Year of the Flip Phone

When my dad handed my iPhone SE back, a year after my experiment began, I felt an odd wave of panic. I know it's silly, but it happened. I saw the phone. I held the phone. I turned on the phone. I was promptly showered in a steady stream of stress.

For the last year or so, I've been maneuvering our highly virtual world with an Alcatel Flip Phone in my hand. It has been fascinating, let me tell you. There were a couple of catalysts for my saying ciao to the modern iPhone, with its selfie camera, social media, and photo editing apps. The first was my dear friend Maddie. A guitar-playing, cowgirl boot-wearing, tree-planting angel, Maddie is one of the happiest people I know. And something I noticed about her was that she was never, ever on her phone. Beyond that, hers happened to be a flip phone. It seemed so inconvenient to me. You had to click a button multiple times to type out the desired letter. The camera was poor quality. There was no maps app. How could she function? Very, very easily, as it turned out. A phone addict myself, Maddie and her situation were very inspiring to me. Maybe my parents were right, and being on my phone wasn't making me happier.

Furthermore, during my freshmen year of high school, I had, for the first time in my life, been properly exposed to the world of social media. I downloaded Instagram. For my blog, I explained to my mom. To try to rack up more readers, I said to my dad. Though that may have been why I initially (and shallowly) engaged with social media, it did not remain so. Soon, I was following all of my friends, people I didn't know, celebrities I didn't particularly care about. I felt gratified as I saw my number of followers (a whooping 550) rise. I watched stories all the time, took millions of selfies, jotted down witty captions. I was obsessed.

Eventually, this became clear to my family, and they intervened. I needed to stop. I needed to figure out some sort of system. For as long as I can remember, I've been a person of extremes. All in, or all out, completely engrossed, or utterly repelled. Maybe that's not the best personality trait, but it is one of mine. The social media system I came up with was perfectly in line with this. Not only did I delete Instagram and all of my apps, but I decided to get a flip phone.

Like I said. A little brash. A little extreme. But spending a year with my Alcatel flip phone was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Now, I know this isn't the case for everyone. The majority of people I know seem to function just fine with social media. They don't seem to be bothered by the superficial values apps like Instagram and Snap Chat impose. Filters don't really distort their self-image. But that wasn't true for me. I believe, generally, that social media is bad for one's mental health. It increases FOMO, constantly excludes people, and leads to immense comparison. These phenomena are bad enough in real life. I am of the opinion that we don't need them digitized, too.

Unsponsored promotion of flip phones aside, I learned a great deal during my year with the Alcatel. Here were some of my main take-aways.

- Our society is incredibly materialistic. When in school, we are required to place our devices in "cell phone hotels." This is a fancy way of saying a box. That means that everyone sees everyone else's phones, all the time. Some have pretty cases, some have three camera lenses. Mine had a keyboard. Like, an actual, tactile keyboard. And boy, did I get a lot of amusing comments. "That's your phone? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry"s or "How do you even type on that?"s or "What did you do to deserve that?"s. People were genuinely shocked to learn I'd chosen to get a flip phone. In a world driven by the next new product, constant upgrades, and status derived from some metal and glass with fruit iconology, I guess this was a little odd. But also highly enlightening.

- Technology is a big kid's safety blanket. Maybe it used to be a tattered stuffed animal named Piggy. Now, it's an iPhone 11 Pro. During my experiment, I noticed that people turn to their phones when they're even mildly uncomfortable. Waiting in line at the grocery store? Instagram it is. At a party, surrounded by people you don't really know? Answer some Snaps. It's become our default. In part, I think this stems from our society's "hustle culture." If a moment of your day isn't occupied by something, you're clearly doing it wrong. There's a massive push to keep working, keep connected, all hours of every day. Additionally, this safety blanket phenomenon makes me wonder what's so bad about reality. What are we trying to escape from? A conversation with the person in front of us in line? The possibility of embarrassing ourselves in front of strangers? I think reality is really heavy, and social media and technology organize that heaviness a bit. They filter it, both literally and figuratively. Not easily having tech at my fingertips this past year has forced me to deal with uncomfortable-ness in different ways. Some of these have proved to be new hobbies - see my observation about reading.

