I have been experimenting for awhile now with boredom. By that I mean, leaving my iPhone in my pocket when I am in a waiting room, or have arrived early someplace, or am just not otherwise engaged.

At work it has been relatively easy because I just leave my phone on my desk. If I do not have it with me, there is no temptation to distractedly pull it out of my pocket and start distracting myself with apps and “breaking news.”

I have never liked phones in general. Even before cellphones, if I were home by myself and the phone rang, I would quite often just ignore it, especially once answering machines came along. I have never known if my antipathy comes from my hearing issues, a hardwired inability to get over the weirdness of interacting with a disembodied voice on a mechanical device, or just a basic anti-socialness.

What I do know is that I have resented cellphones from the very beginning. The convenience of loved ones being able to reach me in an emergency situation is, of course, great. So is as having access on my iPhone to Google Maps as well as always having a camera with me. .

But when I started thinking about it, most of what is on my iPhone is merely distractions that keep me from paying attention to the moment. I started feeling that I was missing more than I was getting from the technology.

Over the past year, I have been removing more and more apps from my iPhone. I am even beginning to question the need for another smartphone when my old iPhone SE dies.

In the end Google maps and the camera are the only things I think I would really miss by not having a smartphone.  The rest seems like unnecessary distraction. 

Either way, I am know I am better off living with boredom like people did for thousands of years, and as I did for 40+ years of my own life. So I am going to keep my small experiment going.

I’ll keep you posted .