U.S. Cellular is partnering with comedian and filmmaker Mark Malkoff to create the “U.S. Cellular No Phone Challenge,” a social experiment to see what happens when an avid mobile phone user goes an entire week without their device. Malkoff, who is noted for such challenges as living in a furniture store for a week or spending 48 hours handcuffed to his wife, will spend seven days, beginning today, going through his daily routine without being able to use his mobile phone. U.S. Cellular also challenges Americans to spend up to one week without their mobile phone and to share how it affects their routine and personal relationships on Twitter by using the hashtag “#nophone.”
“I can’t imagine life without my mobile phone for a week. It’s going to feel so like 1988 (minus the parachute pants). I know I will miss out on sweet text messages from my wife, I will probably get lost around the city, and will hopefully not be late to any meetings or else I won’t be able to alert anyone,” said Malkoff. “No doubt I’ll appreciate my mobile phone even more when this is over, and I’ll be even more thankful for daily texts and photos from friends and family as Valentine’s Day rolls around.”
With nearly half of Americans pledging to communicate more often with family and friends in 2014, mobile phones will prove to be essential for those looking to create better moments with those they care about. So essential in fact, that one in five smartphone owners would rather live without food and water than their mobile devices, according to a recent U.S. Cellular survey. The survey found 76 percent of smartphone users would rather live without chocolate, while 69 percent would rather live without caffeine.
“It’s easy to take your mobile phone – and all that it does for you – for granted when you are covered by U.S. Cellular,” said Jay Ellison, executive vice president of sales and customer service for U.S. Cellular. “Our customers love their network and don’t have to worry about dropped calls or no network coverage since our high-speed network has the highest call quality of any national carrier. We deliver an unmatched customer experience and know that having an unreliable network, one that doesn’t cover you where you work, live and play, is almost as bad as not having your phone at all.”
Malkoff will share his experiences without a mobile phone on his social media accounts and chronicle all the things he cannot do, such as sharing pictures of his favorite New York sites, checking email while away from the computer or using GPS to find a destination.