- Life is manageable without being constantly plugged-in. I was worried about many day-to-day things when I got a flip phone... things that proved completely unproblematic:

• Alarm. How the heck was I supposed to wake up without my phone alarm? As it turns out, there are these really cool things called alarm clocks that you can buy pretty much anywhere. Or, if you have an Amazon Echo, it'll wake you up. Worst case scenario, adopt a rooster. Hakuna Matata.
• Getting Places. Oh goodness gracious me, what was I to do without my Maps App? Well, there are physical maps in the world. Those still exist. And there happen to be a lot of people in the world who do have a Maps App. They'll help you out, if you ask. Yes, stranger danger and all that jazz, but sometimes, asking for directions can lead to a good new friend.
• School. We use our phones a lot at my school, whether to check grades, email teachers, or play a round of good ol' Kahoot. Luckily, many schools nowadays have Chromebooks or computers of some sort. Ask to use one of those. If that's not an option for you, feel free to ask your friend if you can borrow their device. Or use a library computer. The options are endless.
• Keeping in touch with my friends. As it turns out, you can still keep up with and remain close to your friends without knowing what they're doing every minute of every day (via Instagram Live stream). Texting is still a thing. Calling is even better. My entire life, I've been terrified to call people on the phone. What if I didn't know what to say? My Alcatel taught me that none of us, myself included, are too bad at improvisation. We improvise every day - that's life. So call someone. Write them a letter. It is possible. 

- I've missed reading. It's astonishing to me, in retrospect, how much time I wasted on my phone. Once upon a time, I saw a Pinterest quote reading, "It's not wasted time if it's time you enjoy." Maya-A-Year-Ago would've told you Instagram was something she enjoyed. In reality, it is now apparent to me that my social media hour(s) were truly minutes down the drain. With my Alcatel, I had to find other ways to occupy my time. A key method has been reading. It occurred to me a couple months into my experiment that I hadn't read a book (for fun) since the fifth grade. And it's been five years since fifth grade. That made me feel simultaneously sad and embarrassed. So far, in 2020, I've read fifteen books. I've enjoyed them multitudes more than I did watching other people's stories. They've led to some learning and newfound empathy along the way; in my experience, books do for me what social media didn't. They make me happy.

- Social media is bad for your mental health. This might seem a little broad and bold a statement, especially as it comes from a sixteen-year-old with no degree in psychology. But I can only write what I've known, and my truth is just that: social media is icky for your heart strings. Here's a analogy: sugar is really yummy when you eat it. It sets off some serious dopamine cherry bombs in your brain. You are happy, happy, happy when you're eating sugar. Then you move on with your day. As you do so, the sugars eat away at your teeth. Plaque builds up. You feel a wave of fatigue. Cavities dig mines in your molars. For every action, there is a reaction. Social media seems harmless on the surface. In fact, I am not blind to its many benefits. Yay, we get to connect with people we never would've before! Yay, social and political movements are more easily organized! Yay, it helps businesses, small and large! But all of the color-corrected, face-tuned images also chip away at your self-esteem. Fear of missing out is a very real phenomenon, particularly among my age group. I feel social media has made human connection more superficial. Cyber-bullying is also a huge issue. You're welcome to have your own opinion; I absolutely recognize that experiences with social media will vary from person to person. But this was mine, and I'm not going to lie, it kinda sucked.

- Experiences are better than pictures of experiences. I love photos and home videos, to the extent that I want to be a filmmaker when I'm older. I am willing to go into serious debt (yay, totally reasonable American student loan system!) to follow that path. It's my passion. But if I've learned one thing from my Alcatel, it's that spending time with people is so much better than documenting time you spend with people. I like to go thrifting with my friends for the conversation and idle laughter. I don't like going thrifting with my friends to take artsy pictures. Those are just the occasional added bonus. I don't paint my nails or learn new songs to post pictures and videos. I do art for the sake of art. I'd rather experience the full scope of life, meet all of the people, live through the good and the bad, than collect snapshots of posed moments. Life isn't a highlight reel. I feel social media has corrupted genuine vulnerability. It messes with our lives and our friends and our families. It messes with the time we have with the people and places we love.

We don't have a lot of time in the first place. Might as well spend the time we do have looking through our own eyes, instead of filtered camera lenses. 

Now, I know that too much screen exposure is an incredibly privileged problem. I am so lucky to have access to the Internet, freedom of speech, and even the financial means to have a phone. That being said, I think some of us could make a huge impact on the world if we looked up from SnapChat every now and again. I've filled my previously tech-packed life with volunteering at the local Memory Care and Assisted Living facility. If you are, as I am, privileged enough to have troubles so trivial, consider putting something into the world that can help people. Unfortunately, selfies usually can't.

So, all in all, I've loved my flip phone. My Alcatel was one of the best things I've ever chosen to have, but I know it's not for everyone. That's okay. Just do the next right thing, whatever that is for you. And don't forget to look through your own eyes every now and again. The world is all around you, not just on Google. Life is best lived.

With love,
Maya

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