Can confirm. Gave up a smartphone in 2020 as part of a re-evaluation of my relationship with and dependence on technology, and the immediate peace was incredible.
How does it feel to live without a smartphone? ‘Almost spiritual’
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Re: How does it feel to live without a smartphone? ‘Almost spiritual’
#12I find it interesting that there isn't a movement to remove social and other distracting apps instead of completely ditching smartphones. Smartphone with default apps is about the same distraction as dumb phone but with a lot more functionality. It might be possible to use parental controls to enforce what apps can be installed or run.
An interesting point! It's as if we've been taught if we don't want random notifications, FB, IG and all that garbage, then we have to use a flip phone. No, it seems stupid to punish yourself with a system that forces numeric keypads into the alphabet (hit 1 three times for the letter C) versus just turning off notifications. Also how weak are individuals' willpower? They can't resist the temptations?
Good points except for that last sentence. We already know that not only some people wired such that they're much more likely to be compulsive/obsessive, we also know that some of the worst "culprits"/software vendors have explicitly and deliberately designed their applications with such dark patterns in mind precisely to exploit this human weakness.