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| Every experiment ends with a conclusion... |
PART I: PHOTO-FREE
26 Groovebook albums at 100 pictures each, 1 Dropbox account, 1 8GB memory stick, and only 2 new pictures (approved by my little picture-taking police daughter), and I believe I have conquered my photo-hoarding obsession. I started out with far more than 2000+ digital photos I had claimed to have. 2000+ somehow sounds better than 3462 photos...doesn't it? When I tried to justify my overgrown digital photo collection by saying, "well...it's two years worth of photos!", I received blank stares and it just felt wrong because this means I was taking over 100 photos a month, okay, 144.25 pictures a month to be exact. Don't ask me how you take 144.25 pictures a month but I managed to do it. Over the course of the last 30 days, I whittled those 3462 digital photos down to 2547, deleting 915 photos. 915!!! If you are doing the math? that is a 26.4% reduction. This is not the 33% I was aiming for but I grew weary and my deadline was closing in on me and I knew if I extended the deadline it could be an endless cycle and all the pictures started to look the same and I was so close to clicking on "select all" and pressing "delete". Instead, I chose to accept that this was truly the best I could do at this time. I was spending 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, deleting, deleting, deleting and feeling like I was getting nowhere. So, I just decided that I had learned my lesson and began the task of sorting the 2542...2542 photos!!! into folders to prepare for the next step...printing and downloading. Are you exhausted yet? because I am and I am having horrible flashbacks just thinking about this.
Printing: Why print? Call me old-fashioned but I like to cozy up and flip through pictures and reminisce. For this, I am so grateful for Groovebook. No, I do not work for Groovebook, nor do I know anyone who works for Groovebook and I am not getting paid or sponsored in anyway for saying this and I am not even getting any free Groovebooks for saying this but if I were a more savvy customer, I am sure that I would be...but with my Groovebooks they do send me a coupon for my friends to get their FREE Groovebook...go figure...so have at it. If I can't get a free book, you sure should. I might have to speak with them about this, though. I could not have conquered this feat without this app. 26 Groovebooks equals 2600 photos for only $2.99 (no tax) per 100 photos which equals $0.03 per picture!!! just about $78 total for 2600 photos and that includes shipping. Compare this to $0.17 cents at Walmart or Costco and you can not reasonably dream up a better deal than this. Compact. Great quality. Great price. Great idea. I'm hooked.Downloading: Once upon a time, I had read that it is a good idea to backup photos in three different ways. Well, I didn't stop at three. So, again, I am also not getting compensated by Dropbox for saying this (but I am starting to think I should consider how to get compensated for saying this)...I could not have completed the downloading process in a timely and stress-free way without Dropbox. I received 50GB of free cloud space when I opened an account and jumped through a few little non-invasive hoops and now my photos are also backed up safely in the clouds and synched with my phone and filed on my computer. Voila!
From the Dropbox account on my desktop, I was able to very quickly backup my backups on an 8GB memory stick. And my photos are safe and sound x 4 if you don't count the photos that are also backed up on Facebook. All in about 30 minutes!!!
Moving Forward: I am awaiting the arrival of my last 4 Groovebooks and I was going to wait until they arrived before clearing my phone but I am pretty confident that if they do not arrive, I will have them on my computer... if they are not on my computer, they are in the clouds...if the clouds evaporate, I have my memory stick...and if I lose all of those backup photos, well, then it is just not meant to be and I will have to rely on my own memory...so, delete I did. I feel lighter. I feel free.
From here on out I will have a new photo motto: Less is more. I just cannot imagine ever having to go through this again. My goal is to only print 2 Groovebooks a year...maximum. That is 16 photos per month...maximum... and should be more than plenty of wiggle room now that I have learned my lesson...the hard way. I am going to go for quality over quantity. I am going to dedicate 10 minutes a week, give or take, to deleting photos and organizing folders. If I take a picture that is just to share on social media or my blog and I have no intentions of ever printing this photo or wanting to reference it in the future, it will be deleted. I don't have to worry about photos disappearing from my phone because every photo I take will be automatically sent to the glorious cloud. That whole cloud idea is a little scary but I have decided that I am going to focus on the silver lining.
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| 1st of what will be at least 12 Volunteering Adventures |
This month I had countless amazing experiences and adventures and only photographically recorded one event with two photos. The only reason I got approval to take these photos was because it was for our next experiment: 12 Good Deeds in 12 Months-An Experiment in Giving Back...more to come on that in a future post.
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| We helped rebuild a Community Garden in Dania Beach |
Final Note on Part 1: I went from taking 144.25 photos per month to taking 2. I did it. It felt liberating. Each time I experienced a photo worthy moment, I had to just take a moment, take a breath and do my best to capture and savor that moment in my own memory...my memory with zero gigabytes but seemingly limitless amounts of space. If you want to know about those moments, just ask me about them...I will be happy to share.
