Real interactions...

Last week as most of the world reverted back to the 90's with the latest Pokemon craze, I found myself feeling like it was the 90's for a whole different reason.

With being out of the office a lot, having my internet connection go down at home and then being away for TeenStreet I used up my data allowance for the month on my mobile, I have a high allowance so usually breeze in each month, but this time I had a good 6 days where instead of paying for extra data I decided to turn it off and wait it out.

So last week my phone could only do two things... make phone calls and send text messages.

What I found was that though I did get annoyed if there was something I needed to post or wanted to share but couldn't, most of the time I felt much less of a need to have my phone in my hands and whenever I had a spare moment I spent more time observing what was going on around me.

Over the years of having a smart phone it has just become natural that whenever a spare moment comes up I pull out the phone and browse... but without the ability to do that I was much more present in the real world.  I walked places and looked in windows, smiled at people walking the other way (if they weren't on their phone) and generally interacted better with what was around me.  I chatted with the lady making my kebab for lunch, instead of ordering then checking Instagram. Most of all I wasn't bored or disconnected because I didn't have my phone... I was just engaged with the world around me.

Since getting my data back on the weekend I feel less of a need to constantly be checking things on my phone - I'm glad to have the ability to share something or be in contact with someone if I need - but I am going to try and be more absorbed in the real world around me than the virtual space social media creates.