Lent starts tomorrow and every year I think about what to do.
Recently I am a bit annoyed about all these posts on Facebook, that all kids have smartphones today and no one had them them when we were young but I bet most of the like clicks are done on a smartphone by the complaining generation. (Maybe I post another post about this sometime.)
I had my first cell phone when I was 11 and that already had internet (WAP). I won my first smartphone 9 years ago, when I was 13. So for over half of my life I was reachable on the go and already as a teenager I had full access to the internet in my pocket. Now I thought it would be about time to go back where I started. So for the next weeks I will be using a classic phone that can handle calls, SMS, has an alarm and very few games and, to be honest, supports WAP and very basic HTML. But you cannot use that these days anymore; I have tried when I took it to festivals or camps.
It will be interesting what I will do when I am not able to scroll the Facebook feed or play a quick round of a game, when I get bored. Also I wonder how much other people will be dependent on communication methods like WhatsApp. My ‘lent projects’ from the last years showed that it causes quite a lot confusion, when they do not get a reply from me for days.
Another thing I will be doing, is to stop consuming meat. In the last years I did not follow this traditional lent installment, as I had alternatives and the meat one seamed outdated. This year I think differently mainly because of some recent studies showing that Germans consume 100% more meat than they should, leaving a negative impact on health and the environment. So I take the opportunity of lent and try out how to substitute meat and hope to learn some things for my everyday earring habits.
So from tomorrow I will cut two everyday things out of my life and I really wonder how that goes. I’ll post on here and keep you updated, but keep in mind I cannot post this from my Fairphone, as I do now.