AdamWebb

Amazing how easy it is to disappear when you are not in permanent contact with the world digitally. It's quite nice in fact to fall off the radar for a while, a bit of peace and quiet is definitely welcome.

I checked my email on a computer today (how old fashioned!) and realised what the bulk of what I receive and deal with instantly as it comes through to my phone was. It was in fact 90% rubbish. Tons of advertising, notifications and spam with very little of importance interpersed within it. When you get a spam message during the day you delete it there and then without a second thought and just forget about it. When you see laid out how little of what I get is actually useful it made me think that perhaps it isn't such a big deal not having them to hand at all times.

Could it be the more time I spend away from my phone, the less I care?

Now imagine no TV, Radio, phone, internet or newspapers. Could you cope?

Need to call my family, forgot to tell them I was doing this and I am imagining many many missed calls enquiring as to whether anything is wrong with me. Problem is, I don't know anybody's number any more and I am not allowed to look them up on my phone. This was a problem I did not forsee, as all potential problems I had thought of revolved around missing texts, calls and emails or not having sat nav or internet at my fingertips. And so, I am stuck. I will just have to call everyone up on Monday and tell them why I have been a virtual recluse.

Did you ever notice how everyone everywhere  always has their phone in their hands all of the time? No? Perhaps its just me then.

Did you know that $1.6 Billion will be spent on mobile apps this year? And that there will be 6.1 trillion texts sent in 2010? How about the fact that if you add in data revenues, mobile phone traffic is worth a trillion dollars a year? These are big numbers, showing how obsessed the world is with mobile phones. Think of that money, how connected the world is and think about how people could use this to change the world.

Looks like it isn't just me then.

I NEED MY PHONE!!

Okay, nobody needs their phone, but I really really want it. Yeah, I know plenty of people don't have one, yes I appreciate that it is a non essential gizmo that fifteen years ago you'd have looked like a posh git holding and yes I have been doing this to remind me about the hoards of people without a voice, a home, an income, and education etc. BUT! Someone important might be trying to offer me a life-changing opportunity! I need my phone calender to tell me where I should be and what I should be doing!

Well, I am not a big-shot. Nor am I a celebrity or a politician or anything particularly important. The likelihood of me not having my phone with me causing a catastrophe or leading to me missing out on the best thing to ever happen to me is, frankly, negligible. But that doesn't stop me feeling like it's happening every minute I don't have my BB in hand.

And I also would like to know, what did people do to waste a few minutes before the smartphone came along? Is that what people used real newspapers for? The Guardian wont fit in my pocket! At work I am often on my break on my own and it has has become, well, dull.

Maybe tomorrow will be easier?

I am now one day in to my poverty challenge and I am struggling! Doesn't say much for the 21st century male when I feel confused and powerless without my phone. It seems like I have gone to check it every few minutes and a quick pat of my pocket reminds me that it isn't there. It feels like I am ignoring people, feel completely out-of-the-loop - despite the fact it is only a Monday and in all reality I would most likely not have had more than a few emails and a few texts.

But I have given more thought to the reason I am doing this. Putting into perspective how powerless I feel without my little piece of plastic and batteries, so many people live in poverty on this planet and have to endure much bigger hardships every minute of every day. If you just think every time you look at your phone of people that still have to walk more than 3 miles for water to drink and wash with or those whose  villages have been destroyed by conflict or climate change and are constantly on the move. Makes you feel a bit stupid for worrying about your phone.

More tomorrow.

I have decided to take part in a one-week poverty challenge to highlight how I and my friends and family often take for granted the priviliges we have growing up in a country like the UK. We have so many advantages over the millions of people around the globe who live on less than a dollor a day who's voices cannot be heard and whose lives are a constant struggle.

So what brave, heroic thing am I doing to raise awareness and make people think about poverty? Well I am going to go back to the dark ages and live without my mobile phone. "Not such a big thing then?" you are most likely thinking. Well in itsself, no. But think about it. They have become part of our lives, keeping us connected, a hotline to those that are important to us, our friends and family, work or the emergency services. Something we have learned to rely on. 

I am going to have to do without my beloved Blackberry (my emails, my phonebook, my camera, my sat nav, mp3 player, web-surfer and of course calls & texts!) for a whole week. Something that to me is challenging, but every time I reach for where it would be, I will be giving a thought to those who wouldn't bat an eyelid over such a ridiculous notion. Fingers crossed I make it!