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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

#171

Post by XorNot »

vonjuice wrote: post #116
XorNot wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can go to therapy and rehab for being addicted to their smartphones, but all of those things are voluntary activities. You have to choose that you want to get better. Externalizing the locus of your problems is itself a pathology: "I receive too many notifications from social media apps" in a normal person leads to "so I just silenced them all" or "that's why I don't install social media apps, who needs that?"…

Technological problems are environmental problems. The US army officially considers cyberspace to be a dimension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Dimension_Operations If a factory is polluting the air, the water, if you can't sleep because it makes loud noises at night, you don't tell people they should get air masks, or water filters, or take melatonin, or to just move somewhere else. If you live in an area that…

"The internet" is as present in my life as I want it to be. No one is forcing you to install apps which notify you, or to post on social media. That's your choice.

Thus proving my original point: the immediate reaction is to try and externalize the problem, despite the fact that it is entirely being driven by your own choices.

You've carefully constructed your example once again to make yourself the idle victim: powerless against those evil corporations who are just forcing those alluring social media sites on to you. As though you exert no control or dominion over your smartphone or it's applications, or how you use them.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#172

Post by nonrandomstring »

Some years after publishing Digital Vegan [0] I still get occasional messages from people thanking me profoundly for helping them get free. Maybe I got a few things right. AFAIK the review epub [1] has been on the torrents for ages.

[0] https://digitalvegan.net

[1] https://digitalvegan.net/review/digital-vegan-reviewerscopy....

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#173

Post by CalRobert »

maccard wrote: post #149
CalRobert wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to have phone / no phone sections ( or chat / no chat ) in places like subways, airports, etc. I love taking to random people but don't want to bother then if they don't want to talk. Having kids helps inasmuch as my eldest will talk to every kid she sees and that usually means at least a hello to the parent.

Have those ever existed though, really? I used to take a long bus or train most weekends, before smartphones were everywhere, and the vast majority of people were using earphones or reading - not talking to strangers.

It depends on where you are. I found that older people in Ireland (not ancient, just didn't grow up with phones) were often very happy to chat on the bus. Now I'm in the Netherlands and most of my chance interactions lately come from talking to other parents while my kids play in the street or playground.

Funny enough I was at a playground a few weeks ago and my kids envied another kid's sled, they talked and the other kid was happy to share, and I talked to the dad who had also moved here from Ireland and even had similar interests (Green party member, etc.). Sure, usually it's a pleasant hello and then not much, but sometimes you meet people you get on with really well. I don't think that would have happened if I had just been sitting on the bench looking at my phone while my kids played.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#174

Post by Findecanor »

The trick is to never start.

In the early noughties I had saved a woman from being hit by a train: she had been texting and walking without minding her surroundings. That scared me, and I vowed to never become like her.

I got my first and only smartphone in 2020, mostly to get a inexpensive, decent digital camera — because simple cameras that are not smartphones are not made any more. I had been evaluating different models for several months, and mostly been disappointed with how bad the smartphone landscape is compared to computers. I chose the one I thought was the least bad (Google Pixel 4a).

The biggest problem I have had without a cellphone is with other people who just blatantly make assumptions about how I have/use it. I had to start using SIM cards in late 2022 only for 2FA to my online health records.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#175

Post by CalRobert »

Aurornis wrote: post #165
Syonyk wrote: post #83

I am so glad to see this backlash. It's been a long time coming. We've tried smartphones out for the past... oh, decade and change. They've been around longer, but were niche enough that they didn't dominate society, and even around the start of the iPhone era, "Crackberry" and such were common enough terms (with "Put all your devices in the center, whoever picks theirs up first buys the next round" being a fun game…

> The results are solidly in: They're an utter disaster for most people, and for society at large. In no particular order, they ruin social interactions in public situations (think "talking to people in the grocery line" - though I've seen fewer people on their phones lately and can get some conversations going), I’m in the age group that is just old enough to remember adult life before everyone had smartphones. Hone…

