Perhaps the most profound change I’ve noticed since ditching my iPhone for a very minimalist (both design and function) “dumb” phone is disappearance of phantom vibrations.
Phantom vibrations are, of course, those muscle twitches you get in your upper thigh, where you typically carry your smartphone, or also, in my case, your wrist if you’ve ever worn an Apple Watch.
Now granted, the first few days of “detox” I actually experienced more phantom vibrations than normal. But by now, on day 6 of my dis-kon-nect, they are gone.
It’s a very strange feeling to have your left wrist tendons twitching in the same manner as if they were being stimulated by a small vibrating watch. But that was happening all the time. And this is a big problem.
Imagine reading, and our wrist twitches. Imagine looking out the window at dusk, when the light is perfectly golden and a stillness hovers over the city, and your muscles contract on your leg as if a little insect were crawling up your thigh.
Sure, the Punkt. MP01 has an optional vibration alert. And it works well. But I purposely turned it off as soon as I turned on the phone.
So how do I know somebody has called or texted me?
I hear a birdsong. More on that in my next post.