My Minute of News: I want to break up with my phone, but how?!
Aug 20, 2021, 5:34 PM
(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
Is life better when you break up with your phone? I’m asking because I have no idea.
Breaking up is hard to do
I’m so fascinated with my phone, I’ve been listening to YouTubers who sing the iPhone sounds, a cappella.
Check this out!
I’m transfixed by these singers while I spend my days imprisoned by a black rectangle that demands more attention than a newborn baby. We’re all so conditioned by dings, rings, and vibrations, that each one sends us lurching to lift the little slab to our faces fast as we can.
We have little self-control.
That next ding could be an alert about a vicious storm just over the horizon. Or it could be a grade school classmate posting a pic of her dinner. So you absolutely have to pick the thing up and peak. It punctuates everything:
- We check the phone during Business meetings
- Mother/Daughter chats? Checking the phone
- On the road? Yup, checking the phone.
…even during birthday parties and dinners out.
It’s one the most – if not THE most – important relationships in our lives, and we know it’s not a healthy one.
Which is why a handful of businesses across the country are putting their foot down demanding you put your phone down.
How to break up with your phone
Marketwatch reports that a hotel in New York City is offering the Digital Detox package. Shut your phone off and you get 20 percent off the nightly rate.
One Italian restaurant new Buffalo gives you 10% off if you drop your phone in a breadbasket. The waiter covers it with a napkin and you get it back when you pay your bill.
The owner says … “we’re a family restaurant.” Families should talk.
It’d be great if the digital detox discount would catch on, but it probably won’t; The New York Times did a story about restaurants banning cellphones way back in 1999.
Tune to Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News every weekday from 3 to 7 p.m. on KSL NewsRadio to catch Jeff’s “My Minute of News” — and more stories like this one.
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