I Switched to a Dumb Phone - 2 year check-in

[rejectconvenience]

Touching on what you said about YouTube addiction... I'd like to share a tip for countering social media addiction on smartphones: using social media browser websites instead of their apps.

I hella agree with this, my mom was all worried about Facebook listening to her, and I suggested just using it in browser and not using the app, and that seemed to click for her.

[mushroomchild]

Touching on what you said about YouTube addiction... I'd like to share a tip for countering social media addiction on smartphones: using social media browser websites instead of their apps.

For YT, I've found that using the website is significantly less stimulating since many functions are not available/as slick compared to the app, and I've noticed a decrease in my impulses to watch more videos (though this might be illusory correlation on my part).

An interesting side benefit to using the website is that it also seems like *no* ads play when I watch videos, the only ads are the static ones.

I've also done this with Instagram and infinite scroll on Reels isn't as accessible + the homepage jumps right back to the top once you return to it from another page, making it pretty unusuable for long scrolling sessions. Can say that my IG use has also decreased after implementing this change.

Me too! I found Instagram so annoying after a point that I ended up deactivating my account completely. Though I do recognize that some need it for work, and I don't, I was purely using it for social purposes. But then I realized I barely have conversations on Instagram, mostly just send reels to my friends. So I finally decided to go full turkey, and it actually helped! It was a little hard at first, but I think it's been a net positive. Using the message app is more than enough to chat with a friend.

Apparently, there's an extension (for PCs) to disable YouTube shorts. Many have said they really hate how YouTube keeps recommending shorts and the extension disables that, so I think it's worth trying. I've noticed that after disabling most social media on my phone, I go on YouTube on my computer a lot more than I'd like to.

[CitricScion]

Sometimes when you're trying to kick one habit you end up compensating with another way to get a similar feeling. Sometimes that can feel like a disappointing loss, but I like to think that if there is more friction to the new thing you're switching to then it's a good step in the right direction.

[JINSBEK]

Thanks for making this video. It’s nice to see so many other people moving away from being always-online to… actually, enjoying being present. The cost of rejecting the hitherto unheard-of amounts of convenience is worth it.

I was born in 1995, I came of age when people were just starting to use cell phones. It’s unimaginable to people now, but the tactile QWERTY keyboards were a big part of what prevented people from having their faces glued to their phones. With the muscle memory built up, you could reliably text someone something without ever having to look down on your phone to see if you’d actually typed something correctly. That’s impossible to do with a touchscreen keyboard, and even if you use a swipe keyboard you can’t be sure it tracked your finger movements accurately. Nowadays “texts” (notifications) come from everywhere and the depression rectangle commands your full attention if you want to respond to anything coherently. I see so many younger distracted drivers these days. They think they’ll read just one message but I’m sure the notifications from all the other apps they have are blaring and sucking away their attention. It’s hard to hire young people these days, too. A lot of them outright even fail the interview because they’re on their phones, or if they manage to pass that, fail the orientation for the same reason. Yes we send a letter explaining exactly why they haven’t been hired. Can’t imagine those people making it in life.

My fiancée and I have removed or blocked most of the apps on our smartphones, and we’re in the process of obtaining modern Japanese Android keitai/flip phones. I have to keep my depression rectangle because of the heavy amount of GPS bike navigation I use, and also because I need a convenient way to Bluetooth control the LED gear I use for raves and such. But I think I’ll be taking all my calls on my keitai. We’re getting models that also use US telecom bands, and worst case scenario, if out-of-range we can always get on the now-ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks and take calls through the Skype app.

[rejectconvenience]

Thanks for sharing, and welcome to the forum, @JINSBEK! I grew up in the same era of the physical QWERTY keyboard, and it's so interesting to see how things have evolved. The distracted driving thing has blown my mind constantly, and I don't know what we do about it..

[CitricScion]

What keeps my from using my phone while driving is the knowledge that doing so makes death by car accident the most likely way I will die outside of disease. And even then I cheat