Monday, April 8, 2013

iPhone freedom

I discovered there is a way to set a restriction on the iPhone for Safari. You can't "delete" the application off the platform, (which even if I could, with my self-control I'd probably just download it again the next day) but you can go into Settings > Restrictions > Enter a Passcode, and then from there you can hide Safari.

My phone is my #1 and only way I have accessed inappropriate sites over the last year. However, this wasn't my main motivation for asking my husband to place a passcode on the app. It was actually my disgust with the amount of time I spent on my phone, period!

Between patients at work, I'd pull out my phone.

Right when I woke up and right before I went to bed, I'd pull out my phone.

When I was "spending time" with my son, the phone was typically in the other hand. What blog, email, or Facebook status is so important that my son gets overridden? NONE!! And the other day when I came home from work at 7 pm I realized I was engaged with my phone for several minutes at a time until 10 that evening. Those hours included "playing a game with my son and the bedtime routine" (in quotations because I obviously wasn't present with him). Isn't that disgusting? 

And then somehow, by way of Grace I discovered that restriction option. I asked my husband to type in the passcode reassuring him that it wasn't because I had recently accessed anything--not that he asked; I'm guessing he didn't even want to know. I resolved that there was nothing over the last month that I had used Safari for that I absolutely needed to know. Yes, it's great to have for those random Google needs, but hey, my coworker has a phone--she can look it up for me. And I enjoyed perusing through blogs during my lunch break, but hey--now I'll go outside and enjoy the sun, er ... beautiful WA rain.

This decision didn't make me feel restricted. I actually feel free; more present, productive and protected.

4 comments:

  1. I like this. Dang phone. Dang internet. What do we even need internet for?? I don’t NEED facebook. I don’t need email. I don’t really need any of it. What’s there to check every minute? I do it though. Ah, so many ‘delightful’ distractions out there. What helped me was to set a time each week where I’d check facebook. Yes, go outside. Or read a book. Or on a long bike ride.

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  2. I love this!!! I am proud of you and you will be so blessed by this choice. I recently got a new phone and of course the people at the store looked at me like a monster when I said I didn't want a phone with internet access. LOL! I got the only basic phone they had. I need a phone but I don't need all the garbage that can come with it. You know what I haven't missed it. I miss an occassional thing with facebook here and there but for the most part nothing goes missed.

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  3. Hah. I have an iPhone too.

    There are extra precautions to take if you haven't yet.

    1. Set the parental controls as well to disallow anything rated 17+. If you have that allowed you can simply go and DL any other browser.

    2. Not to wag temptation in your face but you can also DL the K9 browser. For me it sucks enough that I don't use it all that much but allows enough access that I CAN use it if I need to:-)

    Proud of ya!

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  4. Hey, I JUST did this last night!!! I phone has not been the primary way I have viewed in the past, but I have viewed on my phone in the past. It was a difficult decision and I am still feeling the loss... although I have not noticed any unusual restrictions that have limited my everyday usage (I downloaded the k9).

    Good job though!!! So awesome!

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