London experiment: a month without a smartphone left the writer calmer but inconvenienced

A Guardian writer in London spent a month without her iPhone, swapping it for a basic Nokia for calls and texts, a Walkman, a film camera, paper maps and physical books, and using a laptop only for work between 9 and 5. The experiment followed a moment when the writer remained unaware of an attempted robbery because she was looking at her phone.

She described a typical pre-experiment routine of checking social media, email and apps before coffee. The article notes the average person in the UK spends four hours and 20 minutes online per day and quotes Anna Lembke calling social media “frictionless access to an infinite universe” tailored to keep users engaged; Nicholas Kardaras is cited saying technology has caused people to outsource memory and let skills atrophy.

Over the month she encountered practical frictions — slower texting on a basic phone, trouble buying tickets and paying by phone, an unarranged overdraft she could not easily resolve without an app, missed Oyster contactless convenience and friends frustrated by her limited access to messaging and shared links.

She also found benefits: being more present at events, calmer on commutes, rediscovering focused album listening and reading, and not checking work emails in the evenings. Rosanna Irwin, who runs Samsú digital-detox cabins, described an accidental detox that revived her and recommended a three-day retreat.

Key Topics

Tech, Iphone, Nokia, Walkman, Anna Lembke, Nicholas Kardaras