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I know several families (some with teenagers!) who traded their iPhones for dumb phones, reducing usage to much like a phone behaved in 2005; entirely for phone

I know several families (some with teenagers!) who traded their iPhones for dumb phones, reducing usage to much like a phone behaved in 2005; entirely for phone calls that actually matter, and the simplest of brief text messaging. They all have reported it to be a very positive experience. Alerts, notifications, badges, social media, apps, vibrations, chimes, dings, rings, virtually all of this is generated from entirely inconsequential noise, distraction, and interference. How do you measure the impact on humans of being interrupted all day long by your phone chiming every 5 minutes with a new email, mundane message, social media trash, or nonsensical alert from some app to come fiddle with it and be force fed a few dozen ads in the process? None of this is good for the human mind or psyche.

LastZactionHero 9y ago
I did this recently with a Nokia 105. It's amazing how much space it has cleared up in my life, and how distorted the relationship with the phone has become- it's supposed to be a tool that works for me, right? I wrote some thoughts on it: https://medium.com/@LastZactionHero/quitting-the-smartphone-or-a-review-of-the-nokia-105-292d9f1aba1b https://medium.com/@LastZactionHero/quitting-the-smartphone-...
- notadoc 9y ago
  Admittedly, I envy you. I still use an iPhone, which I justify for work and the camera. But I know it's a problematic item, and I am very aware that it is bad for me and was designed and optimized to interfere constantly by interjecting nonsense into the brain. It's a very tough habit to break. When I really think about it, the camera is likely what I'd miss most. That's the true convenience offered by a smartphone. I imagine if someone released a new dumb phone that happened to have an amazing camera onboard, it would generate substantial interest.
  - eropple 9y ago
    A phone with the processing power to be an amazing camera is going to have a hard time not packing on "smartphone" features.
    - LastZactionHero 9y ago
      Would also reduce the 1 month battery life :) It's been a good reason to bring the old DSLR back out.
  - memossy 9y ago
    One good compromise is to get a Sony Z5 Compact and enable Ultra Stamina mode. Switches off most smartphone features, keeps 20 Mp camera, gets you a week of battery life etc in a compact, waterproof case. Very cheap second hand now.
danieldk 9y ago
Having a smartphone is quite handy when you are travelling for maps, etc. I just removed most of the apps and for the remaining apps disabled notifications. The exceptions are iMessage/Whatsapp where I enable notifications for persons who are not spammy and dear to me. I have also enabled e-mail notifications, but most e-mail skips my inbox through filters. I have also set some very strict rules: no smartphone use during breakfast/dinner/coffee. No Hacker News after 20:30 (outside holidays). I also try to avoid looking at a computer at all after 20:30 (for better sleep cycles), but I am a bit more flexible there.
mkaziz 9y ago
I would do this in a heartbeat, except having Maps and needing to look up a quick phone number / look for a place's opening hours while out and about is hard to give up. :(
BlackjackCF 9y ago
I've removed most social media from my phone and turned off notifications for anything that I have left. The only thing really allowed to push me notifications at this point is Google Maps. I realized how much more productive I was through out the day without having to constantly check my phone for X social media thing that didn't ultimately matter.
wincy 9y ago
My wife and I purchased dumb phones but there were a few pain points we encountered. First, my wife especially would get lost and so we were going to need to buy a GPS, possibly for both cars. We also have a two year old and capturing moments with a camera was limited; we figured we'd end up spending $500 or more on a camera with equivalent features to an iPhone. Eventually we settled on enabling the parental controls on one anothers phones. I aggressively turn off notifications, to the point where my laptop doesn't even display the time as I consider it a distraction to constantly glance at the clock.
- Feuilles_Mortes 9y ago
  Do you have web blocking on safari enabled? When a friend and I tried this, there was no way to block individual sites that did not also block many sites with seemingly arbitrary rules (stackoverflow was blocked, even though it was not on my blacklist).
  - wincy 9y ago
    Yeah we ended up blocking everything. I’ve found that I almost never actually need Safari. It was annoying though because my wife figured out that Google Maps has a browser baked in (maps “Googleplex” and you have google search) , so we’re stuck using apple maps.
zxy_xyz 9y ago
Luckily I don't have friends, so I don't have to worry about constant notifications.
njarboe 9y ago
Had a dumb phone until a few years ago. I decided to get a smartphone mainly for Urber/Lyft and do use them a lot. To try and keep my old phone sanity I turned off notifications, turned off location except when needed, use airplane mode often when I decide I don't want to be disturbed, have code only access (no easy finger unlock), and leave the phone at home sometimes when I go out. Working well so far. Nice to have maps, camera, video camera, and email on the go sometimes. Also, no phone out at meals or bars except to look up facts.

