Late last August I decided – rather, I relented – that it was time to get a smart phone. My dumb phone (text and calls only) was limiting my ability to navigate the TTC during a stoppage. And sometimes I could not get a phone call to go through to Val to get an update. Oh, woe is me. Obviously not. I willingly, if begrudingly, took the step I said I would never do.
I will be the first to admit that I took to the having a camera on my phone immediately. Already a person who loves to take photos, this was not a big step for me. Though I do find it annoying to see what my Google Pixel considers to be my highlights?? I also feel very badly that I have not taken many photos with regular cameras since getting this phone.
What was key for me was having access to the internet and email. I very wisely did not add my school (work) email to my phone. I figured I already answered my work email more than enough at the most inconvenient times for me.
Previous to getting a smart phone, I was already a regular YouTube user (almost exclusively for content related to figure skating, acrylic painting, and gardening) so that was not new to me. By contrast, previously, I was not a social media user. I had only reluctantly added Instagram on my laptop so I could follow one of my nephews on his world travels and ocasionally check up on my cousin in Vancouver. That’s it! Using Instagram on the computer entailed logging on, and then selecting whose account I wanted to look at. Very different from the phone.
Well, on my new phone, about five months ago, I accidentally installed Instagram by clicking on one of those annoying Instragram emails – see what’s new! It is so addictive on a phone. So immediate. It just pops up and sends you things (yes, I know I sound like a troglodlyte here). Its algorithm changes SO quickly if you aren’t careful. I could easily see how quickly one could get addicted. So I deleted Instagram last week. Ah, sigh of relief. Sign of autonomy!
Reflecting on my phone experience- keeping in mind that I have been a high school teacher whose clientele changed extensively because of the phone – I am very glad that I am an adult who grew up in the time before computers or smart were prevalent. I have the ability to make my own decisions, to be self-aware about what is being offered to me by media, to survive through times of boredom, and to use a technology rather than let it use me. Perhaps most crucially, I am a true believer in asking this question: “just because we can, does it mean we should?” We meaning society, of course. Or, perhaps more correctly and expansively in these troubled times, humanity.
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness had a crucial impact on me. It’s not that I was unaware of the topic – it was the daily bread of my life as a teacher; it’s that he helped me connect a lot of dots. As a high school History teacher and Student Success teacher who worked outside the classroom, I spent a lot of time counselling students, parents, and some teachers about the significance of phones being away during class, the impact of the phone on learning and attention.
I knew the kids (not all, of course) were addicted; it was plain to see. What I didn’t know is what that felt like. Now that I’ve experienced the tingle the phone gives you and the way it blocks out the world, I never want to feel it again.
Soon I’ll write a post about kids and phones in the classroom based on my experiences, particularly with my amazing last ever class in semester two of 2025-26.
(edited on Gimp on my computer for a little irony).
Lastly, I will note that Shadow and Richard make up the bulk of pics I take on my new phone. What a surprise!
by going under things in the weirdest ways. He’s a cat’s cat.
So she can go under things, too, especially when
she thinks no one is looking.
