He tried giving up his smartphone for two months, and this is the valuable lesson he learned

“Going analog,” as some might say, is a growing trend, with certain groups in society rejecting the convenience of technology in favor of a life free—or mostly free—of devices. Writing in Esquire, Sean Evans shared what it was like to swap his smartphone for a TCL flip phone. The old-school device was a gift from his sister, and while it seemed like a small change, Evans described the valuable lessons his time with the flip phone taught him.

For Evans, the decision was mostly pragmatic: as a law student at the University of Michigan studying for finals, he found that even after removing tempting social media apps from his smartphone, he was still “burning” much-needed study time scrolling on his device.

The cellphone switch-up came shortly after Evans was diagnosed with ADHD, and he was beginning to think about how to set himself up for success. What the law student describes is a feeling familiar to many: a sudden urge to check social media or Google something, even when the information isn’t immediately needed and could easily lead to distraction.

Though Evans was still able to text through iMessage on his laptop, he noticed that many of his friends and family avoided calling. “People hate talking,” he said, adding, “Texting has become so embedded in how we communicate that asking friends to actually dial my number felt like requesting they send a telegram.”

But when he did manage to get a friend on the other end of the line, he found their conversations were often “more efficient and meaningful” than what might have taken place over text.

Evans details the drawbacks

There were some drawbacks, of course. For one, Evans quickly realized that his navigation skills could be tested without Google Maps at his fingertips. “In new places, I’d have to plan ahead, sometimes get lost, call my girlfriend for cross-street navigation to ask if I was close,” he reported. Though part of him “enjoyed the constraint,” he also became “worried [he] was becoming a friend who couldn’t figure out basic logistics.”

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