PART II: PHONE-LESS
Where to begin...this was harder than being photo-free and as such I was far less successful. My daughter is right. The world is a different place. We all rely on our phones, the internet, and social media to stay abreast of what is happening with our friends, family, neighbors, community, and even the rest of the world. First, I have to say that in order to even come remotely close to achieving anything that resembled success, I had to leave my phone at home... a lot...especially at first. By the end of the experiment, I realized I wasn't even thinking about my phone nearly as much and would often forget it at home. I will divide this up into sections in order of difficulty: GPS, Internet, Social Media, Texting, Calling.
GPS: I love my free Google Maps app. I only used it once to get to a new library and another time when I was heading out to Miami. Trust me, you need all the help you can get when you are driving to Miami...it was absolutely necessary.
Internet: I am an internet junkie. If a question, any question, pops into my head, I "google" it. This was an incredibly challenging habit to break. Sometimes, I would wait until I got home to use my desktop and when I did use my phone for the internet, I tried really, really hard to only look things up that were absolutely necessary, like, when is the new Trader Joes opening up?...okay, so I slipped a few times...only 8 times that I counted. I did keep a tally. Save the judgment, for later, because it gets worse.
Social Media: Thank goodness, the only social media outlet I use is Facebook. I do not even have a Pinterest Account, or a Twitter account, or an Instagram account. However, when I say I ONLY use Facebook, what I really mean is that I used Facebook daily. When I say daily, what I really mean is that I used Facebook multiple times a day. I would peek, post, comment, or like whenever I had a few spare moments. I probably took more Facebook breaks than a smoker takes smoke breaks. I don't even want to think about how much time I spent on Facebook prior to this experiment. It never felt like a waste of time, though. It didn't occur to me how much I relied on Facebook to fill spare moments until I went without.
I would pick up my phone to check the time and without thinking? tap the Facebook app. I would see my wall and screech when I realized what I had done and quickly exit. I did this more than a few times. I would always quickly exit and never once did I post but it was eye-opening to realize what a mindless habit Facebook had become. Just like a smoker or a drinker or an overeater has to find something else to fill those spare moments, so did I. To name a few filler activities...I had my photo dilemma to deal with which was one of the few approved phone activities, I had to stash magazines and a book in the car for those long carpool waits, I would clean out my purse, sweep the floors, clean out a drawer, do a few squats, browse through cookbooks, talk to a complete stranger (imagine that), and admire my surroundings.
As with the photos, I often thought about how fun it would be to share some of our month's adventures but I had to bite my tongue, committing our stories to memories. I also really missed keeping up-to-date on friends, family, and the crazy world around us. I felt more connected to those immediately near me but so far from those who are at a distance. Distance does make the heart grow fonder.
Texting: Oh, texting. It's the way of the world. I tried. I really did. I'll just spit it out. I sent out 33 texts. Mostly to my husband. We had some crazy events happen in our city, you know...a bomb threat at the local high school, crazy sex education material handed out to middle schoolers...you know...the usual, so the group texting was out of control. I read many texts but still only sent out a few. I had to respond to nervous friends and family about how I was doing because it seemed like I had fallen off the face of the earth. And lastly, I have become the designated Common Core Math Decoder in our neighborhood, so, I received a few "please help" texts which I felt obliged to respond to...via text. So, I feel like the area that I had the least success in was in texting but 33 texts is a reduction from 82 a month. I still can't believe I ever sent out that many texts. I started out calling my husband instead of texting him but after a few "you called me for that?", said in a tone that sounded like, "I'm sorry, I don't speak that speaking language.", I realized that texting has become his first and preferred language. It made me a bit sad but I think I have to accept it. Instead of texting him, unless it required immediate attention, I would often just make a note and talk about it with him when he got home.
Moving Forward: I will be leaving my phone home more often. I have no real desire to return to using my phone mindlessly or habitually. I commit to no longer using it so mindlessly, and honestly, I have replaced one habit with lots of other little positive filler habits, so, one day I may have to give up cleaning out my purse or giving myself a mini-mani in the car and all of those fellow customers will be wishing I would get back on my phone and stop talking to the cashier but I like my new filler habits for now. It is important to note, Sierra noticed that I was on my phone much less and slipped and said that she liked it. This is important information to remember for later.
PART III: LESS TECH
Something else happened during this month that took up so much of my time that I really had very little left for anything else: MIDDLE SCHOOL. The daughter that inspired this crazy experiment entered middle school this year. At Open House, one of her teachers greeted the parents with, "Welcome to Middle School. Say good-bye to life as you know it, your life will never be the same."
