Can the Smartphone be Tamed?

Here’s a big question; can smartphones be tamed? Maybe there’s a better question; can we be tamed? You can test this by taking all the smartphones in your house and putting them in the center of a table, then leaving them there for twenty-four hours. Check on them the next day to see if they’ve gotten into any trouble. Nothing will have changed.

That wouldn’t be the case if you tried the same experiment with a half dozen kittens, or just two puppies, or one toddler. Bring a wild tiger into your home and let it loose, what is going to happen? In comparison, the smartphone is mostly tamed. If you mute the volume, turn off notifications, put it down and ignore it, it does nothing. We are the ones who need to be tamed.

I just mentioned that smartphones are mostly tamed. What did I mean by that? There are some problematic elements to the default settings on smartphones. They are preprogrammed to disrupt your life unless you change those default settings.

A good place to start is by turning off all or most of the notifications in your settings. I’ve got my phone customized to only notify me of calls and texts. Use wisdom and discernment to determine what is essential for your needs.

When you download apps on your phone, they often have notifications set to on by default. You may not have paid attention if you were asked for your preferences. No problem, you can change that now. Go to your settings and find where to change your notification preferences.

It hasn’t taken long for these companies who create the platforms and apps to train us. We are like highly trained dogs that will respond to the whistle or clicker of the trainer.

You don’t have to let them take control of your life and family any longer. When you turn off notifications it is like robbing the trainer of the whistle that has been used to train you. You might be so well trained that you may question if you have the right to do such a thing. Yes, you can! And you should!

We need to be smarter than the smartphones and not let them have so much control over our lives.