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My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

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Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#51

Post by throwaway74737 »

L0in wrote: post #46
throwaway74737 wrote: post #44

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Can you share more advice for a 23 year old who wants to dump the "social internet?"

Happy to. It requires being willing to change anything in your life to make the whole thing better. That is frightening. A smartphone and social media can end up being a kind of security blanket, it gives you a cheap dopamine hit, so remind yourself that cowboys did without not long ago. Religious Jews still give it up for a day and a night every week, getting together to eat and talk face to face, and maybe play a board game. It means being willing to reorient yourself so that you have a different circle of friends. That does not mean that you are giving up on your current ones! You might try different things and find that you find meaning in boxing, doing something physical in your neighborhood, or making a craft or music. When you set boundaries up front - "hey, I won't be using Insta, but we can still make plans by phone/email, rehearse, play these gigs, and post our recordings to Bandcamp" - you will discover who is good enough to allow into your life, because they respect your time by keeping appointments.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#52

Post by rootsudo »

pedroaraujo wrote: post #40

I don't understand these kind of posts. Can't people just use a regular smartphone phone and _not_ install Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.?

It's hard to resist. It's like being on a diet/fasting but having your cabinets stocked with all unhealthy food or a drug abuser with free drugs they can't have.

Self control and discipline start somewhere.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#53

Post by throwawaynay »

pedroaraujo wrote: post #40

I don't understand these kind of posts. Can't people just use a regular smartphone phone and _not_ install Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.?

If you use a social network long enough it really becomes extremely hard to do. I honestly find it harder to quit all social networks than quit some drugs. I uninstall/reinstalled the same social networks sometime multiples times a day, I often closed a social network webpage only to instinctively retype the url seconds later. The only thing that kinda works for me is software that block all social medias.

I suggest you read "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.".

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#54

Post by geden »

throw8932894 wrote: post #38
MrJagil wrote: post #28

Just a tip -- I use my apple watch and leave my phone at home. I can listen to podcasts and music, call and read emails and texts, use maps and the fitness app. I save up all my emails and texts for when I'm sitting down and with my ipad. Turns out, when I'm with friends or my girlfriend or commuting i don't need a phone. And when I'm at work or home or in a cafe I have my ipad or computer. It's not for everyone, jus…

How long battery lasts, 20 minutes?

My Series 7 lasts all day and a night. Charges super fast.

I've also found myself using it as a 'dumb but useful phone'. Having Apple Pay / train tickets on it has been surprisingly useful.

The activity tracking has been surprisingly motivating.

Hard recommend.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#55

Post by GoblinSlayer »

jabbany wrote: post #13

As others have mentioned, this is not really a dumb phone. Sure it puts some more _friction_ into using modern Internet connected services, but you can still basically do everything a modern phone can do (it has a full modern browser). Heck you even get the modern experience of ads everywhere despite the limited screen and memory (the ads are all modal pages)! In fact, much of the review centers around "smart" featur…

And it's full of modern trendy Google things.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#56

Post by throwaway74737 »

whoibrar wrote: post #47
throwaway74737 wrote: post #44

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Did you never get a smartphone (in a way most people do) or have you gone back to good ol days ? If former, what other ways you've adapted for essential stuff that need a smart device. If later, do you ever plan on getting a smartphone again ?

I have tried them, iPhones are elegant, but I still don't need a golden ball and chain. In most cases, I can use the applications I need on the web, like my bank. I figure out destinations beforehand, writing things down, print directions out, or buy a paper map for a holiday. Lyft has a site called https://ride.lyft.com/ which lets you call a car on a normal browser. Open to using a car service or public transit. I would prefer not to have the burden of carrying a smartphone around with me. Once I took a month-long road trip with a friend. My camera broke, so all I have are journal entries written on hotel notepads. Best time of my life.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#58

Post by GoblinSlayer »

zibzab wrote: post #31

As the author points out, buying a simple a android phone and disabling most of the "smartness" is a much better option. This is what I did and it works surprising well. I still have a decent camera and can use my banking app etc. You could say that I actually have a pretty decent phone I just disciplined myself to use it as little as possible. Edit: the part I am really missing is the compactness of a dumb phone. Ye…

How a shovelphone is better? The author mentions 5 days is great battery life. My old dumbphone with halfdead battery has 5 days life, and it's short, used to be 15 days or so.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#59

Post by rootsudo »

bowmessage wrote: post #5
zephyr9 wrote: post #3

I switched from an iPhone to Nokia 515 two years ago and vowed never to go back. If I wrote a blog post like this it would probably just be, "Living smartphone-free in the 2020's is like having a superpower, it's utter joy and freedom and and everyone still with a smartphone is a total sucker." Then a couple of weeks ago I felt the social pressure and lack of a good camera so I bought an iPhone 12 mini. It was awful.…

Out of curiosity, what was awful about the recent iPhone experience?

iphone 12 mini also has many apps that still do not work correctly, or show proper resolution and thus apps are unusable.

plus using it to type and such is really a big annoyance. the keyboard is smashed in the lower 20% of the screen.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#60

Post by Beltalowda »

pedroaraujo wrote: post #40

I don't understand these kind of posts. Can't people just use a regular smartphone phone and _not_ install Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.?

Personally I dislike – even resent – having to own a device I don't like, that I don't control (not without extensive hackery, which I don't have the interest or time for), and where I have to create accounts and accept various EULAs I don't like to use basic functionality.

Of course, you can go the Replicant/PostmarketOS/etc. or Purism/PinePhone or whatnot route, but then you're missing out on so many things and/or have to spend so much time on things (not worth it for me) that you might as well not get a smartphone. A smartphone is greatly reduces in value if your banking app and $popular_messenger_app doesn't work. And besides, it only solves part of the problem: I still have a device too large to comfortably use, in spite of being quite tall with big hands.

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