De-Teching By Rachel Hore, Dean Park, NSW.
Rachel asked herself whether her smart phone was really making her happy, and has found multiple benefits to doing without it. ‘Mum, I want a phone!’ my eldest girl stated. A moment I had been dreading. I knew it was coming. As a teenager I had also begged and pleaded with my mother for a phone. I listed all the reasons my daughter couldn’t have one. She
was too young; it would stifle her natural creativity and she would become addicted. ‘But Mum, you have a phone, and you use it… quite a lot.’ I had become aware that over the pandemic my smartphone had
become a crutch. I hate being a hypocrite. I had recently been reading and listening about people who were ‘de-teching’; getting rid of their smartphone and re-finding themselves. I felt like it was about time for me to do something similar. There are, however, challenges, to giving up your smartphone in the modern world. Our lives have become so intertwined with technology that it becomes quite a process to disengage. It was difficult, I still haven’t entirely conquered it, but here are some of the obstacles I faced and solutions I have found for them. Communication
I had given up social media before this, when I became disheartened with the shallowness of it all and chasing likes and hearts. I wanted a more solid foundation for friendships and a more meaningful relationship with family. One activity I started doing was writing letters again. It was a great feeling to put pen to paper and share all the news with my family members. My children have also joined in and my four-year-old writes letters in her little beginning writing and then I ask her what it says and interpret the message for the person. My family have become really involved in this, and we get lots of letters back with little drawings and family stories which we can keep and treasure always. I also seek out the company of other mums at library events and church groups. Having recently moved I am still making friends, but it sometimes just feels comforting to be in the space of other mums. G R A S S
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