Touch Grass, they said - by Esther Omemu

In September 2026, my phone gave up the ghost. Annoying, yes, but hardly catastrophic. I already had plans to replace it and, as an optimist, I was mostly grateful it happened at home instead of in the middle of a foreign country where I barely spoke the language. I can already imagine the nightmare that would ensue. Then I had an unsettling thought, why would not having a phone be such a big deal. The answer was embarrassingly simple: because I wouldn't be able to do anything. It became scary to me how much power the phone has over my ability to participate in everyday life.. Still, as an optimist, I told myself ‘It can’t be that bad’ and as a researcher, I also thought ‘I have to test this’. With 2 weeks left until the end of the month, I decided to go on a digital detox. I had always felt guilty about my screen time so it was the perfect time to reduce my reliance on my phone and touch grass. However, what started as a simple ‘detox’, turned into a troubling experiment of the reality of a digital world. People thought I was crazy and everytime I would tell anyone this plan, it always went like ‘Why? How would you cope? I can’t do that? I am not sure this was possible?’What struck me about those reactions was that nobody assumed I would miss scrolling on social media or watching videos. Their immediate concern was practical. How would I navigate? How would I pay for things? How would I access my accounts? That made me realize something. We often talk about our relationship with phones as though the problem is addiction. We speak as though people just lack the will to be offline and everyone is in this constant state of FOMO. Like puppets on a string, being led on by their digital addictions. What we don't talk about however is how we have somehow created a society that requires that you must depend on these devices to survive. A world that increasingly functions on the assumption that everyone owns and carries a smartphone. The excitement of technological advancement and the creation of high-tech societies with all these great benefits, easy access, one-tap solutions has put us in addictions bigger than we realize. It is so ironic how often we preach ‘touch grass’, reduce your screen time, ‘log off’ yet if you attempt to actually do this, you can’t function. What is even more hilarious is how we build smartphone apps designed to help us spend less time on our smartphones. Here is ‘Jomo’, an app you download on your phone to help you build healthy screen time habits. I digress. Let’s go back to the ability to function in the basic way. By the second day without a phone, I started to keep count of all the things I couldn't do without a phone. I expected a few inconveniences. Instead, I found all I could do was, drum roll, nothing! Thank God for my primal instincts of keeping cash, my artistic ability to draw directions and absolutely having no shame in asking strangers for help. To be more precise, I made a list Things I couldn't do without a phone<ul><li>Buy a new phone</li><li>Make any purchase (The code to my physical card can only be accessed via the app because it is set up by the bank and not you)</li><li>Access emails that I forgot the password to</li><li>Contact customer service of my bank</li><li>Access any of my bank apps</li><li>Access and pay digital invoice</li><li>Contact my landlord</li><li>Access my digital transport card</li><li>Navigation around the city</li><li>Access my e-sim</li><li>Take pictures!!! of course</li><li>Contact my friends immediately when there is tea or I had a funny thought</li><li>Connect to my telecommunication app </li><li>Use any Authenticator</li><li>No FAQs included a lost phone</li><li>Contact customer service: I need to book an appointment with the app on a phone or call customer service to book the appointment. Customer service advice: Then you have to try to call from another phone. CS: I cannot check this from chat when you cannot log in, I am sorry. </li><li>Accessing office services: Hi, you will need your authenticator to access a lot of the services at UiO. If your phone is destroyed you can set it up again. But how do I set it up without a phone?</li><li>Make a claim with insurance because I need the app on my phone to submit a claim about getting a new phone. </li></ul>And many more I can't fit in this postIf I didn't need to make any purchase, go anywhere, contact anybody, go to classes, visit friends, attend events, travel and even work…then I could successful detox but other than that…oh well What was more frustrating was realizing a lot of these services do not have a contingency plan for when you do not have a phone. It simply is not a reality they consider possible. Every conversation following the same script:Institution chat interface:Them: "You'll need the app."Me: "I can't use the app. I don't have a phone."Them: Then you have to book an appointment by calling usMe: I don't have a phone to callAn awkward silence.Them: "Well... you'll have to get a phone somehow."That's when I realized the issue wasn't my dependence on smartphones. It was society's dependence on smartphone ownership.We tell people to disconnect, touch grass, and spend less time online. Yet increasingly, participation in everyday life requires carrying a small glowing screen everywhere we go. The smartphone is no longer a convenience. It has become infrastructure and we can’t escape.

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