Testing the LP3

UPDATE 6/17/26

Here we are more than 10 days in and I’m here to tell you that I have utterly failed, but I’m not giving up! I had lunch today with a very inspirational friend who helped me think about how I might “recharge” my grand experiment (pun intended).

If I’m honest, I may have started this test thinking I was more capable of changing my behavior than is reasonable. So I’m going to try to start smaller by using the light phone as a personal phone to separate myself from my iPhone during traditional non-work hours.

Now, this may seem silly to some since I don’t technically go to “work” at the moment, but I think it is worth a try!

Why? Since I don’t work outside the home, the boundaries between my small business life and my home life are non-existent. Our business partners work in a different timezone (in South Africa) and my husband has little time to chat about our business when he is very busy with his day job.

But hey, I’m going to try. I don’t have any paid advertising running this week, so I am going to do my best to only use my iPhone from 8am to 5pm. FYI, that last sentence originally read 9am to 5pm. Baby steps, y’all…

Editing one’s tech life out loud is quite humbling, but I’m here for it. Thanks for riding along!

UPDATE 6/6/26

I did it! After much hand-ringing and overthinking, I activated my phone this morning using a new number. So I’m just going to use it as a weekend and after hours phone to start with so that I can turn off my iPhone and be more present. Let the official test begin NOW with a walk in nature with one of may favorite people! Stay tuned for more (or less, perhaps?!)…

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ORIGINAL POST

My husband and I stumbled upon the Light Phone when it launched a Kickstarter campaign back in March 2015. Even then, I had serious thoughts about Technostress—a term I didn’t even know existed, but I was convinced that my phone triggered some feelings I wasn’t always fond of noticing. But I didn’t buy one. It seemed like an expensive experiment that wasn’t a financial priority at the time.

Fast forward more than a decade later: I found myself in Grad School conducting research on AI, Technostress and Digital Resiliency Tools while participating in a Community Dialogue Facilitator Training Program at University of Richmond when I discovered my current favorite Substack called Techno Sapiens.

And wouldn’t you know? The universe arranged a partnership between Techno Sapiens + Light Phone which resulted in a contest to test drive a Light Phone 3...and then to talk about it.

Y’all. I was one of 10 incredibly lucky winners.

After doing some online research the initial glee was a little tarnished by anxiety. And more than a little fear of failure. I had promised to be ready to chat about this experience by June 30th, so I needed to make a plan to activate the phone, but then reality knocked in the form of a medical emergency and I spent 48 hours at the hospital with my mom.

Now I’m home and it’s June 2nd and I haven’t activated my Light Phone 3 yet. That changes today thanks to my ever-tolerant husband and a very kind young man at Best Buy.

Follow along on Instagram to see snippets of my L3 journey and I’ll also post when I update this blog!