Mobile phone prohibited

She's gone crazy!

A little bit maybe. Or maybe I'm just saturated. Overstimulated. Flooded. Well, I would certainly think of hundreds of other adjectives, but I don't want to bore you after all. And since my blog posts are always a bit long anyway, because I like to write just as much as I like to chat, I come to the point after 65 words: I have handed in my mobile phone. For a whole four days I lived without a mobile phone. And what started out as a feared self-experiment has turned into real feel-good days.

Last night, I switched off my phone. After I warned everyone and informed them that I wouldn't call them anymore not because I didn't want to be friends with them anymore or because I was lost, but simply left my mobile switched off for a few days.  Actually, I wanted to give it to my husband first so that I wouldn't be tempted to switch it on again every now and then. But I dared to have so much self-discipline, after all it's about my mobile phone and not about a bar of chocolate. When it came to chocolate, my self-control would pack a suitcase, put on the sunglasses and run away laughing. But I can barely stand it with my mobile phone.

Actually, it's already a little bit cheated. Because the goal of this action was to conjure up a little vintage feeling and to remind me of the times when people still wrote love letters to each other, made an appointment via landline phone and then arrived punctually, because you couldn't just put off the white lie "I am stuck in traffic jam, coming 10 minutes later" via WhatsApp. Nevertheless I carried my Huawei around with me for the four days. It could have been that an absolute emergency would have happened, and in this case I don't want to have to rely on the SOS emergency pillars, which are standing on the motorway every few 100 kilometres.

My first problem by the way was the alarm clock. Modern, as we are despite our lifestyle, we no longer have a classic alarm clock, but - how could it be any different - only the mobile alarm clock. Since my mobile phone was switched off, the alarm tone didn't work either and I had to rely on the fact that I would hear the annoying ring tone of my husbands phone. But since my husband is very quick to turn it off, go back to sleep and wait for my alarm clock to ring, I was so afraid I wouldn't hear the alarm clock in the morning that I was already awake at four o'clock in the morning (I know that because my Fitbit fortunately works without a connection to my phone).

Completely wrecked, I got up in the morning and picked up my cell phone first. Oh shit. Switched off, of course. Well, then just pee without a phone. I survive that. At breakfast I didn't check my mails as usual, but rummaged in the latest issue of the Vintage Flaneur. When I wanted to enter the just spewed food into my FitBit app after breakfast, I only saw my own face on the black screen. Shit, then write everything down on paper and add it to the app on Sunday.

The working day went by very quickly, after all the work on the computer somehow compensated for my undeniable addiction to electronics. And you work at work anyway.The only thing that burdened me that day was that I couldn't wish my husband a good appetite by short message. When I then wanted to use my landline (yeah, we still have something like that - I'm already a bit vintage) to call him very briefly, I noticed that the line was dead. My provider had a breakdown at the stupidest time. Well, I just telepathically transmitted a "Bon Appetit" to him and then told him in the evening that I had thought of him quite firmly. I am terrible.

In the evening it was time to pack, because we planned a long weekend in Dublin. I know, that's a bit cheated again, because abroad you often have no wifi, except in the hotel. But you don't always have to choose the hardest way, do you? Exactly.

However, I can tell you that if you know that you can't be reached, you prepare a trip quite differently! When I tried to log in to e-Banking, I was faced with a problem. Because this is only possible via the two-channel identification - you guess it - with your mobile phone. So we simply had to rely on the fact that the accounts were still sufficiently covered and in the worst case we would still have the credit cards. That's good, too. The current traffic situation in Switzerland wasn't then checked, so we simply had to rely on our instincts and experience when it came to driving time to the airport. Oh and I already printed out the mobile tickets for the concert on Wednesday.

On Friday morning we had to go through the early morning traffic without Google Maps, hoping to discover the traffic signs with our sleepy eyes early enough and not to turn off wrong. It all worked out, we almost missed the flight, but that's another story that has nothing to do with the mobile phone. It was my fault.

When we landed in Dublin, Joe was so kind and briefly informed my sister and mummy that we were still alive. I know, cheated again. Hey, but then my paradise started! Apart from the fact that I didn't pack a camera and therefore couldn't take any pictures, because - well, you know. But since we have already been to Dublin six times, we have probably already photographed everything once. And the concert was something you have to experience anyway and not film or photograph. As I said, my paradise has started. I suddenly noticed how liberating it was not to have to be reachable. It felt as if the world was running a little slower just because I didn't have a mobile phone in my pocket. I couldn't compare myself non-stop with other people on the social media and I didn't capture the current moment with the self-timer of the cell phone camera, but enjoyed it to the fullest. The moment is perceived much more intensely and thus captured, precisely because of the transience that results from not being able to capture anything. Simply not in pictures, but in heads and hearts. I enjoyed the calm and the deceleration. Because I was cut off from the social media and all interaction possibilities that do not take place face to face, I no longer felt like a part of the masses. I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. Or as if I were a ghost. I had the leisure to observe the hustle and bustle of others without having to be a part of it. And I saw so many things that I would have been denied if I had my mobile phone in front of my face instead. Be it just the cute little bird that just picked up a crumb from the ground in flight or the magical waft of mist over the river.

 I felt so alive that on Sunday I was really afraid to turn my phone back on. My fear was justified. Hardly switched on, the device flashed constantly and after two minutes I had 32 mails, 96 whatsapp messages, 4 short messages (there are actually people still sending short messages), 14 missed calls and 2 voice messages on it. It took me over an hour to get everything done and I realized that you can only partially escape the modern times. Turning the phone off is not a solution, because you just shift all important or less important things. They don't get done by themselves. But what I have learned for sure is that you don't have to be available around the clock.  Also not all day long. You can limit your online time to a few hours or even minutes a day. If you have enough self-discipline. In any case, I will limit my time to lunch breaks in the future and ohm, how do I formulate this ladylike to some extent: to weighty meetings in the caboose in between.

In this sense dear friends: Don't be angry if I don't answer immediately. I still like you and have not died in the meantime. I just take some "real" time out for myself from time to time, without a phone. You should also try it. I'm certainly not angry with you if you read my blog only on the toilet or in the lunch break *lol*.

Hug for you!
Scarlet Rose