The Debrief: EJ 53

So I recently spent the month without a phone. It’s a long story. The thirty day, this-repair-will-only-take-five-days-but-we’ll-then-proceed-to-lose-it-for-the-rest-of-the-month kind of long story.

With my smartphone offering me an odd collation of over 5,000 contacts spread across (what seems like) just as many apps, the prospect of cutting out all of that noise seemed, at first, pretty therapeutic. ‘The book will replace the handset’ I told myself, optimistically. ‘Quick texts to my friends and loved ones will instead become lengthy lunchtime conversations’ I mused, naively. ‘Evenings without my Insta feed will make for a sounder sleep’ I muttered, lying-though-my-damn-teethedly. 

In truth, I just got lost more. Awkward silences were all the more awkward without the phone to help break up lingering eye contact, and the calibre of conversation was just as hit-and-miss as the company in which I found myself. There was also the perpetual state of stage-fright in which I found myself, unsure if the person I’d just bumped into in the street already knew I’d lost my phone, or instead thought I’d decided to just ghost them for weeks on end.

But being separated from my phone did grant me a solid thirty days of looking up. And what a sight that was. A dizzy dance of friends and strangers all going about their days together. There’s something to be said for engaging in your surroundings a little more, hanging onto conversations a little longer, and generally relying on your apps a little less. Ironically, there’s an odd sense of interconnectedness and community that emerges when you’re cut off from the digital confines of your phone.

On that note, the 53rd edition of The Essential Journal is dedicated to the celebration of community and collaboration in its many and myriad forms. A few highlights for the folk too far flung to pick up a physical copy: I spoke with David Keyte of Universal Works on the art of collaboration thisaway. I got a little advice on Rare & Collectable Whisky from Tod Bradbury of Justerini & Brooks thataway. Those looking to know my thoughts on London’s Coal Drops Yard can find them right here. 

Or, you know, just go crazy and check out the whole damn thing over on Issue.