LastZactionHero 9y ago

I did this recently with a Nokia 105. It's amazing how much space it has cleared up in my life, and how distorted the relationship with the phone has become- it's supposed to be a tool that works for me, right? I wrote some thoughts on it: https://medium.com/@LastZactionHero/quitting-the-smartphone-or-a-review-of-the-nokia-105-292d9f1aba1b https://medium.com/@LastZactionHero/quitting-the-smartphone-...

notadoc 9y ago
Admittedly, I envy you. I still use an iPhone, which I justify for work and the camera. But I know it's a problematic item, and I am very aware that it is bad for me and was designed and optimized to interfere constantly by interjecting nonsense into the brain. It's a very tough habit to break. When I really think about it, the camera is likely what I'd miss most. That's the true convenience offered by a smartphone. I imagine if someone released a new dumb phone that happened to have an amazing camera onboard, it would generate substantial interest.
- eropple 9y ago
  A phone with the processing power to be an amazing camera is going to have a hard time not packing on "smartphone" features.
  - LastZactionHero 9y ago
    Would also reduce the 1 month battery life :) It's been a good reason to bring the old DSLR back out.
- memossy 9y ago
  One good compromise is to get a Sony Z5 Compact and enable Ultra Stamina mode. Switches off most smartphone features, keeps 20 Mp camera, gets you a week of battery life etc in a compact, waterproof case. Very cheap second hand now.

danieldk 9y ago

Having a smartphone is quite handy when you are travelling for maps, etc. I just removed most of the apps and for the remaining apps disabled notifications. The exceptions are iMessage/Whatsapp where I enable notifications for persons who are not spammy and dear to me. I have also enabled e-mail notifications, but most e-mail skips my inbox through filters. I have also set some very strict rules: no smartphone use during breakfast/dinner/coffee. No Hacker News after 20:30 (outside holidays). I also try to avoid looking at a computer at all after 20:30 (for better sleep cycles), but I am a bit more flexible there.

mkaziz 9y ago

I would do this in a heartbeat, except having Maps and needing to look up a quick phone number / look for a place's opening hours while out and about is hard to give up. :(

BlackjackCF 9y ago

I've removed most social media from my phone and turned off notifications for anything that I have left. The only thing really allowed to push me notifications at this point is Google Maps. I realized how much more productive I was through out the day without having to constantly check my phone for X social media thing that didn't ultimately matter.

wincy 9y ago

My wife and I purchased dumb phones but there were a few pain points we encountered. First, my wife especially would get lost and so we were going to need to buy a GPS, possibly for both cars. We also have a two year old and capturing moments with a camera was limited; we figured we'd end up spending $500 or more on a camera with equivalent features to an iPhone. Eventually we settled on enabling the parental controls on one anothers phones. I aggressively turn off notifications, to the point where my laptop doesn't even display the time as I consider it a distraction to constantly glance at the clock.

Feuilles_Mortes 9y ago
Do you have web blocking on safari enabled? When a friend and I tried this, there was no way to block individual sites that did not also block many sites with seemingly arbitrary rules (stackoverflow was blocked, even though it was not on my blacklist).
- wincy 9y ago
  Yeah we ended up blocking everything. I’ve found that I almost never actually need Safari. It was annoying though because my wife figured out that Google Maps has a browser baked in (maps “Googleplex” and you have google search) , so we’re stuck using apple maps.

zxy_xyz 9y ago

Luckily I don't have friends, so I don't have to worry about constant notifications.

njarboe 9y ago

Had a dumb phone until a few years ago. I decided to get a smartphone mainly for Urber/Lyft and do use them a lot. To try and keep my old phone sanity I turned off notifications, turned off location except when needed, use airplane mode often when I decide I don't want to be disturbed, have code only access (no easy finger unlock), and leave the phone at home sometimes when I go out. Working well so far. Nice to have maps, camera, video camera, and email on the go sometimes. Also, no phone out at meals or bars except to look up facts.