By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga

I’ve seen it all the time, I’m at a restaurant or café and I’ll notice people on their phones, both at my table and those around me. And the same thing pops into my head every time: What could be so important and so interesting on your phone that it’s acceptable to ignore the people sat on the same table as you? OK, I admit it, I have looked over people’s shoulders, I’m curious like that; and I think just a handful of times I’ve seen somebody doing something like send an email or a text message, more often than not people are just scrolling through content on Facebook that they’ve already seen.

And I’m not saying I’m never on my phone, mind you. I’ll admit it, If I’m having a coffee with someone and they get up to go to the bathroom I’ll whip it out to check up on Instagram, Snapchat or to set reminders or write down notes of things I overhear, for my blog. But the feeling of guilt is usually too big and even before the person’s back I’ve put it down; I have to practice what I preach.

So recently I’ve been thinking about mobile phone usage a lot. I’ve seen people crash into things walking down Main Street, motorists wedge them between their faces and their helmets to talk on their motorbikes and I’ve even had small panic attacks on numerous times when I can’t find my phone (at home, when I haven’t even left the house and it’s probably in the next room). And it’s crazy, I think we’ve all gone crazy. So here’s what happened the other day when I realised I was definitely losing it thanks to my phone:

6:30am - My alarm rings and the first thing I do is pick up my phone. I turn off my alarm (a song I’ve started to hate), check the weather on the daily email I get first thing in the morning, delete a bunch of Play.com emails that I can’t seem to unsubscribe from and notice that the battery’s at 40%, nowhere near enough to make it through the day. Mental note: Take charger cable to work.

7:40am – It’s time to leave the house: get cable, check that I have everything (wallet, keys, etc.), YES, I have everything.

7:45am – I think to myself: “Oh God, someone’s stolen my phone out of my pocket!” (but really I haven’t seen anybody apart from a morning runner and a bus driver since I left the house and the only reason I realised I didn’t have it on me is because I wanted to take a photo of something).

7:50am – Closer to the office, five minutes into my walk and I’ve changed my mind. I’m OK about not having my phone on me at least I’ve still got my iPod; this is great morning music (some light jazz). I like how dark it still is in the mornings.

7:55am – “Oh God, where’s my phone?” This time I’m not worried I’ve lost it but there are so many great things to photograph this morning; of course, when I don’t have my phone or a camera on me.

8:45am – Forty five minutes into being at my desk at work and I’m feeling liberated. I don’t need my phone. I do the news rounds, and catch up on Twitter the whole time thinking it’s okay I don’t have my phone on me. All of a sudden I’m feeling conflicted: I feel liberated, but what if somebody’s sent me a really important email? (Highly unlikely considering my inbox is full of junk mail, online purchase receipts and the occasional email to myself) but WHAT IF?

9:15am – Fifteen minutes after deciding I was going to go back home to pick up my phone I’m going on a coffee run. Walking to the café I feel good, “I don’t need this! Plus, my hands in my empty pockets feel so much better than when there is an iPhone there” is a thought I just had. Well, now that I can’t spend the five or ten minutes waiting to be served on my phone I’m going to have to look at what’s on the coffee menu: “They do all that!? And they have all these liquor bottles behind the bar that I’ve never seen or tasted before! I should do this no phone thing more often”.

10:00am – By ten I’m trying to turn a negative into a positive: The thought that I haven’t been able to check up on my Instagram feed is killing me, so I get my photography fix online and I tweet about a new project and ask people to give me photography work. Positivity is at an all-time high for the first time in the day.

11:30am – I’m back at my desk, I gave in and went for my phone at eleven and as expected nothing new, no new emails, no new messages, not even a Snapchat from the guy I never speak to but went to school with or an Instagram like from the guy that doesn’t miss a photo-liking opportunity. Lowest of lows, all that fuss and I don’t even have anything to make it seem worth it. I could not feel more foolish.

After my pretty ridiculous morning I spent the rest of the day not wanting to even look at my phone; the anxiety it had caused me all morning was a monumental waste of energy and what for?

And I know I’m not alone: In Gibraltar we are obsessed with our phones and technology in general, and it needs to stop. Let’s face it, it’s definitely out of hand when before dealing with problems properly we take a photo with our phones and post it on a Facebook group in the hope that the right person is reading it. And when we’re okay with risking losing our phones and more important breaking the law because we want to make that phone call on our bikes…

It’s a thought I have every day: What if I just got rid of my phone altogether? I could start today, but first let me check my Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Snapchat, Instagram, Email, get through all my scheduled tasks…

Check out some of Stefano’s projects at:

https://twitter.com/stefanoblanca

http://instagram.com/stefanoblanca

https://vine.co/stefanoblanca

Comic by Dan Piraro, creator of the newspaper cartoon, Bizarro

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