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iPhone dumbphone

stopa.io

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191–200 of 403 posts

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#191

Post by coffeefirst »

marklar423 wrote: post #41

I've been trying to do this too - paring down distracting apps, leaving only essentials like communication, maps, uber, etc. But my problem is what to do about the browser? I feel it's too essential to the "long tail" of uses (as the author put it), but also among the most distracting apps on my phone. If anybody has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

The pattern that finally seems to work for me is to use Freedom to block all scrolly crap specifically on mobile. If I want to dig through YouTube or look something up on Reddit that’s fine, but I have to physically go to a machine that’s not always in my pocket.

At least so far I don’t need any of the things I’ve blocked on the go.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#192

Post by kefabean »

duderific wrote: post #154
bapak wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email and chat apps are just about the only notifications I keep. I "archive" any unwanted email right from the notification screen, I report as spam anything I don't like. I hate people who have 4 digits in their email bubbles. I really wish Apple/Google would do something about notifications, use AI for something useful. "Hey you haven't read any of your 3454 emails, should I disable notifications for Gmail?" "Hey…

Four digits? Rookies.

Email bubbles? Rookies.

(you know you can make those bubbles go away?!)

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#193

Post by dnlzro »

> Maybe you’re at a restaurant and they need you to open a website for example. You may end up having to bug some people around you for their phone. It can be annoying but I haven’t found this to be too troublesome.

I have been using a profile-based restricted iPhone setup for about 6 months now, and this has been the biggest holdup for me. I've pretty successfully blocked almost everything distracting, but I'm pretty good at finding ways to bypass my restrictions. e.g., I'll find an alternative Reddit client (like Redlib) to bypass my Reddit blocks.

The obvious solution is to use a whitelist instead of a blacklist, but then you completely lose the ability to scan QR codes in the wild.

I'm thinking of building a browser designed for this purpose. Your browsing can begin at certain pre-defined entrypoints, like a news aggregator or a QR code, but you can't manually enter arbitrary URLs or use search engines.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#194

Post by stopachka »

dnlzro wrote: post #193

> Maybe you’re at a restaurant and they need you to open a website for example. You may end up having to bug some people around you for their phone. It can be annoying but I haven’t found this to be too troublesome. I have been using a profile-based restricted iPhone setup for about 6 months now, and this has been the biggest holdup for me. I've pretty successfully blocked almost everything distracting, but I'm prett…

> Your browsing can begin at certain pre-defined entrypoints, like a news aggregator or a QR code

I would definitely use this.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#195

Post by dhon_ »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #130

Before installing all those apps the author listed, I'd recommend this exercise: Let the battery die on your phone, and live one week without it. Cold turkey. Tell people in advance if you need to, give them an alternate way to reach you. Replace your phone for that week with a small notebook that fits in your pocket. During that week, every time you want to do something that requires a smartphone, jot it down in you…

I switched to a candy-bar style dumb phone for a month and did something similar. My list was pretty much the same as the one in the article with a few small changes.

The most jarring was probably maps - other things like email, messaging etc could be delayed until I could reach a computer but not knowing how to get somewhere right now was problematic and required planning in advance.

I usually kept my smart phone in my car and did a sim swap on the occasion that I really needed it.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#196

Post by pxmpxm »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #70

I never really quite got the motivation for this: The much more apparent issue is surely the lack of self-control, right? Which we all do at times. I'd rather feel confident I'm improving along that metric than to build guardrails for myself everywhere ...

Feigning victimhood and zero agency is very trendy in certain circles, and you evidently get bonus points for these sorts of performantive theatrics, versus actually adressing the core of the issue.

It's not the phone, it's you...

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#198

Post by m463 »

I can't believe how much stuff he configured on a "dumbphone"

why not:

- phone app

- messages

- calendar

- clock

- notes

- reminders

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#199

Post by codethief »

dwedge wrote: post #165

> Consider email. I still need to have access to email, and I want to have notifications enabled so I don’t miss something truly important. But 90% of the emails I get aren’t important. I was at a talk at FOSDEM this year and they were talking about how most emails now (over 90%) are transactional in nature and not personal. Things like password resets, offers, 2fa, shipping confirmations. This was a lightbulb moment…

Agreed. Many years ago I set up a personal email address for that very reason, i.e. one through which I only expect personal 1-to-1 correspondence, and which I only hand out to family & friends, never to companies (which easily get hacked and/or one day decide to reuse your email address for their newsletter).

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#200

Post by stopachka »

m463 wrote: post #198

I can't believe how much stuff he configured on a "dumbphone" why not: - phone app - messages - calendar - clock - notes - reminders

Author here: those already come with the standard iPhone setup.
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