we are with and irrespective of the matter’s urgency. For a society who places so much stock into being mindful, these facts, then, are perplexing.
While the phone has, quite literally, put the world at our fingertips, it has also become a catalyst for the anxiety, stress, and depression that plagues our country. It also robs us of our time, our mind and our engagement in the things and people that matter to us most.
Like any skilled carpenter will tell you, a tool is only as effective as its operator. That said, we must do better when it comes to managing our phone habits. When you can and when you should, put the phone down. Read the book; join the revolution.
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Haley Evans is a working mom of three who is fed up with the smartphone ruling her life. Her new book, Hung Up: Why You Should Put the Phone Down (and Other Life Advice) offers tips and tools to combat cellphone addiction without resorting to drastic “digital detox” methods. Learn more and sign Haley’s petition to Apple for a personal “Do Not Disturb” option at thebighangup.com.
