The 'Oh So Coveted' Hygge App!

Today, we can get an app for just about everything. You can get apps to see what you would look like with a different hair colour. You can get apps that pretend your house is haunted and detect ghosts. For all I know you can probably get an app to show you what an antique brass hygge lantern from Rose & Grey would look like sat on your bedside table but the point is you shouldn’t be able to get that app because it’s all a scam. You can’t find hygge on your mobile phone because your mobile phone is there to distract you.

Why do we live in a world of mobile phone holding zombies who walk out into traffic with wires hanging from their ears? Because people are often miserable and want to be distracted from their life. Hygge is about being present in your life and not being distracted by trivial events. No matter how many blankets and cushions you buy, the second some form of round bottomed Jenner/Kardashian pops up on your phone your hygge vibe will crash.

The statistics for people who decide to wear a coat that day, based on the temperature outside which they searched for on their phones is barbaric. Seriously people, stick your head out the window, it takes two seconds. It’s not normal and once again its separates us from reality, meaning we can never really be present in that moment. When you text a friend instead of calling you lose all authenticity in their correspondence except for the portion you believe to know based on previous communication. You separate yourselves from them even more than whatever distance there already is by turning them into people who live inside your phone.

It’s not just watching the world through your phone, it works the other way too. If you spend every moment spare photographing images for the internet and trying to jazz up your life to make for more interesting status’s then you fail to live your life at all. You have quite literally narrowed yourself down to the role of writer and director in your own life. Guess who enjoys the movie the least? That’s right the people who wrote and directed it! Because they saw the entire behind the scenes reel. The magic is lost on them.

If someone told you for the rest of your life you are only allowed to look at the world through your phone you would feel robbed. Imagine it, utter blackness until you hold up your i-don’tgiveadamn and there on your tiny little phone screen is a vision of the world you used to know. You could never again hold your children and truly embrace the moment because if you don’t look through your phone it wouldn’t be there. Every bite of food you took you would have to shine your phone down to see. Life would be meaningless...Erm. Guess what?! We are literally doing that to ourselves, by choice, every single day.

Do you remember that amazing view in your mind, the one from your holiday? You have a 30inch canvas of it hung on your living room wall from the photo you took of it, but do you remember it in your mind? Did you actually experience the view or were you experiencing what it’s like to be an amateur photographer on holiday watching everyone around you enjoy it, whilst you try to keep the camera still so you don’t need a flash?

Hygge is not simply a way to pass the time until the next activity, hygge is the activity. Hygge is not your throw pillows or the doilies you kept that your grandmother made. It is not your dining room table or the serviettes you put out when you have guests over. Hygge is a sensation that warms your heart, live a cosiness IV. To one-person hygge may be writing their next book whilst sipping coffee on an autumn afternoon. To another person hygge may be playing xbox on a sick day from work, wrapped in a duvet. Hygge is many things but it’s not on your mobile phone, your tablets or your computer.

Put down your phone! Hygge begins when you pull the plug on distraction.

Freja