Last week I woke up in the middle of the night, and like I always do when I wake up: I rolled over and checked my phone that was on the charger. To my surprise, my phone wasn’t responding. I clicked the home button, no response. I found the lock bottom my iPhone, still nothing. Without even knowing what time of the night it was, I rolled back over and went to sleep, this time with more peace. There was something comforting about not having any notifications, whether good or bad, to stir up my emotions.

In the morning, I wake up with the same, non-responsive phone, this time I open up my laptop to get the time. It’s about 10:30 a.m. Instead of going into panic, I calmly try to charge my phone and I still see no progress, just the same black screen with my reflection on it. I was home alone, so there was no way I could call apple for help and the house phone was dead without a charger. A calmness and smirk came to me once I realized my phone was going to be off for the day.

Being born in the 90s and living in the 21^st century, the way we communicate as people has changed completely just in my 20 years. With the ability to instantly be connected to anyone we want by either messages, phone calls, and now Facetime has really drained the value of our conversations and interactions with one another. For instance, when a guy I get to know gets my number it becomes this battle and hassle of trying to reply and keep up with the amount of communication they are pressing on me. Of course, at any time, I could just not reply or just say I’m busy, when in reality I just don’t feel the need to talk to them all day every day or even everyday for that matter.

Maybe I watch too much “Sex and the City.” A show where four single ladies in New York City date various men in the 90s. The way they dated just seemed a lot simpler, realistic, and genuine compared to what I am faced with now. They learned about each other’s favorite things over coffee instead of through several messages back and forth. On the show, Carrie, the main character, would exchange numbers with the guys. But unlike today, the guy doesn’t call her or text her every morning and constantly asked her “Wyd?” Instead, they used their phones as a way of relaying important information such as setting up dates, saying they have to cancel or postpone meet-ups, etc.

Nothing is wrong with checking on someone or seeing what is on their mind from time to time, but not everything has to be shared all day everyday. I personally feel like I can text someone all day for a week straight and they will learn only a little of what they could learn from a Starbucks meet up or a more personal interaction. So getting back to my phone being off, my day was a lot simpler and stress-free. And for the day, I felt like Carrie from Sex and the City, with little interaction from the usual people that I talk to.

For that day, I still got in contact with some people from my old cracked phone that allowed me to iMessage from my email with wifi. The beauty here was that I could only start a conversation with the people I wanted to talk to, I wasn’t able to receive my messages from my phone number. I only started two conversations, one with my best friend from school and one with a friend I had plans to meet with in two hours to go see a movie with. I wasn’t faced with other conversations that usually hold little to no real substance. Even though I still had the habit of checking my cracked phone like I normally would for messages, I enjoyed knowing that even if I had messages they were not going to appear. As the day went on, I learned to check my phone less and less and I thought I could make this more of a thing.

Of course having your phone provides a sense of security, but I think I could really begin to commit to having my phone on airplane mode more often. The idea was first introduced to me when my mother used to put her phone on “airplane or do not disturb” mode when she would take a nap. I began doing the same thing at night this past semester. When I was ready to sleep and didn’t want to be woken up by messages or late night phone calls, I would put my phone on airplane mode and get better sleep. But now I think I am ready to use the feature during the day to limit my messaging.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a really good text messaging conversation like any other millennial, but I can’t take the constant attachment to my phone. It’s honestly a lot of work making sure to always reply or get labeled a “bad texter.” When in reality bad texters might just be people like me who get exhausted with the constant task of keeping up rather pointless conversations. We should be able to go a day or two without replying to someone if that’s what we are comfortable with without facing ridicule whenever the conversation resumes. There shouldn’t be a lot of focus on how soon I reply or if I reply. By putting my phone on airplane mode, I am attempting to gradually rid myself of this constant conversation addiction that too many people my age are lost in. I encourage anyone and everyone to try this if you face a similar situation.

As a bonus, leaving your phone on airplane mode helps it charge faster and makes your battery last longer.