I had dispersed the grip my phone had on my reality and rendered it less powerful. But it wasn’t all birdsong and silence. Outside of getting lost frequently, and the amount of time it took to send a text—which was both a skill and will issue—there were other cons. Without social media or a smartphone, the lack of ease in communication left me out of the loop. That was my goal, of course, but feelings in reality are often different from expectations.