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4 Days Without Your Phone: What Happens

Chris Williamson · 1,876 words · 9 min read

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0:00What does fixing the doom loop look

0:01like?

0:01>> What does fixing it means clipping it.

0:03It means cutting it at a particular

0:04place. So, um all addictions, getting

0:08out of addictions, they have sort of

0:09three steps in common. It's It's really

0:12behaviorally they have three steps in

0:13common. Now, I'm not talking medically.

0:15I'm not talking about the medical

0:16interventions because that's different

0:17for different things with gambling and

0:18drinking and methamphetamine and

0:20whatever.

0:21But the three behavioral steps in

0:22getting out of an addiction are number

0:24one, you got to get pissed.

0:26You got to get pissed. It's like, "This

0:28is subjugating me. This is I'm in a cage

0:31and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of

0:33actually being a wholly owned subsidiary

0:35of that company or this behavior or this

0:37culture. I'm tired of it. I'm not going

0:39to put up with it." You need to fight

0:40back by rebelling. That's number one.

0:42You need the spirit of rebellion. If

0:44you're not ready to rebel, you're not

0:45going to get out. Number two is you need

0:48to figure out how to stop. You need to

0:50actually have an algorithm. And that's

0:52dependent on what the substance or

0:54behavior actually is. There's different

0:55ways to do it, but there's tons of

0:56science in every area. If you can get

0:58addicted to it, there's science that

0:59tells you how to stop. Mm. And then the

1:01third is you have to learn how to live

1:04with yourself again.

1:05Because you've been distracting yourself

1:07from yourself. If you're addicted to

1:08something, it means you didn't like

1:09being home in your head. That's what it

1:11comes down to.

1:12>> Mm.

1:12>> And, you know, if like I I haven't I

1:14haven't had a drink since I was 38 years

1:15old, right? And I remember in my 30s I

1:19didn't like being home in my head.

1:20Didn't like it. Didn't want to be there,

1:22right? And so I left, right? I got a

1:24little relief. I got a little vacation

1:26in the bottle.

1:27And it just it was going nowhere good

1:30and it was really clear and then my dad

1:31died and and and, you know, a couple of

1:33people I cared about said,

1:35"This you're That's your future." You

1:37just saw your future. Right? And so I

1:40stopped.

1:41But it was The hard part was step three.

1:44The hard part was actually being alone

1:46with myself, being awake with myself,

1:48being alive with myself is what it comes

1:50down to. And that's probably even more

1:52extreme for people who are very, very

1:53online. Because you're trying to break

1:55the doom loop of a technology is

1:57breaking your brain, not letting you

1:59find the meaning of your life, making

2:01you angry and depressed, and anxious,

2:03and lonely.

2:05You're addicted, which is why you keep

2:06doing these self-terrible,

2:07self-destructive things to yourself. You

2:09first you get pissed, and second you got

2:10to quit, and look, I got the algorithms

2:12to help you do that. But then, man,

2:15you need your friends.

2:17Like, you know, you need you need to

2:18live in a society. You need to live, you

2:20know, in people who are alive in real

2:23life, and you have to

2:25be able to sit behind

2:27the wheel of your car at a red light

2:30with nothing to do

2:32in your thoughts,

2:33right? And be in a supermarket checkout

2:35line

2:36without your phone.

2:38And and walk before dawn

2:41without a device.

2:43And hear the crunch of the gravel under

2:45your feet, and say that's the sound of

2:47my feet on the path.

2:50And that takes work.

2:53>> How easy is it to recover from this? I

2:55think a lot of people feel like they're

2:57lost and

2:58totally unrecoverable.

2:59>> It's absolutely possible. I've seen it

3:02again and again and again and again. I

3:03mean, look, this is this

3:05this is not heroin

3:07that we're talking about here. I mean,

3:08the the the process of detox, for

3:10example, isn't You don't even have to

3:11give up your phone.

3:13You just have to put it in proper

3:14boundaries, and have some rules in your

3:15life, right? And and actually have some

3:17proper habits. And you know, where our

3:19life is if you have a fairly functional

3:20life, you've got good habits already,

3:22right? I mean, you get up at a certain

3:23time, you work out every day,

3:25you eat something you don't eat like an

3:2711-year-old. I mean,

3:29you have good habits. And then you just

3:30put protocols around it. You know, it's

3:32like Huberman talks about protocols, and

3:34which has kind of infected the culture.

3:35It's a culture of protocols. Um and and

3:37I'm I'm an absolute believer in that

3:39when it comes to your phone.

3:41I mean, you you wake up in the morning,

3:43if you can, don't look at it at all for

3:44the first hour for neurocognitive

3:46programming. If you're a journalist, or

3:48you know, you have your job, you got to

3:49look at it, make sure nothing's is fire,

3:50but put it down. That's it for the hour,

3:52right? First hour of the day.