I wish I had a photo to share, but there's a museum on Bere Island in southwestern Ireland about the island's people and history. It's a TINY island with a few hundred people on it. One of the exhibits shows pictures of how people would gather at the one street corner (I mean, it was a dirt path, not a "street" as you imagine it) and dance and play music on Friday nights until late. And then how that died out after TV showed up.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#177

Post by 0xEF »

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #161

I appreciate how this article acknowledges that once an addicting device is in our hands, we are to some degree at its mercy. So the best intervention is environmental: get rid of the device. I employ a lightweight version: in my home is a "charging station" where it is easy to place a device and then forget about it. Some days I don't even see my phone until noon. If I drop my device at the charging station when I w…

I do this, though using a different term for the station. Mine is called a "key catch" since I also plop my wallet, keys and the rest of my EDC on this shelf that is also fitted to charge my phone.

My trouble is that it's not necessarily the phone I'm addicted to, but screens in general. I have a tablet that floats around the house, and my laptop is never far away, so without the phone in hand, I'm reaching for one of those two preferred devices.

The justification is that I'm not playing games or endlessly scrolling social media. If I'm on my tablet, I'm reading news or a book. If I'm on my laptop, I'm working on a project or learning something.

I view my devices as tools, so any use of them is intended to inform me or further my understanding on something. Still, I arguably spend too much time on all of them collectively and I am not clear if this is healthy or not, but it does make me happier than my actual job or going out into the community which inevitably involves spending money I don't need to spend. Of the people who know me and understand this, nobody seems alarmed by my behavior.

I mentioned that because I deal with substance abuse in my life as a 12-year-sober recovering alcoholic. When we start applying the word "addiction" and it's barbed hooks to things like technology, I take notice. I'd argue that it depends on what you are doing with said device. Doom scrolling? Gambling? Eroding your self-worth by comparing yourself to people on Instagram? Watching vapid YouTubers read listicles from Reddit?

The activity matters...BUT, is the person performing the activity getting some joy from it without harming themselves or others?

It's a sticky subject, to me, but one worth discussing.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#178

Post by prmoustache »

Wait, do people get their smartphone out of their pocket or look at it while in a meeting? I am working remote nowadays but pre covid I would have found this rude and that person would have been called out during the meeting and asked to keep attention or leave.

Obviously when everybody is talking from their laptop in a videocall, source of distractions and the lure of multitasking is much stronger.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#179

Post by okr »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #153
Syonyk wrote: post #83

I am so glad to see this backlash. It's been a long time coming. We've tried smartphones out for the past... oh, decade and change. They've been around longer, but were niche enough that they didn't dominate society, and even around the start of the iPhone era, "Crackberry" and such were common enough terms (with "Put all your devices in the center, whoever picks theirs up first buys the next round" being a fun game…

My smartphone has replaced things that I used to carry. It is a tool. And as a bonus, I can pass time while waiting - doctors office, etc - which makes me more pleasant. My smartphone functions as a watch, notetaking device, and communication device. I rarely get lost now that I almost always have a map. It is a music device, which is really helpful considering I walk and take busses for most of my transportation. Th…

Yep, i agree, it is a universal tool, a swiss knife, so to say. That is what i pay for.

Yet, many apps on it are addictive, that i would prefer not to be. Those things I don't want in my life, just like access to drugs. But it is tough, as these apps are mostly connected with other people, friends mostly... and i want that too.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#180

Post by HPsquared »

reacharavindh wrote: post #127
Syonyk wrote: post #83

I am so glad to see this backlash. It's been a long time coming. We've tried smartphones out for the past... oh, decade and change. They've been around longer, but were niche enough that they didn't dominate society, and even around the start of the iPhone era, "Crackberry" and such were common enough terms (with "Put all your devices in the center, whoever picks theirs up first buys the next round" being a fun game…

As is most things in life, the balance is the hardest thing to achieve. I’d think of giving up my smartphone, but that’d mean I’d not be able to use WhatsApp to communicate with family and friends that are on it. Heck the parents group at my kids school is on WhatsApp. I’m not going to make everyone switch to “this other special” app. I gotta be where others are in this context. Another is Maps - it is modern conveni…

Smartwatches have WhatsApp and maps, but no browser and no YouTube. No camera though, unfortunately.
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