I hopped out of my car the other day and realized I had left my phone back at my house. I was about twenty minutes out of town, and I considered driving back to get it. After a quick calculation of the time wasted in doing so, I chose to brave the great unknown by venturing on without my electronic device. It is amazing, and a little embarrassing, how dependent I have become on my phone.

I was out in the country, and I don’t wear a watch, so I didn’t even know what time it was. I was wrapping insulation around some pipes to protect them from the freezing temperatures. The job took about an hour, and I’ll bet I reached into my back pocket a dozen times for my phone, only to remember I didn’t have it. I am not sure what I needed to know so desperately; I guess it’s just a habit.

I have an older cousin who lives in Bend, Oregon. He is a bit old school and has never owned a cell phone and never will. He drove out to Texas this past fall to visit family in Brownwood. We knew when he left Oregon, and we knew when he arrived in Brownwood. That was it. No Google map with verbal directions and ETA’s. No hands-free phone calls, shared locations or text messages from the road, and no pay phones to stop at along the way. They have disappeared from the landscape.

He just rolled in one evening with a folded map scribbled on with a yellow highlighter. I have not seen someone use a map in years; it looked like something he unearthed in an Egyptian pyramid.

Yes, one can still live a normal life without checking text messages, emails, and using social media every fifteen minutes. You may miss out on what the Kardashians are doing, but you will survive.

My cousin does fine, although he can be hard to contact! There is a lesson in that approach. Maybe we have become too accessible to unnecessary information. There are some things, if not most things, I don’t need to know about that add zero value to my life.

I heard a popular movie star say a few years ago that quitting social media for him was tougher than quitting cigarettes. He claimed scrolling social media is an addiction, just like smoking, which was ruining his life. Interesting….

Even still, I have no intention of giving up my phone. It’s just so handy and I love Spotify music. Just recently I diagnosed and repaired an issue I was having with my car via “You Tube.” Plus, I have thousands of pictures of my family stored in the clouds. I still don’t understand how all of that works.

Chances are good that many of you are reading this column on our phone. There is nothing wrong with that.

Here’s a stat for you:

According to Social Media Statistics 2023, sixty percent of the world’s population uses social media. An average user spends 2 hours and 31 minutes daily on social media. Teens showed an increase in their daily screen time from 7 hours and 22 minutes to 8 hours and 39 minutes from 2022. The average individual social media consumption in a lifetime is 6 years and 8 months. The average American will check their phone once every 10 to 12 minutes. That means the average American checks their phone at least 96 times per day.

Unreal.

I love this quote; “Moderation is the pleasure of the wise.” I don’t know who said it, but it makes sense to me. If I want to enjoy food, drink, work, and play, etc. in my life, then moderation is the key. For me, this includes social media. Too much of anything can be the beginning of a mess.

Maybe I should forget my phone more often? I have heard of people who will “fast” from their phone for periods of time. Or maybe I should just leave it in my pocket and only use it for what Alexander Graham Bell intended – simply to talk, and to google the five best ways to smoke a brisket.

Moderation equals wisdom. I need to be wiser.

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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].