Phones Are Just Like Toasters

Imagine carrying a toaster around with you all day. Checking it constantly. Anxious when it’s out of sight. Ignoring the world around you because you’re so engaged with it. You’re addicted to all the things it can do…Bagel settings! Wow, defrost!

Bizarre?

Well, not according to Simon Cowell. Speaking to Steven Bartlett on popular podcast, Diary of a CEO, the celebrity music producer opened up on delicate moments and intimate relationships, not to mention the mountain he climbed to find his success, in a tell-all two hours. He has left listeners amazed at the softer, more genuine side to the man who became a household name for being TV’s Mr Nasty. Still, Simon Cowell didn’t disappoint in the department of coming out with shocking statements. He made it quite clear that a smartphone is basically no different to a toaster!

On one hand, he knows how to catapult a band into global superstardom. Just look at One Direction. But on the other hand, he’s rather analog when it comes to modern technology. Steven Bartlett was surprised at Simon’s reveal that he did not have an iPhone or Android, and about how in fact, he “hates them so much”. And his reason for this hatred? He didn’t launch into rant about the addiction of smartphones or the impact on our mental health. No. Instead, he just said, “I think they’re boring. For me, it’s like having a toaster with you all the time. It’s a toaster! And a phone is just as boring…Like toast is nice, and occasionally a telephone call is nice, but not all the time!”

Many people are turning their backs on the smartphone phenomenon. Or, at least trying to. You’ll find many online blogs about how it felt to quit social media for a month, how productive it proved. It can feel like a release, a deep exhale. The overriding outcome seems to be how utterly present people feel, in the moment, when they aren’t distracted by apps and scrolling. But the movement to say goodbye to our addictive little pocket rockets hasn’t quite taken off. Yet. “I need it for my business,” is a common reason. “It’s how I get all the school communications,” is another. There’s google maps to consider, because lo and behold, how on earth did we ever get from A to B without that? And Uber! You need a smartphone to Uber. When asked if Simon Cowell ever needed to use these precious apps, his answer was simply, “Nope.” Easy for a multimillionaire with a gang of secretaries, right? But smartphones only became The Norm about 10 years ago. Remember, we all functioned fine, showed up for the school play and got to that meeting on time without a device doing the thinking for us.

Admit it; doesn’t google maps drive you…mad?!

Simon Cowell has never been a trend-setter. The high-waisted trousers didn’t quite catch on, did they? But he has always been a bit of a forward thinker and he could be onto something here. Where most of us have lost our way and fallen deep into smartphone addiction, in his trademark style, he’s just calling something out for what it is; a phone. What’s the big deal? What is the obsession? People are way more interesting. The sky is way more interesting. We used to spend a heck of a lot more time just staring into space. That now has a name; Mindfulness. And how do we know that? Because we get targeted to download (and pay for) apps that try to teach us how to be mindful and how to get off our damn phone! But the apps only work for novelty. They’re a fad. Amazing for a day, a week…Then, it’s back to bad habits. Once the app tell us that our time is up on meditating or breathing or walking, we just start to scroll again for that dopamine rush. This finger-action has be-come so ingrained in us these days that we don’t even realise we’re doing it. In the supermarket line. Waiting for your kid to run out of nursery. At a red traffic light…See? We’re even breaking the law to have a quick nosey! When something has that much control of us, it’s not okay.

A reversal needs to happen and for it to work, it must become mainstream. Just over a decade ago, not everybody was on board with needing a smartphone, but the bug spread and here we are. Using social media and multiple apps needs to be whole lot more intentional and planned. You should be in charge of the device verses the device controlling your thoughts. Interact for a limited and planned period each day. Social media can be a great marketing tool. If it is used for that and not self-gratification or comparison, then maybe we can shift the mindset.

After 10 months of ditching his smartphone, Simon Cowell found that his mental health had improved, that he had “become way more focussed”, and was more “aware of the people around me.” He admitted that it was a strange experience at first, but “It has absolutely made me happier.”Ditching it won’t be for everyone, though. Most of us still need them to function in this speedy old world, unless we’re lucky enough to find a PA. But every time you go to pick up your phone for a random doomscroll, just think, do I really needs another piece of toast? Sometimes the answer will be, yes. But let’s face it, who wants to eat multiple loaves in one day?

// Hayley Doyle