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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

#321

Post by Broken_Hippo »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #260
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I can pass time while waiting - doctors office, etc - which makes me more pleasant. You might believe that, a lot of people do. However, from what I understand the actual science doesn't support is assumption. In short, for eons, humans lived in the shadow of boredom. The brain evolved in that context. That is, life without boredom has no historical precedent. When boredom is habitually removed you are doing the br…

You are stifling creativity, insights, and other growth that comes from the seeds planted by boredom and "down time.

Just because someone passes time while waiting doesn't mean they don't have downtime. I can entertain myself while in a position of waiting and still have downtime each day - I cook and clean and take walks and things. And I promise I still have creativity. It allows me to do non-representational art.

The reason I'm more pleasant is simply because I'm not annoyed at the waiting bit - which isn't a thing with most downtime.

I*m not sure everyone in the past was bored. There was stuff to do then, too, and some of that boredom was discouraged. After all, we got sayings like "Idle hands are the Devils playthings"

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#322

Post by fsflover »

autoexec wrote: post #319
snarkyturtle wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really it's just social media that's terrible. If all the social media apps go away, you still get left with all the above and can contact people you know. Algorithmic recommendations and flame wars with strangers are the worst things about smartphones — and they're not limited to them either.

You're still stuck carrying around a device designed to collect as much of your personal data as possible. Any kind of cell phone will cause your location to be tracked (where you live, where you work, where you sleep, who you're with, etc) but smart phones are packed with more sensors and many non-social media apps are filled with ads and do everything they can to steal as much of your data as possible too

Not all smartphones are designed to collect as much of your personal data as possible. GNU/Linux phones aren't. And they have hardware kill switches to stop cell tower tracking whenever you need it.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#323

Post by fsflover »

Syonyk wrote: post #297
didntcheck wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. It's kind of annoying to see people be so fatalistic about their self control that they think the only solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I carry my smartphone everywhere for the useful functions detailed above, but the closest I get to social media is some idle HN commenting if I'm unexpectedly waiting around somewhere. It's really not hard to just not spend all day on Twitter of whatever. Th…

Once you've gotten rid of a lot of the more aggressive functions of a smartphone, I don't find the tradeoffs of carrying a large, fragile glass screen worth it. My current flip device (Sonim XP3+) is mil-spec tough (in the sense of "Is tested to a range of military standards and passes"), lasts a casual week on battery (or two, if I shut it down at night, which I frequently do), and I can use it just fine with gloves…

> When you pull out a flip phone and act baffled, it really surprises people.

The same happens when I show them my Librem 5 running PureOS and ask for a Linux app.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#324

Post by Broken_Hippo »

JohnFen wrote: post #286
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm going for a two weeks vacation and know I will never return - is it a reason to learn that country's language, further than hello/thank you/bye?

I think so, yes. There are tons of benefits to learning other languages even if you never travel at all. Traveling is a great opportunity to start picking up a new one. It also demonstrates respect for people of the country you're traveling to.

There is no reason to learn the language of every country you visit for a short vacation, though. You'll do just as well learning a something convenient in your own country. In the US, this would usually mean Spanish.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#325

Post by joenot443 »

apwell23 wrote: post #233
jlengrand wrote: post #232

I'm surprised more people are not talking about the main reason I keep a high end smartphone in my pocket : photo quality. I got rid of social media apps a while ago, and except for Spotify I feel like I could manage without a smartphone; but none of them have a good enough photo quality for me (that and the icloud sync)? Am I missing something?

>Am I missing something? I don't really care about taking high quality photos ( or any photos)

When you experience something novel or special, do you not feel inclined to capture a moment of it so it can be better remembered?

When you go out with friends you haven't seen in a while, isn't it nice to have a photo to compare with to see how much you've changed?

I think given the options of a) having a photographical recollection of your life and b) having nothing, I'm not sure why would one pick the latter.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#326

Post by rideontime »

jncfhnb wrote: post #295
rideontime wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can count several differences between those two things.

Perhaps you’d like to share them then? Side note… I find it kind of ridiculous that my comment got flagged. There are many similarities here. Higher level entity controlling your existence, world entirely dictated by that entity, “true self” just temporarily existing in the provided world but it’s not the “primary” plane of existence. I really struggle to see how this is problematic to discuss.

it's just a very Reddit Atheist thing to post

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#327

Post by EasyMark »

I came up with a practical way of moderating your smartphone. Turn off the sound and alerts. If there are a few people you need to let through (wife/kids/boss) then put them on a white list. Log out of all your social media accounts when you're done with them immediately. Log in when you want to check them, that pain point will reduce your usage, especially if you're smart and have turned on TOTP or other 2FA. That's pretty much all it took.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#328

Post by 15457345234 »

JohnFen wrote: post #290
AstralStorm wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small talk isn't one of these, however. "Third spaces" (guided meeting place that's relatively loose and not work or home) are sorely missing because running one is not very profitable. By the way, pubs aren't one of those really, as they're too unstructured.

"Third spaces" don't have to be (and preferably aren't) commercial spaces where monetization is expected. > pubs aren't one of those really, as they're too unstructured. I'm not sure what you mean by "third spaces", then.

They mean church.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#329

Post by 15457345234 »

vonjuice wrote: post #270
15457345234 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a problem, I'm just unsure as to why that conversation went the way it did; we're talking about addictive apps and all of a sudden the topic is phone use while driving? Okay I guess but... what conversation are we really having here and why? Odd.

I mean I just expressed agreement with a sentiment that you posed, you brought up texting and driving? What a weird person.

> To some it might be obvious that being glued to a tiny screen to the point that you need to constantly look at it while you're driving is a problem

These are your words. You raised the topic of driving in response to my comment which didn't mention driving.

me:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256964

your reply:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39258323

What a weird interaction this is. Are you misreading the thread?

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#330

Post by skidd0 »

vonjuice wrote: post #316
skidd0 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Addiction has many factors. I was pointing out that crack and other drugs can form chemical dependencies that apps and screen time cannot.

Conversely there's aspects of screens that are not present in crack, such as widespread acceptance and even encouragement, hijacking of our most prioritized sense organ, etc. If you were to design a visual drug, as a concept, you wouldn't get very far from the current state of affairs.

Completely agree.
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