The smartphone is poorly named. It is really an infuriating engagement device for corporate profiteers. I don’t have one but I have to accept that Ann does. Do I use it? Of course I do. However, I am essentially anonymous, except for all the disclosures I make in these posts. My rejection of a mobile began in my work at Carlisle. My employer insisted that I had one and could be contacted at the whim of senior managers. However, I was always at or around funeral services and it was rare indeed that a phone did not go off during a service. It was embarrassing and a terrible intrusion into the ceremony. I knew that I would forget to mute it so I left it in the office and there it stayed. Dump the smartphone to stay sane.

Productivity

The insidious lie is that the smartphone improves our productivity. What a laugh! All I see these days is workers lounging about chatting on the phone. They are inside vans chatting, walking about chatting and even lolling in a wheelbarrow. The smartphone destroys productivity by wasting so much time. My view was recently supported by a writer in The Times. He had abandoned his smartphone. Now, he reckoned, he was looking about on his commute in London, thinking up stuff and even reading a lot. Consequently, he also knew that he would never write a book if he continued putting so much time into the smartphone.

Dump the smartphone

There are at least three issues that benefit from this action. Firstly, that you begin to use your brain more. It needs that stimulation. Secondly, that your awareness of what is going on around you is heightened. Thirdly, that you are not being tracked. Surely, it’s not right that some corporate chump has all your data. It’s rather like being a dutiful slave, a body manipulated by a higher authority. It’s so 1984! Break free, dump the smartphone!