I find I get hooked into my smartphone when I want stimulation without needing to focus. It's not a FOMO thing, it's a "I can put this down at any time but don't want to thing."
Dumber phone
41–50 of 347 posts
Re: Dumber phone
#42Every night I say "I'm going to be in bed before midnight". Then all of a sudden it's 1:45 AM and I'm still on Reddit.
Re: Dumber phone
#43I adhere to a lot of these rules myself and have recently noticed peers doing the same. Another I'd add that really makes the phone boring is putting it in grayscale mode. On iOS: Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters > Grayscale. Then you can set the Accessibility Shortcut to Color Filters, and when you triple click the home button your phone goes grayscale. I don't have it on 2…
I've been using this for a while now.
I haven't had any social media on my phone except for aggregate websites and forums, but often I'm pointed from there to more substantial reading. I am still guilty of mindlessly thumbing through comments sometimes, though.
I have a few games and other things on there, but I haven't had a problem with getting hooked.
Re: Dumber phone
#44For me it's the browser. What I did yesterday on Firefox for Android:
- installed uBlock Origin (also First Party Isolation and HTTPS Everywhere),
- disabled JavaScript via about:config javascript.enabled,
- and added .css| rule to uBlock Origin (I would still like to disable CSS entirely, this only half works).
Basically I would like to have "links2 -g" [0] for Android. There is also an extension for Firefox to automatically enable reader mode [1]. It waits for additional WebExtensions API. I want to omit CSS, because of:
- too small or too big font size,
- no proper text wrapping,
- wrong contrast, too big margins,
- position:fixed bars that are so trendy right now.
Basically I want to bail out of modern web. However I would probably use modern web apps on proper browser when I want an app, but just not when I want to read some information.
I know that there are sites with good content that will be broken because of it. But it will be only a minor collateral damage.
I added to my long todo-list a modern pure HTML browser for Android and Linux. What would also help is a different search engine. Of course I also have one in my todo-list. A search engine that would _not_ index ad serving sites. Also as an option it could not show JavaScript enabled sites.
I know about Million Short, but it does not cut it.
Such a pair of a browser and a search engine is, or rather will be, my answer.
Also it's sad a smartphone with it's array of sensors is not a proper tricorder...
[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22links2+-g%22&tbm=isch
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/automatic-rea...
Re: Dumber phone
#45For me, the key has been deleting all social media accounts. Feels like I just freed up 30% of my time. When you delete social media, you pay yourself in time.
Re: Dumber phone
#46Get a fitness band/notification band/pebble and disable biometric authentication.
When I would get a notification, I opened it, went to the homescreen and start browsing the news or the damn Kindle app. Having a smartwatch enabled me to dismiss notifications from my wrist and respond to messages.
The fingerprint scanner is for me a very obvious attack vector so I disable it and use a long password. This means I use the phone if I absolutely have to.
When I was younger and didn't have a phone I had a book, and I was always reading. This is now the phone, its not that the phone has made me have less time, I didn't have any to begin with.
Re: Dumber phone
#47I'm not sure if I want a totally dumb phone, but I do want one that isn't subverted by my carrier, Google or Apple. We need a solid open baseband that runs at 3G speeds at the very least.
Purism are making a security and privacy focused phone and OS that may be of interest to you, but it's not yet available. Baseband support is 4G, and separated from the CPU: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
Re: Dumber phone
#48Does anyone with an Apple watch (or other smartwatch ) feel it helps them leave their smartphone behind and/or reduce their smartphone usage?
Yes. When I'm doing stuff I never look at my phone cuz I already know what notifications I have and whether or not I care
Re: Dumber phone
#49I really recommend unplugging for a few days. It helps you notice how you are interacting with technology.
I spent 4 days on a tiny island (population 11) a few years ago. I was there with one friend and we decided that there would be no screens and no watches/clocks for the whole time.
You very quickly adjust to not having it. Easily within a day. We ate when we got up, and then again later on. We went to sleep soon after it got dark. We barely even thought about things that weren't directly around us.
The most surprising thing about the trip was the return. We caught a small covered ferry that had a little TV hooked up. The TV was showing the preparation for some sports event, basially nothing was happening. I was utterly transfixed by it. The movement, the colors, the cuts every few seconds was way more stimulation than I had had over the past 4 days. Smartphones add interactivity and take this even further.
Re: Dumber phone
#50Personally, I would love a flip phone with a removable battery and a physical button on the side to turn WiFi hotspot functionality on/off -- with OFF being the default. Having a phone that you only need to charge once a week is a great feature!
A coworker of mine recently picked up a Nokia 3310[1] for that exact same reason/purpose. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3310_(2017)
Just ordered one! "Smartphone" going in the bin.