Using your phone for better, not worse

It’s really hard to put my phone down.

The whole world is literally at the tips of my fingers. I can connect with millions of people, access an infinite amount of knowledge, listen to pretty much every song ever released and just about watch every TV show or movie ever to grace the silver screen.

And what do we do with the universe in our hands?

We doom scroll.

Last week, my article centered around today’s kids growing up in a world full of technology and how we might model healthier relationships to technology. This week, I want to share some ways you might be able to use technology more effectively.

So we should put the phone down more. We all know this, we all know it’s not good for us to be scrolling all the time, but what can you do with your phone if you want to use it better?

I think social media is fine, in moderation. Don’t follow people that bring you down, set boundaries on how much you share and who with and compare yourself to what you see online. 

Learn a language online. I took French all throughout high school and for the first year of college. With five long years learning conjugations and verb tenses and learning how to count (if you speak French, you relate to this four-twenties-and-twelve times over), I don’t want to lose all this. Duolingo keeps my mind sharp, plus I can earn badges and gems along the way (dopamine hit) and follow friends to complete quests together. But beware of the Duolingo owl: he will appear in your notifications at all hours, giving haunting reminders to learn it or lose it. There are also other language apps to use if you’re not a Duolingo fan, such as Babbel and Memrise.

Podcasts are an underrated learning opportunity. There are podcasts on EVERYTHING. They’re easy and often free. I love history, so I listen to the History Unplugged podcast, which pulls a different subject on all kinds of history topics, from the Roman Empire to Watergate to Napoleon. Others I enjoy are Fitness Stuff for Normal People, Little Talk in Slow French, Lancaster Baptist Church and Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey. Finding a podcast you like is pretty easy, and there’s plenty of time to listen to them, like walking from class to class, working out or doing chores.

You can use technology to stay fit, too. Smart watches can track your steps, heart rate and calories. If you don’t own a smartwatch and still want to track steps or activity level, Google Fit is free to download. On it, you can track runs and steps and log activities manually. 

And where would we be without YouTube? Infinite amounts of hours to watch, yet we don’t use it to its full potential.

Streaming movies and shows, following influencers, watching music videos are all a lot of fun, but when was the last time you watched a video for educational purposes? For free, you can learn to play an instrument, how to cook and bake, how to crochet or knit or make your own clothes, painting, singing, dancing, birdwatching, gardening…the options are limitless, really.

Pro tip: learn a hobby and you can have something to do besides scroll through your phone.

Last on my list: you really can read on your phone. This option hurts me the most. I am a die-hard, real-paper book fan with no shame. I despise reading a book on my phone (I want to TURN the page, not scroll to the next one!)

But alas, my personal preference may not be yours, so if you don’t want to have to go to the library or purchase a book in person, then reading on your phone is definitely an option.

If you have a West Fargo or Fargo library card you can download the Libby App, which provides books, magazines and newspapers from around the world. It does work like a real library, though, so you may have to wait to check out a book you want to read. The world inside our devices is massive and yet we take it for granted. We should be using our resources to learn and grow, yet so often we take the easy way out. Doom scrolling and gaming shouldn’t be the main functions of our screen time. In all reality, we shouldn’t reach for our phones out of boredom. Take the opportunities that come your way to expand your knowledge and grow as a person. It’s a hard start, but there’s no reason not to try.