Opinion: Advice for living a fuller, more productive life: Get rid of your smartphone

To the editor: Roy Germano’s op-ed article on his life without a smartphone perfectly explained the disadvantages of having a piece of technology take over your life. (“My life without a smartphone,” Opinion, Nov. 19)

I am 79 and enjoy every minute to the fullest without any devices. When I take a walk near my home in Altadena, I take in the sky, the mountains, the trees and gardens. I walk at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia and thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the garden. Recently, I noticed a stunning flowering shrub, and two young people walked right by it and didn’t even see it because they were looking at their phones.

At summer concerts at the arboretum, I sit in the center of the third row; the people in front of me typically hold up their phones, looking at the live performance on little screens. They are missing out on the richness of the experience.

Germano’s life without a smartphone — total enjoyment of whatever is being experienced, good physical and mental health, great sleep and excellent productivity — mirrors mine. Someone ought to steal everyone’s smartphone and improve their lives.

Freddi Hill, Altadena

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To the editor: I have never owned a smartphone and am often asked how I can live without one. My answer: How did you live before you had one?

Having just read Franklin Foer’s “World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech,” I am even more convinced that the supposed advantages of smartphones are far outweighed by the disadvantages to our social structure, privacy and creativity.

We are a nation of addicts, thoughtless and careless in our addiction: texting while driving; walking hypnotized through intersections and parking lots; constantly checking for messages in theaters, restaurants, ball games or bathrooms; and living in little glowing rectangles instead of in real life.

Linda Shahinian, Culver City

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