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Dumber phone

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Re: Dumber phone

#241

Post by jon_richards »

Nition wrote: post #211
mozzarella wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my dad decided to quit smoking, he didn't throw out the pack of cigarettes he was currently in the middle of. Instead, he put them up on the shelf next to his work desk. The pack wasn't totally in his face, nor was it out of sight. Despite the visual reminder being present, he broke his years' long pack-a-day habit. Eventually - long after he stopped smoking - he threw the pack out, as part of his usual housekee…

Makes sense. Getting rid of something doesn't teach you not to use it when it's there. If you can not use it when it is there, you've really won.

I've heard good results from restricting the time you can use something, but not the amount. Don't smoke before 8am. Push that you 8:30. Push it to 9. Eventually you quit.

Re: Dumber phone

#242

Post by komali2 »

graeme wrote: post #216
komali2 wrote: post #67

My problem is I browse hackernews and news.google.com in my browser in my phone. Please send help I haven't spoken to my child in three days.

Remove your browser, and keep a todo list of things to google later at a computer.

How do I win hipster bar fights then

Re: Dumber phone

#243

Post by allenrb »

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning.

Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising "don't use it" discipline was in itself distracting. That's all gone now. My flip phone is not fun. It's boring. In fact, it's immensely frustrating when I do need to carry on a texting conversation. And that's perfectly alright.

When I need to get someplace new, there's no Maps to save the day. Instead I look at the route beforehand and write (by hand, with a pen) a few notes on a Post-It. In the process, I've learned more about parts of two cities than I had in a year or more of mindless reliance on Maps.

The biggest thing I miss and haven't found a satisfying workaround for is the camera. Flip phones seem to be stuck in about 2001, camera-wise. Even under the best of conditions, the results are barely passable. It's my patient hope that if enough people reject smartphones, there may one day be higher end functionality available in a flip.

Re: Dumber phone

#244

Post by jaysonelliot »

allenrb wrote: post #243

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning. Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising…

Have you considered carrying a compact, dedicated digital camera, like the Cyber-shot WX220?

Re: Dumber phone

#245

Post by jakecopp »

allenrb wrote: post #243

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning. Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising…

Do you drive rather than use public transport?

When I've headed out somewhere new with friends and ended up in a strange place at 1am, Google Maps public transit directions are my lifeline. If I drove I could just head in the rough direction or use a streetmap, though transit maps aren't usually complete with all routes and times. There is nothing worse than standing at a bus stop for an hour hoping a bus will come, and that bus will take you home. Train stations are alright if the trains are still running, but usually I need to rely on a late night, barely functioning bus network.

I would love an e-paper/ink phone that did maps, texts, calls, photos and nothing else.

Re: Dumber phone

#246

Post by evjim »

jakecopp wrote: post #245
allenrb wrote: post #243

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning. Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising…

Do you drive rather than use public transport? When I've headed out somewhere new with friends and ended up in a strange place at 1am, Google Maps public transit directions are my lifeline. If I drove I could just head in the rough direction or use a streetmap, though transit maps aren't usually complete with all routes and times. There is nothing worse than standing at a bus stop for an hour hoping a bus will come,…

I did the whole flip phone thing for awhile and you can load a version of google maps onto most phones that run Java applets.

Also, I worked on an epaper feature phone startup. But as a company we never got it to take off. I open sourced it to an extent but havent worked on it as much as I would have hoped. http://woodstead.org/epaper.html

Re: Dumber phone

#247

Post by agotterer »

My divesting of notifications was an accident. A botched iOS upgrade turned off all my notifications. It took me days to realize I was never getting alerts for emails, Facebook, etc. At that point I made the conscious decision that I didn’t miss them and kept them off on nearly every app, with the exception of a few that aren’t noisy and I enjoy getting. This had caused me to check my phone much less frequently and not feel the need to instantly respond. I have good self control, so spending too much time on Fb was never an issue for me. This has caused me to primarily use my phone for utility or at least consciously for time killing. But I spend far less time on my phone and no longer crave those dopamine notifications.

Re: Dumber phone

#248

Post by lloeki »

jakecopp wrote: post #245
allenrb wrote: post #243

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning. Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising…

Do you drive rather than use public transport? When I've headed out somewhere new with friends and ended up in a strange place at 1am, Google Maps public transit directions are my lifeline. If I drove I could just head in the rough direction or use a streetmap, though transit maps aren't usually complete with all routes and times. There is nothing worse than standing at a bus stop for an hour hoping a bus will come,…

Something like the Light Phone 2?

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/1/17066494/li...

Re: Dumber phone

#249

Post by pnloyd »

jakecopp wrote: post #245
allenrb wrote: post #243

It's been about a month since I pulled the SIM from my iPhone, snipped it in half, sync'd the latest photos (mostly my daughter, or cats), ran a factory reset, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought an LG flip phone the next morning. Since then, I've felt like parts of my brain are growing back. While I'd cut down significantly on smartphone usage over the prior year, I'd started to realize that the mere act of exercising…

Do you drive rather than use public transport? When I've headed out somewhere new with friends and ended up in a strange place at 1am, Google Maps public transit directions are my lifeline. If I drove I could just head in the rough direction or use a streetmap, though transit maps aren't usually complete with all routes and times. There is nothing worse than standing at a bus stop for an hour hoping a bus will come,…

This is also the killer feature of a smartphone for me as well. As someone who exclusively uses public transport, I feel my life would be so much harder without the route planning feature of Google maps. Just activate Google assistant, "Bus route to X arrive by Y". It can plan a route with connections that are from different public transport departments, so it is not a trivial amount of work to do manually.

I've already taken some of the steps outlined in this article to normalize my smartphone use. I might be biased because I have fought other difficult addictions like smoking, but smartphone addiction does not seem especially difficult to manage to me. The crucial step is realizing it's existence because it's so ubiquitous it seems normal and benign.

Re: Dumber phone

#250

Post by nperez »

mozzarella wrote: post #170
peacetreefrog wrote: post #125

There are a lot of "hacks" in this thread (put your phone in grayscale, put variable reward apps in a folder, turn off fingerprint sensor) but in my experience the mindset is by far the most important part. What's worked for me (and the article talks about this too) is viewing my phone as a tool with a limited set of functionality. For me, that functionality is: calls, texts, Google maps, Spotify, Audible, podcasts,…

When my dad decided to quit smoking, he didn't throw out the pack of cigarettes he was currently in the middle of. Instead, he put them up on the shelf next to his work desk. The pack wasn't totally in his face, nor was it out of sight. Despite the visual reminder being present, he broke his years' long pack-a-day habit. Eventually - long after he stopped smoking - he threw the pack out, as part of his usual housekee…

I've done this as well. I actually have a pack sitting around somewhere. Quitting never felt possible when I told myself I'd never have a cigarette again. I'm pretty sure I'll have one again, but not today. This is what I tell myself every day, and other than really crazy bar nights, I've been pretty good at perpetually procrastinating on smoking.
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