On the last few days of the experiment, Wednesday through today, I have learned about smartphones and what they do to me. Smartphones fill the lulls in life. The times that I am in the elevator, waiting on a computer to install or uninstall a program, waiting in line at the grocery store, or other various situations where I am in limbo between one task and another.

I discovered that elevators are awkward places without smartphones. Sometimes I would get out my phone, check the time, change the background and put it back in my pocket. This is the only sort of game I have on my Samsung SGH-a157.

As I leave my dumb phone to again return to my glorious Nokia Lumia 920, I leave myself with the following knowledge:

• Focus on people, not your phone. Even with my closest friends, I used to use my phone all the time. I would check Twitter, text other friends, and Bing various things. I felt like these things were so important that I had to get them done at that point. I would like to change this. I don’t need to check Facebook, Twitter, Vine, etc. while I am chilling with my friends. Even if all of them do it, I don’t need to.
• Bathrooms are awkward without a smartphone. I want to let this one be clear. Using the bathroom to do a number two without a smartphone sucks.
• I can do it. As nervous as I was for this experiment, as much as this goes against my nature, I can go without a smartphone. It doesn’t control me. I can live without it. It’s convenient, yes, but it can consume my life. #balance

I also learned that my digital life was clogged up. I had too many social networks, things I was following, etc. Yesterday, I deleted about half the apps off my iPad, today, I will do the same thing on my phone. I had too many news sources that I was following. Too many Twitter accounts I was following. I’ve thinned my following list from 153 to 78. I need to go through my Facebook friends and have a similar reaping.

I could have switched yesterday afternoon back to my phone, but I decided to wait and I’m glad I did. I’ll kind of miss this crappy phone. T9 is amazing by the way.

Another blogger commented on one of my previous posts with the following video. I believe it speaks well to what I learned from going a week with a dumb phone.