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

[bierangtamen]

This is going to be a long, long post so I apologize for that. I wanted to share my thoughts on this video as someone who is probably a lot younger than you and was born in the generation where we grew up with these smart phones so I had NO idea that phones ever had a battery life past two days. Also I wanted to flag that you needed this non-smartphone lifestyle and that it completely fine. It's not your fault (like how some of the YouTube commenters blame people for their own self control and anxiety instead of corporations seeking to exploit it) and we all have different needs and preferences - there is absolutely nothing wrong with it

Firstly, I don't think I have the same experience as you with smartphones. I do have trouble sleeping because I am often on my phone but I do think I will be able to control this (I have grown up as a night owl in general so if it wasn't my phone, it would be something else - I once spent an all nighter to binge a novel). I think the other negatively addictive aspect of smartphones - or the internet more generally - is shopping. I feel like buying absolutely everything especially when various websites and corporations use my cookies to recommend me the items I want. The way that the shopping experience has become so seamless in this smartphone age has led to many others out of control. Anecdotally, I have spent a lot of money on things I didn't need but kept buying more. YouTube sponsors and advertisers often give biased reviews, making an item seem like it is something you need. Whenever you have a problem with skincare for example, people will tell you to purchase another product. It just ends up being a waste and you can't resell most of what you have purchased. A lot of this is definitely my fault with my impulsive purchases but we can't really ignore how in people's faces ecommerce is

The second thing I would like to mention is that I feel like for my generation, it is a lot harder to transition into your lifestyle. It's doable for sure but things like online banking and even keeping up with university makes it a lot more difficult. Other than the previous detriments I mentioned, I do find it helpful for things like digital art (not wasting paper and being able to share your art in HD) as well as my online singing lessons. I personally haven't had the issue of feeling overly fixated with my phone. The part in your video where you mentioned being frustrated with advertisements is quite funny to me because I think most people in my generation just zone out when those YouTube ads pop up. I feel indifferent towards it myself

I used to commute to my high school via a long train ride and often I would spend the whole time daydreaming (although many other commuters are kinda clued to their screens). If I have to go somewhere for a long period of time, I usually bring a book or maybe my DS with Pokemon. This is partially because I get worried about my phone losing charge. I also feel like I am on the internet so often at home that I don't really feel the need to look through my phone much whenever I'm out with friends or family. Honestly, it kinda pushes me to go out sometimes since I have not as much to do at home other than scroll through websites and watch stuff, in which I do run out of content. I still have my other hobbies like writing, art, playing my instrument etc but I guess like everyone else I need that balance of going out and socializing in person. I do often join calls to talk with my friends online but meeting up is also a necessity for all of us and our phones don't really affect the quality of that (though I am sure they do for some people)

I know you have had this smartphone detox and I have had a similar one although only for Instagram and Tiktok. To be honest, the Tiktok one is more so because I found it a boring app to use since I don't really enjoy scrolling and being exposed to all this content I am probably not in the mood for at that moment. Instead, I prefer to watch longer form videos that are relevant to my specific mood (so if I want something lighthearted, I can watch a 20 minute video on that for instance). Likewise, I don't really use YouTube shorts other than for finding specific short clips that I am looking for. As for Instagram, I deleted it many years ago before Reels was a feature. For me, it just made me feel so personally paranoid that all these people I didn't know wanted to send me a follow request to my personal account (and I would feel bad for not accepting it since the Instagram account was associated with my real name and school). LinkedIn has been somewhat of a similar experience; I have had people push me to use it but I don't really want the whole world to know my full name, my entire education history and where I work to get a job. Anyways, back to Instagram, another thing is that people would take pictures of their best selves or them going out with friends and that made me more lonely and anxious. I prefer life without Instagram myself in a similar manner that you prefer life without a smartphone and that's okay

I wouldn't ever make that switch to a dumb phone because I don't feel like my smartphone impacts me other than sleep and my unhealthy consumerism. However, I think it's a great alternative for many people who do prefer it. It is sad though that more of society expects everyone to move on instead of giving them the opportunity to use different alternatives

[JINSBEK]

I think the other negatively addictive aspect of smartphones - or the internet more generally - is shopping. I feel like buying absolutely everything especially when various websites and corporations use my cookies to recommend me the items I want. The way that the shopping experience has become so seamless in this smartphone age has led to many others out of control.

Oh, yeah, this is a leviathan in itself. I don’t know if your generation even has experience with paginated web design. It used to be, you browse through a store catalogue on your home computer (some stores didn’t even have an internal search function), click through the pages of the catalogue, find an item you like, if you were lucky there was a cart option... In any case, every time, you had to write in your address details, write in your credit card, write in your options (e.g. desired colour), and so on, every time. It really was like ordering through an online version of a catalogue.

Now every business wants as seamless an experience as possible. As soon as the hardware improved, JavaScript was pushed to do things it wasn’t originally designed to do (which was make pop-ups on your browser, really…), to make things feel like a smooth piece of software you had downloaded and installed on your computer. Make it more seamless, add buttons here, save this information like the person’s credit card details and address, pull that information, now smartphones are a thing so make things endlessly scroll, and so on. Webdev is insane now because people want websites to do more and more things.

I used to commute to my high school via a long train ride and often I would spend the whole time daydreaming (although many other commuters are kinda clued to their screens). If I have to go somewhere for a long period of time, I usually bring a book or maybe my DS with Pokemon. This is partially because I get worried about my phone losing charge. I also feel like I am on the internet so often at home that I don't really feel the need to look through my phone much whenever I'm out with friends or family. Honestly, it kinda pushes me to go out sometimes since I have not as much to do at home other than scroll through websites and watch stuff, in which I do run out of content. I still have my other hobbies like writing, art, playing my instrument etc but I guess like everyone else I need that balance of going out and socializing in person. I do often join calls to talk with my friends online but meeting up is also a necessity for all of us and our phones don't really affect the quality of that (though I am sure they do for some people)

Sounds like you have a good group of friends! Also sounds like you’re a bit older than some people I see… You’re university-age, the American and Australian urban high and middle schoolers I see addicted to this stuff are different from you in lifestyle and temperament. They don’t know how to return a greeting when someone greets them initially, they don’t even follow your hand gestures when you try to explain something, like a technical problem at a self-checkout kiosk at a grocery store. They hold up the line at the cash register because they’re on their phones and the cashiers aren’t allowed to smartly get their attention and ask them to pay. It’s one of the reasons my fiancée is looking forward to quitting her job as a store manager, the customers are so much worse now. Her younger sister (in high school) has stopped hanging out with her peers because they’re on the phone all the time: a Halloween party where she was the only one dressed up and everyone just sat on their phones, numerous hang-outs where there everyone was on their phones and she got so bored, she left to go on a run and nobody noticed until two hours later, when they DMed her “We didn’t see you leave where’d you go”.

The boiler room and rave scenes have radically changed, too. The sensible clubs have a no-phone policy and make you stow them in secure lockers before going into the club. Other clubs... Man, being a DJ at those joints is depressing, it’s like your music doesn’t reach people anymore. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve moved to the DJ bike rave scene. Nobody can be on their phones if they’re actively biking, ha!