It's a shame Nokia/HMD Global seem to have dropped KaiOS for their latest feature phones. I'm struggling to find a viable VoLTE-compatible alternative to my 8110 4G.
A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
31–40 of 350 posts
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#32I just checked the Screen Time statistics, and my average daily screen time last week was 18 minutes, the week before that was 22 minutes. I've never been in danger of becoming addicted to smart phones, just like I've never been in danger of being addicted to alcohol or gambling: none of them really appeal to me that much. But there are plenty of things I know I am addicted to, and I'm pretty sure the way to treat th…
This ignores the fact that many of the apps people use are designed and A/B tested to maximize time spent/wasted. The fact that it happens to not work on you does not mean it works for everyone. Sometimes an addiction really is because something is designed to be incredibly addictive, not because of some underlying psychological issue with the user.
Uninstalling the apps is a good first step.
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#33I was never in the "heavy smartphone users" category, but one thing I found that nonetheless shrank my usage significantly was switching to the "Niagara" launcher app (Android). If you are somebody that doesn't want to keep getting "sucked" into your phone, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I also switched to Niagara Launcher, and it's great especially with the new icons update (everything looks so consistent)! It decreased my usage as well but I still find myself going back to old habits whenever stress mounts, despite having Niagara Pro, enabling Morning mode, and Notification summaries. Any tips you could share that have helped you further decrease your usage?
Why would you recommend Niagara?
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#34It is unfortunate that the phone hardware companies have an interest in you using their phone more, otherwise they'd make it easier to manage your phone usage better. The screentime app in iPhone for example is so easy to bypass as a user even when you were the one who limited certain apps usage. I want an app that strictly locks away my access to an app and also suppresses notifications. Is that so hard to build? It…
My wife and I both have iPhones and MacBooks as our primary computing devices, and have setup blocks for each other’s phones.
So we voluntarily (I have to stress, this is something we both are 100% on board with, don’t be a creep) set a passcode, and from midnight to 8pm our browsers are locked down, we can only use a few apps, and we’re focused on the kids or work. The only problem with this is overriding it requires us to be together in person, but over a few weeks we’ve hammered it out pretty well. Each one can ask the other to unlock stuff, but just having that little extra hurdle goes a long way in helping reduce screen addiction.
The only criticism I have of it so far is my wife gets really weird when everything unlocks because she’s in sort of a mad rush to watch her shows, haha.
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
People don’t want to quit smartphones, they want to quit what’s in them and that can be hard. Sometimes you just have apps that are a time sink. You can obviously delete them and call it a day, but sometimes you want to keep it around for a small use case, but then want to limit your usage to a minimum, which can be hard because these apps are literally designed to make you spend as much time on them as possible.
This triggers my "learn some self-discipline" instinct. It's such a learned helplessness statement "oh no, I can't possibly not open the reddit app 30 times a day. Save me from myself." Like, I get it, it's not easy but it's also a pretty basic part of being an adult. Like brushing your teeth, eating healthily or doing exercise (which is to say: if you think "I have problems with those too" then the problem really is…
This is like saying to addicts “Just stop smoking crack”.
Everyone knows smoking crack is bad for you. A lot of people want to quit but are unable to no matter how much “self discipline” they have. And app developers have teams of people dedicated to making sure you stay on these apps longer and longer.
Now imagine your dealer is in your pocket 24/7.
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#36I have an e ink smartphone, specifically a Hisense A9. It has the same screen as a Kindle. It is wonderful for productive stuff like reading, messaging is passable, and videos are pretty much unusable. It's wonderful, I've read so many books now.
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#37I'd love to quit my smartphone and have looked at options like Lite Phone to replace it. The only issue is my smartphone is now my GPS, my payment method, my home lighting controller, my car/house key, and my health tracker. Plus, was a convenient way to keep tabs on work messages. Half a decade ago I eliminated all my social media. Then about a year ago I started by removing work email and messaging from my phone.Th…
You can get a lot of those things n an Apple Watch. I like to go out with just my Apple Watch sometimes. It covers your GPS, payment, and health tracking use cases. I’m not sure if the lighting controller and house key would be covered.
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#38I just checked the Screen Time statistics, and my average daily screen time last week was 18 minutes, the week before that was 22 minutes. I've never been in danger of becoming addicted to smart phones, just like I've never been in danger of being addicted to alcohol or gambling: none of them really appeal to me that much. But there are plenty of things I know I am addicted to, and I'm pretty sure the way to treat th…
> the way to treat that addiction is to address the underlying issue
Given that a very very large number of people are _visibly_ addicted to their phones, what would that look like, what action would you propose, what resources would be deployable?
Are you saying that a majority of the population have an 'underlying issue' that needs to be addressed? What is that issue?
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#39I just checked the Screen Time statistics, and my average daily screen time last week was 18 minutes, the week before that was 22 minutes. I've never been in danger of becoming addicted to smart phones, just like I've never been in danger of being addicted to alcohol or gambling: none of them really appeal to me that much. But there are plenty of things I know I am addicted to, and I'm pretty sure the way to treat th…
This ignores the fact that many of the apps people use are designed and A/B tested to maximize time spent/wasted. The fact that it happens to not work on you does not mean it works for everyone. Sometimes an addiction really is because something is designed to be incredibly addictive, not because of some underlying psychological issue with the user.
It's pure gaslighting 'it isn't the drug that's addictive, it's the user that has issues' lol no sweetie
Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I feel like i would like a phone…but the communication aspects can be problematic. That’s not a phone then. It’s a computer (?)
Exactly. Where can I get a device that I can use away from home, fits in my pocket, and does not receive calls/texts? I value the camera, the GPS, and occasionally the data (not OP).
Get a phone and a data-only SIM card? Plenty of options available.