3:54While you eat, neurocognitive

3:56programming while you eat is critically

3:58important. It's best not to eat alone

4:00and never eat with your device.

4:02>> Why?

4:03>> Brain is is actually your the the

4:05neuropeptides in your brain, most

4:06notably oxytocin, uh they flow very

4:09liberally when you're eating with

4:10somebody. This is how, you know, Homo

4:11sapiens would establish and and foster

4:13kin bonds

4:15is by sitting around a campfire, putting

4:16pieces of yak meat into their mouths,

4:19discussing their day and looking into

4:21each others' eyes. That's how we're

4:23wired. If you have a phone on the table

4:24while you eat, or God forbid if you're

4:26looking at it, there's no the none of

4:28this neurochemistry happens.

4:30>> What if you're in your room?

4:31>> Then, um you might read a book.

4:33You might listen to music.

4:35But don't look at your phone.

4:36>> Um there's a meme online of a guy

4:39starves to death even though he had food

4:41because he couldn't watch YouTube cuz

4:43his phone had run out of a

4:44>> Or or it's like or or died of sepsis cuz

4:46he didn't go to the bathroom.

4:48>> Yeah.

4:49>> Yeah.

4:49>> He couldn't take his phone in there. So,

4:51and last but not least it's the last

4:52hour of the day. Now, that part of that

4:53is sleep architecture and blue light,

4:55etc. etc. The pineal gland, melatonin,

4:57yada yada. We all know the physiology of

4:59that. But part of that is just the way

5:01that you actually understand yourself at

5:03the end of your day and get ready to

5:05rest. If you're living with your

5:07partner, that's critically important to

5:09your relationship is not to be looking

5:11at your device in the last hour so you

5:12can be at fully present as you drift off

5:14to sleep together. That's super super

5:17important for your relationship. But

5:18just those three things.

5:20Then there's phone-free zones. You

5:21shouldn't have your phone in the

5:22bedroom, ever ever ever ever, because I

5:25mean, God forbid you get up to pee at

5:273:00 in the morning and look at your

5:28phone. That's a big mistake.

5:30>> lover.

5:31>> Well, I mean, it's it's your pineal

5:32gland shuts off, right? No more

5:34melatonin for you.

5:36And and so, which is problematic on its

5:38face, but it's also you just you you

5:40spike your cortisol. I mean, it's bad

5:42stuff happens to you. So, the phone

5:44should be in a different floor, in a

5:46closet

5:47plugged in some place from

5:50the hour before you go to bed until the

5:51after an hour after you get up. That's

5:53number one. It's a phone-free zone.

5:55Second is that that I mean this is just

5:57you know basic public policy. There

5:58shouldn't be a

5:59a phone in any classroom in any school

6:02in the world between kindergarten and

6:04PhD.

6:05It is complete insanity. Because it

6:08interrupts everything that we're

6:09actually trying to do and it's it's

6:10child abuse

6:12that there's phones in classrooms. You

6:14know, there's and And the most important

6:15hour they shouldn't have phones is

6:16during lunch by the way. Mhm. Because

6:19they need to

6:20>> even worse. It shouldn't be in a

6:21classroom and it definitely shouldn't be

6:23in a cafeteria.

6:23>> I mean most of what's going on in the

6:24classroom is not that interesting to

6:25begin with. I mean, I don't think I ever

6:27learned anything in public school. I

6:28think it was mostly babysitting, but

6:30>> Yeah.

6:31>> But you know, at least I had friends

6:33and and and they don't have friends.

6:35And then and then people need phone

6:37fasts. They need technology fasts. I

6:39recommend 96 hours a year is kind of

6:42where this is and there's a little bit

6:43of research on this that shows that this

6:44actually can break the relationship that

6:47you have. So you prove to yourself that

6:49you actually don't need it and you're

6:50kind of in a state of bliss by the

6:51fourth day.

6:52>> Mhm.

6:52>> You know, it's really really I mean I go

6:53on a spiritual retreat every year for 4

6:55days. No phone. Oh, it's great. First

6:58day it's like children screaming in my

6:59head.

6:59>> Yeah.

7:00>> Second day I'm calming down for it.

7:01Third day I like it. The fourth day I

7:03wish it were the whole year.

7:05>> Mhm.

7:05>> That's what it comes down to. But just

7:06those things. Phone-free times,

7:08phone-free zones, phone fasts can re-

7:12can can can can do this part two. This

7:15does not give you part one, which is

7:17rebellion, or part three, which is you

7:20got to get comfortable back with

7:21yourself.

7:22>> Mhm.

7:23>> Different processes.

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