"I'd wake up and the first thing I'd do was check my text messages, then I'd move over to my personal email, and while I was at it I'd be tempted to check my work email … and then maybe Instagram, and then I'd scan the news sites," she says.
For a couple of years she's been switching to a dumb phone at the end of a working week for "a bit of a weekend detox", she says.Her neck pain would recede and she'd read more books, something she's always loved but had found herself doing less and less in recent years. When she could eventually pull her car over, she opened the physical street directory she'd invested in — only to learn it was no help to her.But she didn't let the situation defeat her.
"So I missed someone's birthday. I fell out of contact with a group of friends that I then had to remedy," she says. Plus, Rosa not interacting online about a new baby or holiday doesn't mean it's not discussed with the friend or family member; rather, the interaction is different — and likely to be voice-to-voice or in person."And you put some of those conversations off when you send people photos; you think you're updating them fully on their life, but you're not.