3 ms·

Can they really be separated from one another, for practical purposes? iMessage/SMS is baked-in. The rest you can easily acquire within a few seconds (and when

Can they really be separated from one another, for practical purposes? iMessage/SMS is baked-in. The rest you can easily acquire within a few seconds (and when does the inclination to "catch-up" via. Insta/Twitter/Snap/etc. come up, if not primarily when on one's phone? Or rather when a friend off-handedly mentions you're not on $APP, and being the impressionable -- and perhaps feeling "left out" -- teenager that you are, you experience FOMO and become inclined to (re)-download). Yes, a separate study can be done to try to tease out this confounder, but who is kidding themselves into thinking that the majority of time spent on a phone is not within apps? Turning on parental controls that limit app usage and installation has, in my experience, resulted in the phone barely being used at all except for convenience purposes (navigation and such). Though, you may have a point, in that case.

Retric 3y ago
Not every phone is a smartphone. You can walk around with the safety of a phone without the temptation of Snap etc. And/or just turn a phone off. What cured my addiction was a slowly dying battery which I intentionally didn’t replace.
- eesmith 3y ago
  Havok said "I rely on it for say navigation". While I think there are feature phones with GPS/mapping support, they are harder to find than a regular feature phone. For navigation, it looks like TomTom sells a dedicated car GPS. If getting around town by walking is important, I wonder if a bike GPS would be a good substitute. While paper maps are an option for some, I know there are people who have a very poor sense of direction. GPS-based maps made it possible to go places without dreading getting lost all the time.
  - Retric 3y ago
    I was thinking of a Nokia 6300 as I wrote it, which has GPS. It may to to close to a smartphone for some people, but it's missing most of the apps people complain about. There's really a lot of options out there if you go looking.
    - eesmith 3y ago
      Sure. "While I think there are feature phones with GPS/mapping support, they are harder to find than a regular feature phone." just means I don't know of a modern system, while I do know of feature phones w/o GPS (haven't looked for a couple years though). What modern options were you thinking of?
      - Retric 3y ago
        A modern smartphone has advantages, but for dumb phone I don't think it makes much of a difference. The Nokia 6300 15+ years old, but it's still being sold.
  - Havoc 3y ago
    >Havok said "I rely on it for say navigation". Yes - the distinction I had in mind was avoiding the AI driven feeds/reel apps like tiktok and insta. Rather than drawing the line at smart/dumb phone...though yes that would achieve the same I suppose. Bit of a hot take perhaps but I don't feel smartphones are inherently problematic.
    - Retric 3y ago
      > I don't feel smartphones are inherently problematic. The point I was making is you can get the bits of smartphone functionality you want without the temptation of an actual smartphone. GPS and the web access exist on phones that are completely unable to interrupt your day with algorithmic feeds. People still buy ancient phones like a Nokia 6300 because they do enough to be useful ie GPS. You can even swap to such a phone on your current cellphone plan for a camping trip without becoming totally unreachable. That said, installing apps on a smartphones are almost required in some situations like cruse ships. Great web browsing, top of the line cameras, etc are just hard to beat as long as you can deal with the algorithmic time sinks.
Havoc 3y ago
>Can they really be separated from one another, for practical purposes? Partially I guess - depending on willpower. I think it is possible to get the benefits of a smartphone without the bulk of the downsides. And I don't even think you need to go all the way to dumb phone. Just skipping the social media feeds is I suspect enough to tilt the balance. So facebook messenger yes, facebook main app no. >iMessage/SMS is baked-in. I personally wouldn't consider messenger apps harmful in the same sense as say insta/tiktok but that is based on opinion alone. > feeling "left out" -- teenager that you are Yeah that's true - easy for me to talk about willpower but peer pressure at teen level must be insane these days.

Retric 3y ago

Not every phone is a smartphone. You can walk around with the safety of a phone without the temptation of Snap etc. And/or just turn a phone off. What cured my addiction was a slowly dying battery which I intentionally didn’t replace.

eesmith 3y ago
Havok said "I rely on it for say navigation". While I think there are feature phones with GPS/mapping support, they are harder to find than a regular feature phone. For navigation, it looks like TomTom sells a dedicated car GPS. If getting around town by walking is important, I wonder if a bike GPS would be a good substitute. While paper maps are an option for some, I know there are people who have a very poor sense of direction. GPS-based maps made it possible to go places without dreading getting lost all the time.
- Retric 3y ago
  I was thinking of a Nokia 6300 as I wrote it, which has GPS. It may to to close to a smartphone for some people, but it's missing most of the apps people complain about. There's really a lot of options out there if you go looking.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    Sure. "While I think there are feature phones with GPS/mapping support, they are harder to find than a regular feature phone." just means I don't know of a modern system, while I do know of feature phones w/o GPS (haven't looked for a couple years though). What modern options were you thinking of?
    - Retric 3y ago
      A modern smartphone has advantages, but for dumb phone I don't think it makes much of a difference. The Nokia 6300 15+ years old, but it's still being sold.
- Havoc 3y ago
  >Havok said "I rely on it for say navigation". Yes - the distinction I had in mind was avoiding the AI driven feeds/reel apps like tiktok and insta. Rather than drawing the line at smart/dumb phone...though yes that would achieve the same I suppose. Bit of a hot take perhaps but I don't feel smartphones are inherently problematic.
  - Retric 3y ago
    > I don't feel smartphones are inherently problematic. The point I was making is you can get the bits of smartphone functionality you want without the temptation of an actual smartphone. GPS and the web access exist on phones that are completely unable to interrupt your day with algorithmic feeds. People still buy ancient phones like a Nokia 6300 because they do enough to be useful ie GPS. You can even swap to such a phone on your current cellphone plan for a camping trip without becoming totally unreachable. That said, installing apps on a smartphones are almost required in some situations like cruse ships. Great web browsing, top of the line cameras, etc are just hard to beat as long as you can deal with the algorithmic time sinks.

Havoc 3y ago

>Can they really be separated from one another, for practical purposes? Partially I guess - depending on willpower. I think it is possible to get the benefits of a smartphone without the bulk of the downsides. And I don't even think you need to go all the way to dumb phone. Just skipping the social media feeds is I suspect enough to tilt the balance. So facebook messenger yes, facebook main app no. >iMessage/SMS is baked-in. I personally wouldn't consider messenger apps harmful in the same sense as say insta/tiktok but that is based on opinion alone. > feeling "left out" -- teenager that you are Yeah that's true - easy for me to talk about willpower but peer pressure at teen level must be insane these days.