We are now reaping what we’ve sown. We’re in the middle of harvest time, most crops have been chopped down already with only some fruits and vegetables left to go. Growing up around a farm, harvest time was one of my favourites. The culmination of what everyone had been working towards. There are photos of my brother and I sitting in and climbing mountains of wheat as it sat ready and waiting in the barn. We’d watch the combine go up and down the fields, working late into the dusk of evening, our hair and skin smelling of the acrid dust left in its wake.
It has been for me, a summer of harvesting ideas. Gathering them, collecting them, and storing them for future use. I have so many ideas now they’re everywhere. I have never felt so prepared ahead in advance for newsletters, with a choice of things to write about.
As I have been thinking about harvesting, in farming and my writing, it’s been tinged with thoughts of simpler times.
Could I live a day without my iPhone?
Theoretically… perhaps. But Literally… I’m not sure. Maybe we’re all too dependent on 6.1 inches of pure hell.
Okay, the day has started. Fuck, I woke up late. My alarm didn’t go off. Obviously because I don’t have one. I use my phone. But can I truly rely on it anyway? What if my phone didn’t charge overnight, or it malfunctions? Just like back in May when swathes of users complained to Apple that their alarms weren’t working properly.
I fumble to wake up, remove my eye mask and see the plant on my bedside table is dying. I don’t have that app that tells me whether I’ve overwatered, underwatered or left in too much direct sunshine. Don’t want to stick my fingers in the soil to figure it out so I’ll give it some more water and hope for the best.
I have no idea what the temperature is or the chance of precipitation but I’m ready to leave the house and I’ve brought an umbrella just in case. I sure hope I’m heading somewhere I know how to get to. I’ve lived in London for the best part of 10 years and I am dependent on Citymapper for navigating the big city. Can’t exactly book an Uber, can I.
How will I be entertaining myself now that I’m walking somewhere? I can’t listen to music or podcasts because I do that on my phone too. I’ve seen some people read actual books while walking sometimes but I think it’s pretentious. I’m also too clumsy and I’d fall arse over tit if I tried. One win is that I won’t have some random unwanted music like I don’t know say maybe U2 spamming my playlists. Tell you what I do want though, Apple Music Festival to come back. Absolutely nothing is free anymore. But obviously, I don’t have a phone so I wouldn’t be able to enter.
Yum I’m hungry, let’s get some lunch! The menu is a QR code. Fantastic. Oh they’re pulling a crumpled piece of paper covered in food stains out of a drawer for me instead. Don’t understand what majority of it means as it’s been written in some kind of English merged with words from another language to create a new one that I can’t translate. I have no idea if I’ll like the look of the dish either. I’m no longer able to spend ages scrolling through tagged photos of the restaurant on Instagram. At least the food won’t go cold when it comes because I’ll eat it straight away instead of taking multiple photos I’ll never look at again. Now, how do I pay and don’t say by app or another QR code.
I’m on a train now. I’ve managed to get here somehow and someone’s playing music. It’s so annoying but wait, I love this song! What is it called? Argh I’ve forgotten. Can’t Shazam it. Could ask the person playing it but would feel like a complete major loser so guess I’ll just have to forget it again.
Yay I’m at the airport and I’m going on holiday. Wait, what do you mean that if I don’t have my boarding pass on my phone I should have printed it out before? I don’t have a phone. Or a printer. £55!!!! Are you kidding? Is this a sick joke? Ah no, it’s just Ryanair’s boarding card “reissue” fee. Can’t wait to be charged for the air we breathe on Ryan’s planes soon.
And don’t even get me started on two-factor authentication.
We’ve got AI, we’ve got automation, we’ve got an app for that! We’ve got face and fingerprint ID. Our phones are an advanced piece of technology that has become a commodity within how we live our day-to-day lives. And yet, we still have to spit in a snorkel to stop it from huffing up. We can’t call it a hack anymore, it’s just the preferred method of doing things.
As someone trying to participate in society, we would struggle to have the same kind of experience without our phones. In some instances, having a reduction in screen time can feel good. In others, it would certainly hold us back. But the good ol’ fashion way of doing some things will continue to persist. For spitter or for worse.
