So my smartphone is busted. And I have insurance on it, so I could get a new one for the copay which is like $100 (when I eventually have that money to spare).

But I think I won’t. I’ve been thinking more and more recently about how attached we smartphone users become to our devices. And I’ve been inspired by tech writer Paul Miller’s recent experiment in which he decides to completely leave the internet for one year.

And I’ve been thinking about how I used to watch television. But then I stopped. And I discovered that I simply enjoy life more when I decide not to fill in every empty moment of my life by sitting idly in front of a screen. I rediscovered the value of those empty moments. Moments to think. Moments to observe.

I had grown so attached to my smartphone in the past three years that having it gone from my front left pocket this morning felt like missing an appendage.

And so this morning I reactivated an older dumbphone we had lying around. I’m going to see what it’s like to go back to not having an endless stream of content at my fingertips to occupy the empty moments. I’m going to force myself to live in the world again, to see the endless stream of analogue content all around me.

It will be difficult, at first. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about this decision in a week… in a month…

But I can’t wait to find out.