Technology moves so fast.
Over the course of the past week and a half, I’ve been experimenting with something. Yes, again, because why spend my days doing the exact same thing? See, my Galaxy Watch is starting to fade away. It’s losing battery a lot faster than it had been, and it glitches out on me every once in awhile. At first, I naturally began looking at upgrades; I have the Watch5, so learning that Samsung was now on the Watch9 came as a bit of a shock.
Technology moves so fast that it can be hard to keep up, which then prompts the question of why. Why should we keep up? Why do we keep up? Is it to stay up to date with everyone else? Are we worried about being left behind or left out when the next major update hits? Do we think we’ll miss out on the latest features or keeping up with friends and family? I think everyone will have their own answer in regard to keeping up with technology. Mine is this: I think I’m done keeping up.
I currently have the S22 Ultra, which is a very good, high-end phone. It was—and still is—the most expensive one I’ve purchased, and will probably always hold that record. I’ve never needed my devices to do anything for me except function, which the S22 does—and excels at—so why did I go with this major upgrade? My fiancé bought one for himself when it came out, and after seeing the features and how much faster it was compared to my—I think—Samsung Galaxy A01, I felt compelled to upgrade.
I’ve now had the S22 for almost five years, so I’m fairly certain I like it and it’s a great device. Updates will cease to come to the S22 in January, so I started looking into upgrading. Then I stopped myself with the same questions I detailed before. Why am I doing this? The phone still functions great, doesn’t suck battery life, and everything about it seems to be working. Why should I upgrade? Because I’ll no longer get the latest updates? Because that’s what’s expected? In previous years, I used a phone until it died on me—not turning on, or eating 80% of my battery by the end of the day are some great warning signs!
I asked myself why this one should be any different, and I came to the conclusion that it doesn’t need to be. I’ve decided to use this phone until it is no longer usable, and then I’ll get myself a $40 phone from Walmart (I use Straight Talk), and continue my old cycle. I don’t need the latest and greatest; I just need something that’ll get the job done.
I’ve grown tired of feeling like I need to keep up with everything and everyone or risk being left out. I’ve recently shifted to sporting an actual watch, which brings me back to that experiment from the beginning of this rant. In conjunction with a simple watch, I also have a minimal, text-based launcher on my phone (I use Olauncher), and I’ve completely silenced notifications. Calls still come through with sound, but any texts or pings are silent and without vibration, meaning I have to check to see if I’ve received any messages. I also use my phone’s browser (I use Opera because of the native ad blocking, tracker blocking, and built-in VPN, among other things) to access social media, and YouTube. With that said, I can’t even tell you when I last checked a social media site or even my email. My average daily phone screen time is under an hour.
I’m not saying all of this to brag; merely to state facts. I definitely contribute a lot of this to not using a smartwatch, and not knowing when notifications are coming in. Also Olauncher! Having to stop and read and deliberately search out an app definitely makes me unlock my phone less. I’ve also been using a physical pen-and-paper planner to map out my days and upcoming events.
These are just a few of the things I’ve done to get away from the screens and relentless noise. September is all about peace this year, and I’m trying to embrace that peace in every aspect of my life, including my digital one.
