How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price is a quick book that shares with readers the importance of limiting screen time and how to actually do it.
Pairs With: a hot fudge sundae because breakups are never easy but they’re usually the right thing to do. Luckily, in moderation, we still have ice cream and chocolate to help us feel better!
Overview
If you find yourself without any time left at the end of the day and are always running on empty, it might be time to break up with your phone. Although stunning and incredible, they are also sneaky and highly addictive!
Price starts out the book with an open letter to her phone. In it, she shares, “These days, I can’t even remember the last time I was bored. Then again, I can’t remember a lot of things. Like, for example, the last time my friends and I made it through a meal without anyone pulling out a phone. Or how it felt to be able to read an entire magazine article in one sitting.”
If you’ve noticed you’re also never bored or that have no attention span – please force yourself to read on!
Part I – The Wake-Up
This book is broken into two sections. Part I is called, “The Wake-Up” and is where Price shares research on why it’s so important we take a break from our phones. Price emphasizes not feeling poorly about yourself if you’re hooked on your device. After all, she explains they have been designed to addict us.
Price quotes Tristan Harris, a former Google employee as stating, “Never before in history have the decisions of a handful of designers (mostly men, white, living in SF, aged 25-35) working at 3 companies had so much impact on how millions of people around the world spend their attention.”
Price pulls back the curtain on some of the unknown tricks companies are employing to hijack our brains. She also takes readers through how the phone is ultimately negatively affecting the brain. Price states, “In the past, if a person described herself as feeling happy, sad, excited, anxious, curious, frustrated, ignored, important, lonely, joyful, and existentially depressed within the span of five minutes, she likely would have received a diagnosis. But give me five minutes on my phone, and I can accomplish this and more.”
Part II – The Breakup
In part II of the book, “The Breakup,” Price shows readers how they can most easily take their life back. This section involves a 4 week, day-by-day plan, that helps readers gradually remove their attachment to their devices. Although you could try to go cold turkey, Price helps readers develop new habits that will be long-lasting.
She encourages everything from keeping your phone out of your bedroom and buying an ACTUAL alarm clock to checking in with yourself before reaching for your phone. Did you really want to pick it up or are you just doing it out of habit?
Conclusion
For many of us, the relationship we have with our phones has gone unchecked. Our phones started out small and insignificant with a random text here and maybe a phone call there. However, with time it has grown into a full-blown relationship. And now, it’s time for some healthy relationship boundaries.
How to Break Up With Your Phone is a great book for anyone who feels their devices have taken over their life. Price presents studies and research showing how our devices negatively impact our mental health and quality of life. And then she shows readers what they can do about it. This book is a perfect starting point for changing your phone relationship around!
Have you read this one and any others like it? I still want to read Dopamine Nation!
P.S. If you enjoyed this one you may also like Catherine Price’s other book, The Power of Fun! In that one, she discusses how our phones hinder our ability to have true fun and explains why prioritizing fun is so important.
