Ed Sheeran: «I haven’t had a cell phone since 2015, here’s why»

Ed Sheeran He is now 33 years old but, already at 24, he had made a life choice that was not at all obvious: get rid of your cell phone. To the microphones of the program Therapuss with Jake Shanethe singer of Thinking Out Loud he told the host: «I can give you my email, I don’t have a phone number» and then clarified: «I have a device that I use for work but it doesn’t have the functionality of a cell phone».

It was December 2015 when Ed Sheeran realized that he had, on his old mobile phone, all the contacts he had accumulated since he was 15 years old before global fame, thousands of numbers of lost or unknown people who could call or write to him directly, without consent: “They massaged me constantly and I was constantly in contact with lots of people.”

He then talks about the social pressure of having to always be available to maintain human and working relationships: «With your cell phone everyone expects you to answer and if you don’t then you are rude but… sometimes you are not in the mental state to do so or you are simply busy. Then you answer and they answer again and suddenly you find yourself engaged in forty conversations at the same time.”

Sheeran later admitted: «I was losing real interactions, I got rid of my cell phone and bought an I-pad, I moved everything to emails, which I only respond to once a week. Nobody expects you to respond to emails immediately, unlike WhatsApp, there people get angry if you view them and don’t respond.”

The British singer therefore seems not to be a victim of FOMO (fear of missing out) virtual, he is more afraid of missing out on the experiences that real life can give him and which can escape if you are too busy constantly staring at the screen. It seems to have found the optimal compromise to stay in touch with users via e-mail, without being forced to guarantee constant availability.