iPhone or Bust?

It is getting to the end of my scheduled social media haitus and I have given some thought as to what I'd like to give up for the month of April.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the fact that after quitting social media, the next step might be to go without a smartphone for 30 days.

I was committed for about two whole seconds.

Then I realized that although it seemed like a natural gradient, giving up my phone altogether would actually require quite a bit of planning.

To give you a sampling of what would be necessary in order to halt my phone use for anything other than calls, here are two incomplete lists:

Shopping

• calendar, planner, watch, small camera, alarm clock, timer, small notepad , infinite new music, flashlight, one of those things you keep people's phone numbers and addresses in.

It should be noted that much of the above would have to be added to a Mary Poppins bag already filled with a school binder, paper texts, my Kindle, a water bottle, and other trimmings. Plus,

• iPod, English-French dictionary

Inconveniences

• using my brain, editing photos on a computer, marking important dates on a calendar (birthdays, appointments, vacations, assignment due dates), printing Google directions to new places, possibly choosing horrible restaurants without the help of Yelp!, boredom, going to ATMs to check bank account balance, having to actually talk to people when desiring communication, limited access to e-mail, having to rob my friends of the joy of receiving text message novels, manually recording calorie intake

The list goes on and on!

And so, ladies and gentlemen, when considering the sacrifice that going without my Smartphone would truly be, and the amount of preparation it would take, I looked at the undesired expanding of my bust measurement and decided that perhaps I could use a little giving up of something foodie for the month of April.

Although I fully intend to give up the use of my iPhone for anything but calls sometime within the next year, for next month, I have decided to give up gluten with the help of the Wheat Belly Cookbook. I hope you'll stick with me on that adventure. But for now, I have five more days to reflect on the observations and challenges that giving up social media has provided me. 

What do you think would be your biggest challenge if you gave up social media for a month?