chapter 18: texting is the new email (and I hate it)
I got an Apple Watch and it saved me from my phone vortex
Should we be texting at all?
That’s what goes through my mind every time I open my phone, ignoring anywhere from a handful to a dozen messages in pursuit of the weather, or an audiobook, or whatever I’m doing (probably going on Instagram, sadly).
In the evolutionary timeline of the internet, texting makes total sense. Instead of a phone call, which usually precludes a lengthier discussion, or an email, which doesn’t facilitate instant connection, texts get the point across ASAP. Hands-off, instant communication. What’s not to love?
But, as always, “convenient” things tend to have unintended consequences that undermine their very convenience.
Texting can easily start to simulate a remote job with a horrible work-life balance: you’re suddenly on-call 24/7.
This might be helpful if you’re texting someone to coordinate plans or ask for something from the store, perhaps. But with my long-distance friends and family, where texting serves as a stand-in for in-person contact, texting loses its easy-breezy airiness.
A few texts can’t simulate a phone call, much less a hug. And yet, we continue to keep relationships afloat with emojis and messages at all hours of the day.
No matter how hard we try, it’s not enough.
And so, I’ve been trying to take a step back. Keeping my phone on do not disturb. “Protecting my peace,” as a self-help guru on TikTok might say.
Texting’s omnipresence defeats its convenience. Because texts are so instant, so cloying and pervasive, we turn our phones off, hoping for silence.
For me, the problem isn’t just the texting itself. Yes, it’s taxing feeling like I’m engaged in a mostly silent hangout with 20 people at any given time. But the bigger issue is the constant checking; the worry that I’ll miss something (hello, little miss FOMO). Then, instead of getting time back from the convenience of texting, I spend hours checking my phone, getting distracted by Instagram or something, and then staying on my phone. Beyond the relationship dynamics that texting forces and creates, it also acts as a wormhole to a horrible day spent scrolling.
The thing that saves me from the guilt and the vortex?
An unlikely hero: my Apple Watch.
I didn’t buy it as a solution to my phone problem.
I bought it, instead, for much sillier reasons:
Tracking my steps when I go to the bathroom at work
Tapping to pay for the subway
Using the timer at the gym
Hands-free map usage
Because I’m very picky and very vain, I even splurged for one of the more “fashionable” bands.
And I love it.
For the reasons listed above? Yes.
But the best side effect of being an Apple Watch User™️ is that I no longer need my phone for anything. Getting on the subway? Hands-free. Seeing if someone bought the shirt I’m selling on Depop? Easy. Checking my messages? No phone required!
Though it has the same notifications and most of the same apps, it’s not like a phone. It doesn’t suck you in; doesn’t have the same negative connotations that a phone (and its black hole vortex of day-ruining rot) might carry. Checking a notification is just that: checking a notification. No picking anything up. No holding your death and undoing in your hands, expecting yourself to have the self-control to put it back down again. Just one click - and you’re free.
Consider my peace protected!
Until next time,
Madeleine