The true cost of using my iPhone
How minimising my mobile made my mobile more valuable than ever before
Being someone in my mid-30’s I lived in a world before mobile phones dominated the mainstream consumer. I remember what it was like to be bored. I remember having faith in friends to remember an arranged rendezvous. And I remember a world without Google, Facebook. Instagram and Twitter.
Being someone in my mid-30’s I experienced first-hand how Nokia and Snake changed the world for thousands of college and university students. I remember Orange introducing their 5 free daily SMS tariff which removed the need to blindly call around a friend’s house to discover if they were home.
Being someone in my mid-30’s I also experienced Apple and iPhone changing the landscape forever. I remember the feeling of suddenly having what was essentially a supercomputer within my pocket.
Overtime, I slowly began to forget the feeling of boredom as it was replaced with my choice of entertainment app. I no longer required the faith of friends to meet at a pre-arranged rendezvous as I could simply drop them a text or request their location via WhatsApp. Stuck for an answer to a question or a problem? No problem, I could simply Google it. My phone was this amazing pocket computer that provided entertainment, knowledge, communication and more.
Being someone in my mid-30’s I now reassess areas of my life a little more often than my younger self. Do I want to learn new hobbies? How do I want to best spend my time? Do I still enjoy my current hobbies? These are questions I find I ask myself a little more frequently and recently my answers have begun to change.
With the introduction of Screen Time, over the past few months I’ve been questioning the true value of using my phone.
I thought to myself… if each minute spent using my phone equates to £1, am I getting value for my money (my time)? Am I getting any return on the money I spend? Do I have anything to show for my expenditure or am I simply wasting my money?
In short, my answer was ‘no’. If I’m averaging more than 4hrs per day using my phone, I seriously wondered where this time was spent and more importantly, had I grown or improved as a person as a…