All of the parents hesitantly chuckled. How right she was!!! As if middle school wasn't going to be enough of a time-consuming, life-changing milestone, my daughter did so well in elementary school that she was rewarded with crazy challenging classes and insane levels of homework. Oh, and we started fall volleyball league. Our life was turned upside down this month as the teachers really let loose with homework and projects and practices are in full force. It doesn't help that my little one started a new program at school and has at least double the amount of projects and homework as she did last year. I had no idea when I started this experiment...or maybe subconsciously, I did... but this experiment couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I had no time for emails, TV, much less time for internet and Facebook. It's been a crazy amazing whirlwind. Most days we have watched zero hours of TV, I sent out a few emails but read few, and we are just starting to crack the homework code, so, I imagine that I just won't have that much time for much else for a little while longer. When I say, "a little while longer", I am being totally optimistic.
With that, I have watched mostly HGTV because it is the only thing that you can turn on for 10 minutes at 10pm and fall asleep and not feel bad for missing anything. I just recently started watching The Voice when I can squeeze it in. My life feels so full but I do miss that feeling of relief that the kids' bedtime brings, that time when I would decompress with a fun show and a little internet browsing.
Moving forward: Same as the previous parts of this experiment. Less is more...as if I have a choice at the moment. Now, if only I could figure out how to declutter my schedule...another experiment perhaps? later.
CONCLUSION:
I don't think it was a complete random occurrence that I chose to do this experiment at this time in my life. I thought I was doing it to curb a photo obsession, to empathize with my "phone-deprived" daughter, but it ended up being just what I needed at this time in my life. Funny how that works.
However, because part of the inspiration for this experiment was, in fact, my "phone-deprived" daughter, I wanted to address that issue. She still does not have a smart phone. She did enjoy that I was not on my phone as much and this was important because while I was having my own deprivations, tribulations, and revelations, she was asked not to ask for a phone and later was asked to consider how she felt about my reduced usage as she did her assignment. She was asked to write up a smart phone contract with rules that we could all agree on and that my husband and I could make amendments to. She was also asked to think about why she wanted a phone, if she needed a phone, and for what non-social purposes she would use a smart phone. If she didn't want to pay for the phone all on her own, she was asked to come up with an amount that she would contribute and asked if she would agree to pay a portion of her allowance toward monthly services. She initially protested but ultimately and keenly saw this as a positive sign that she will be getting a smart phone in the, probably not so distant, future. I was so absolutely proud of her. She stopped asking for a phone (pretty much) and actually told me that she felt better about it once she stopped asking, well, what she actually said was...she realized that talking about her lack of a smart phone made her feel bad about not having one. Once she stopped asking, she didn't feel so bad...but...BUT...she still wanted one (so there was no misunderstanding). I'll take that as a sign of growth. Also, she wrote up a beautiful set of rules and left her dad and I plenty of space for amendments. Smart girl. She handed us $50 and said she would pay $50 more if we wanted and agreed to pay $5 a month toward the family service plan. It is so utterly refreshing to see how much she has grown along with me in the last 30 days.
A Few Contract Highlights:
- I can use it when I am done with my homework or on homework break before 6pm on weekdays.
- I can use it for 1.5 hours a day on weekends.
- I can take it to school but can only use it in class if teacher allows.
- I will keep it downstairs when I go to sleep.
- Mommy and Daddy can review history.
- Must answer phone/text from parents.
- Follow considerate and self-respectful photo and video manners.
- No Instragram, etc, while in Middle School
Items that we will all try to adhere to:
- No phone at dinner or anytime we are engaged with real people and yes, your sister and the grocery store cashier are real people.
- Phones away after 7pm
- No phone before school.
- We can scan the textbooks for additional problems and activities (this is true)
- Almost all of my homework is online and a smart phone would make it easier to do it online and when we are out of town for volleyball or vacation. (this is true)
- We can't bring home textbooks but they are all online and I can study wherever we go or look up questions or help others. (this is true)
And there were a few more items, but you get the idea. I could not argue with her non-social justifications. In fact, at open house, the teachers warned us that the school was becoming increasingly more reliant on the kids having portable technology. So, the world is changing whether we want to change with it or not. We titled the contract: Smart Phone Contract, Middle School Edition. We will revisit the contract when she enters high school. She signed the contract but Mike and I are waiting until we actually hand the phone over to her. We want to make sure we have covered all of the bases before we let our baby girl enter the smart phone world. I am happy to have my full smart phone access back and I want her to enjoy the access as well...in due time. I am completely aware that she still just wants a phone, but I am so grateful she begged for a phone so much that we were able to have this month cleared of distraction and were able to grow together.
All things happen for a reason...
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