My disclaimer: I love my smartphone so while it’s slightly hard for me to be unbiased, I have experienced the negative affects of both my having one and my friends/family having one. My spouse and I both get upset with each other when we catch each other absorbed in it instead of each other.

Twice today I’ve heard a few news sources (Entrepreneur.com, Air1 Radio- how could you betray me!) come to the conclusion that Smartphone Addiction has resulted in this catastrophic mental illness called Smartphone Separation Anxiety.

Ok, maybe that’s taking it a little too far, but nevertheless, the articles definitely have a negative attitude towards smartphones. Maybe I’m in denial…

But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with smartphone separation anxiety.

I was thinking back over the years, to various devices and technologies that at some point have become “must-haves” though they may not be anymore. Like, as a westerner on the frontier, you might always have a gun or knife on or near you. As a pre-computer age student having a good ink pen and paper for notes and education. As a legal car driver, you keep your wallet on or near you. Being separated from your gun or knife or wallet might cause you to be “a more anxious, stressed-out, cognitively stunted version of yourself” and that is completely understandable for several reasons.

1. It is vital to you to have this piece of technology to continue to live your life as you currently have it. (Yes, a gun or knife and even the wallet is a piece of technology, don’t argue with me on that one.) If you didn’t have it, your life would change in significantly negative ways (although there may be some positive effects, like not accidentally dying by a gun. I can’t think of a way that losing your wallet would be positive…it’s really a pain.)
2. This piece of technology is valuable to you. To get a good one that will function well for a decent amount of time, you’re going to have to spend a good chunk of hard earned money on it.
3. It gives you a sense of security. This is not a false sense of security either — this piece of technology actually helps your life be more secure.

My smartphone is all of those things.

1. In my life it is important that I have it on me or else my life would change in some significant ways. Email for when urgent changes need to be made on global websites that don’t care about time zones. Facebook for letting me stay in touch with old friends whose numbers I lost somewhere along the way. FitBit to tell me No, I really can’t have that cookie because my metabolism is ridiculous slow. Bible for verses on demand and awesome reading plans that have really helped in my spiritual discipline. Craigslist so I can buy an awesome corporate desk for a mere $25. Ca-ching. My smartphone has basically paid for itself in that alone. I could go on.

Before you tell me, “But you don’t need all of those things.” That’s probably true. I could survive without them. (Well, not the desk. I love my desk.) But, I’m not interested in mere survival. If I have a technology that’s going to let me do those things better, then I’m going to keep it on me! To those of you who say, “You should learn how to do those things without a smartphone!” Go ahead. Go keep a food diary and track your calories with pen and paper without googling something. Also find me a great desk for under $25 dollars without spending a massive amount of time in thrift shops looking. I dare you.

2. It’s valuable to me. We spent $350 for it, which is actually relatively cheap for a smartphone, but that’s still a decent chunk of change. I don’t like not knowing where my valuable things are. Do you leave $350 just sitting anywhere? I’m a bit of a thrifter, so saying $350 is cheap nearly chokes me. (All you people saying, “Mine was free!”…really don’t understand cell phone plans and their sneaky subsidies.)

3. It’s a huge sense of security to me. Walking down the street late at night? Jump on the phone. I am literally less likely to be raped or mugged. Get lost in a new city? Pull out Maps. (Before you tell me to get a standalone GPS, try living in an area constantly under construction. You are also more than welcome to pay the ridiculous $100 fee to buy updated maps every year on those things for me). Drive so that I don’t worry about losing documents and have them on hand when I need them. Google because…well I don’t want to contemplate life without Google.

4. There’s also one additional reason that other technologies don’t really have — personal data security. We put a lot of information on these little phones. It’s so important that others don’t get to it that operating systems have ‘Erase Data’ functions when you lose your phone. It’s even important to the operating system that you aren’t separated from your phone. (Also, before you say, “Don’t put sensitive information on it!” If you don’t…there’s really no point in having a smartphone. That’s what the Erase Data function is for.

Granted, it is just a ‘thing’ and if God chose to take it away from me, then I will try my best to argue with him only a little bit. Jesus should be the only person/thing I need in this life. After all, he says, “Be anxious for nothing.” Right?

I’m not a Greek or Hebrew scholar so I can’t tell you for sure if there is more nuance to this teaching, but I’ve sat through enough sermons to know that there’s always more nuance to what Jesus says that the Greek and Hebrew capture that our English transaltion doesn’t. Anxiety is not an emotion given to us for us to constantly suppress it. There is healthy anxiety and unhealthy anxiety. I imagine it’s healthy to be anxious for at least a little bit of time about losing something important and valuable to you. It spurs you to find it, to take better care of it, to not take it for granted.

So, yes, I’m going to keep bringing it with me everywhere I go. I am going to make sure it stays charged. Yes, I will get anxious when I don’t know where it is. Yes, I have a special purse to carry it with me because I dislike that skinny jeans don’t have a pocket for it.

But am I going to check it constantly? No. Because that’s the real war and it’s one I’m working on fighting. It’s not smartphone separation anxiety, it’s smartphone addiction that needs to be addressed.

Update: Ironically, I accidentally left my phone at home today. (I think)