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Information Overload?
Learning to listen in a noisy world
I often find myself longing for the days before I had a smartphone. Everything seemed so much quieter and calmer then. I suppose it was inevitable that I’d get one, like we all have. Back in 2010 I decided to buy an iPhone so that I could cut down the number of things I took with me when I went running in the local park. I was doing my PhD and I wanted be able to make notes as they came to mind AND to listen to music all on one device. The fact I could make voice notes too was a novelty and totally sold it for me. I wasn’t interested in mobile internet or being able to take photos or anything like that. I was so innocent and clueless about what this gadget in my pocket would do to me. Most of the time in those early days it was just switched off. I didn’t give it a second thought.
How things have changed. I find the attachment I have to my phone increasingly uncomfortable nowadays, and lately I’ve been testing out whether I can leave it in another room and forget about it. Even whilst watching the gripping drama of the latest series of Happy Valley (yes, I’ve succumbed to the hype) I’ve found my thoughts wandering to my phone. I’ve had to force myself to let go of the need to check updates on email, Whatsapp, social media, news apps. It’s like a tic, my habit of refreshing feeds, and I want to kick it.
