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A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

nytimes.com

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Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#51

Post by jskherman »

johndhi wrote: post #33
jskherman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Niagara is very clean and a unique take on launchers. I don't need to fiddle with "home screens" anymore and just have my most used apps right there. And for the less frequently used ones, it's just one swipe with my thumb (see the demo) or with a more targeted search. The launcher was designed of having one hand (primarily thumb use) to use in mind. It prevents me from going down the rabbit hole of adjusting widgets and swiping a lot to find things.

It also has a new update on icons. I finally now have consistent icons even for rare apps (e.g. specific to your country/locale) after a long long time. It honestly feels a lot better when specific apps (designed to catch your attention with the "notification dots") don't stand out.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#52

Post by madaxe_again »

BirAdam wrote: post #45
madaxe_again wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a more accurate statement of the need is that people want their lives back, and the smartphone is a clear symbol of the ever-connected world, where not noticing a message for 15 minutes can turn into disaster, where you are expected to Always. Be. Available. That’s what people want out of, in my observations. We talk about habituated phone users - people who sit there refreshing their social feed for 14 hours…

I’ve been off and on into conlanging since I was a young child, and when the smartphone started becoming a thing with later Blackberries, Treos, and then with iPhone and Android, I began using the same word to mean leash and phone in most of my languages.

I literally call mine “the shackle”

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#53

Post by insearchoflost »

When my last android died in a freak accident all I had was a spare iPhone mini. I find simply not having a good screen size for reading has cut down on my usage by easily half. I suspect e-ink phone users probably have similar effective phone aversion.

iPhone text prediction constantly messing with me didn’t help either. I’m sure it’s tunable somewhere, I just don’t care anymore.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#54

Post by lethologica »

XorNot wrote: post #46
lethologica wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your smartphone is in absolutely no way like smoking a physically addictive hard narcotic. Again: learned helplessness. You've picked a comparison to ensure that you have maximally separated any notion of your own culpability. Drug addicts who get clean start by recognizing that they made the choice to start, and need to be mindful of the choice to quit, outside the physical addictions which drive it. The answer for…

You can substitute it with any addiction. Try replacing it with porn instead. It doesn’t matter. Your analysis is cruel and lacks empathy into how addiction actually works.

You wouldn’t tell a depressed person to just stop being depressed either and that they lack the discipline to be happy.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#56

Post by Syonyk »

tayo42 wrote: post #9

Last year I got all into trying to, idk what to call it, "un-tech" my life. I started excitedly telling my wife I was going to get a one of these dumb phones and start using it. The next day a broken car on an incline rolled back into my car damaging it. I had to pull out my smartphone document the whole thing with pictures. I got a whole "what would you do with your dumb phone" and dropped the whole thing. There is…

It's funny how reality tends to "test your resolve" with things like that.

I've got a flip phone (Sonim XP3+) with a viable camera in it. It's not amazing, but it's more than good enough to document stuff like that, and I can send things with a computer when I get back home (though admittedly, I carry a powered off laptop with me often enough - that plus tethering off my phone gets me a backup for just about everything I could want, though I almost never use it).

Or just carry a cheap point-n-shoot digital camera in your bag. I've started doing that too - the rugged/tough variety are well suited to banging around with you until you need them for something.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#58

Post by code_duck »

Apocryphon wrote: post #48

As important as this issue is, I have to wonder if it has eclipsed desktop addiction, after all both are just manifestations of browser, or rather internet addiction.

Mobile devices have hooked a lot of people who weren't interested in desktops or laptops. They also created the ability to use the internet or play games in places people would have been unlikely to use computing devices before, like at a restaurant or on the bus. I’d ask how much it’s related TV, but on the other hand I often see people doing both at once.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#59

Post by avensec »

This mantra has served me well for the past five years: My phone is there when I need it, not when the infinity of the internet wants my attention.

My work/friends/family have gotten used to the full-time Do Not Disturb. They can call me if they need me, which my Garmin watch will show.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#60

Post by hilux »

wintorez wrote: post #55

The strategy that has worked for me so far is to delete all any addicting app (entertainment, social media, etc) that has a web version. I still can access them with browser, but the experience is not the same, so after a while, I get bored, and close them.

I do this too.

Of course, the companies fight back, e.g. Facebook messaging isn't (last I checked) available through the Facebook-in-the-browser; it requires the Messenger app.

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