Anyone ditched their smartphones and gone back to basics?

Sick of my smartphone, on it way too much and managed to live 20 years without one quite happily.

Has anyone ditched theirs successfully?

This was a good article from a dubious blog that inspired me.

At the moment I'm thinking a setup could be:

Cheapest, worst smartphone I can get, for whatsapp access and emergency maps / whatsapp on the go, but so bad I'm never on it for instagram/safari/news as its just not worth the time. I think the £50 Alcatel 1C sounds like the one.

iPad for leisurely scrolling, chatting to friends and all the apps that are actually good - Pocket, Komoot, YouTube etc. Maybe a £350 refurbished pro that is too big to consider carrying around all day.

Camera - something compact that can sit in a pocket all day. Maybe a gopro, maybe something else.

Anyone been victorious?

Woah.

In other news, I just saw a SimWorks spam about a new 26” tyre they’re doing, model bike was a Surly with a downtube shifter. The only thng they got wrong was it shoulda had a triple.

Good luck! I’ll be intetested to hear how you get on. My smartphone is worse than drugs for me. And I love drugs.

Years and years ago I went for about a year without a smart phone. I had a Motorola f3 it was black and white just text and calls that’s it.

But there’s a need for an iPhone now. Maps for instance in something I use regularly.

It’s just to put your phone down for a few hours a day because it’s so easy to sit on lfgss for hours without thinking about it.

Does this mean I’m woke?

I have been off them for 3 years.

I went straight from rooted android phone with loads of mods set up by my self (serious geek phone). To basic Nokia with no app store, no whatsapp, no social media, no internet. Other than calls and texts its a useless piece of plastic.

It made the single biggest improvement to my life in the shortest and easiest step of anything. I quit mostly because of scrolling with no intent, and whatsapp - I was getting hammered with messages from multiple work groups at all hours and while most of the messages weren't for me It was switching my brain into work mode. I made the transition and gave the other phone away immediately so it was a one way street.

Was a challenge for a few days because you will realise that boredom is a thing that you have been avoiding for years. After that first week though you will realise that boredom is a super power and there are so many untapped minutes and hours in the day that get wasted.

Everyone else I see on a daily basis cant sit by themselves for 30 seconds without looking at their phone. Now I look for things with my eyes to entertain me. 'Look a bird' 'Wow that bar holding that wall up is really big, how did they move that' 'What was that guys name from that band' Really simple and trivial stuff but previously ignored. That last one about 'who/what/when/where was that thing?' would be solved on a phone in 5 seconds. For me, I could stimulate my spare passing thoughts for 5 hours inbetweens jobs with that, and that buzz when you get it! Off your own back. Not from google. Its underrated.

Since I quit I have started reading books (previously not read a full book since school) Now I will read every single day and take a book with me anywhere I go and might get the opportunity.

I never hear from work unless I am there.

I never get the fear of missing out because If I need to know something I have always found out anway.

I am truly engaged in all my relationships there are no distractions when face to face and no online dramas.

One of the most powerful things I have got from it is I have completely stopped reading the news and anyone reading this even if not tempted to give up your smartphones, please try giving up the news. For the most part its poison and as above EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW WILL FIND YOU.
I haven't read any corona articles this whole time, not watched one press release and not spent one sleepless night thinking my breathing isn't quite right and that it might have got me however I still got all the info from day to day interactions and a bit of radio that you need to stay in. Not see your mum, pubs closed etc etc.

It is 100% worth a go, its not for everyone and you have to find your own balance. What I would recommend is strip it all back for 1 week with a basic ring ring phone see what you cant live without. I personally would have struggled with a halfway house and would have creeped a few bad habits in.

In the end I did change phone after the first year and have settled with a nokia E72
https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e72-2831.php
Primarily for a qwerty keyboard as I do prefer to text than call. It also has an offline map so no data package but I have never needed it. There is ALWAYS someone with a smartphone who will help you out when you are desperate.

It felt like I just threw some ramblings at a keyboard here so if it doesn't make sense let me know.

Has anyone ditched theirs successfully?

I lived in Fiji for a year which has exorbitant data prices and the network was so unreliable it wasn’t worth it anyway. The only way to really use a smart phone was with WiFi which was ropey too and sporadic in coverage. Now back in London for a few years, although I have a very nice smart phone, I use it sparingly and I’m happy just to leave it.

So, either move to a developing country or just up the self control and be able to step away for a while and do something offline. Cook, talk, drink, nap, play something or go somewhere. Probably loads of other options too.

Just to add to this as well my full set up is.

Shit phone carry every day texts and calls only.

Ancient macbook does all my admin,browsing and emails, Always at home.

Because of increased book reading I went higher spec and went for a Kindle and love it.

Camera I already had a sweet fujifilm that wasn't used as much due to phone camera. now is my main camera.

Maps - someone elses or car satnav

No social medias what so ever EXCEPT I watch youtube instead of TV. Its one I haven't yet felt the need to kick but is always up for review.

i'm thinking of going this way, or at least severely throttling my "connectivity" to the world. the biggest help has been more-or-less (i know) quitting social media. smartphones are generally useful for their functionality like maps, paypal, etc. i find whatsapp genuinely useful for keeping in touch with people and work related stuff, but notifications are off. smartphones are also the main way our son accesses TV via chromecast.

so really, social media is the big timewaster and stress/anxiety causer. i had to bin it.

Fully agree with the news thing! I find setting long and annoying passwords for things, then being sure to log out each time really takes away the dopamine hit of checking sites impulsively

Why not just uninstall the apps that you're wasting your time with?

Only takes about 30 seconds to reinstall...and the main one, Safari for LFGSS, all the news, long reads, STUFF, cannot be uninstalled. There’s always a way round any blocking/timeout software

It does worry me , when you see your ‘usage’ and I don’t do any social media but WA does take up time , but can be fun and you can be selective and ghost from groups .
What I find the worst is how little time is spent talking now , many Europeans use the record function on WA , but it’s the ‘call’ I miss .
3 way WA calls can be great , I’m not sure how many you can get on tbh.
But as I’m late 50’s it’s the screen time parents are happy to be distracted by and happy to subject very small children to that may come back to bite us .
But the smart phone is so useful .. it’s an encyclopaedia in your back pocket , and for music fans it must be amazing but we all need to disconnect more , previous poster was right .
The important stuff DOES find you

Yeah, but the point is, you uninstalled it for a reason. The fact I did that would be enough to keep me away from it. I mean, I moved my twitter app onto the second screen and that was enough to keep me from checking it during the day for a couple of weeks while I was focused on something else. I guess it depends on your level of 'addiction'. I'm old, I've got other shit I can work on, like I still like reading actual books, etc.

One of the most powerful things I have got from it is I have completely stopped reading the news and anyone reading this even if not tempted to give up your smartphones, please try giving up the news. For the most part its poison and as above EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW WILL FIND YOU.

National and international news, largely agree. Local news, not so much. It's important to know broadly what is going on around your immediate physical locality. That said I guess you can get a fair bit of it from talking to people. But that is Madness!

Stopped reading the news 2-3 years ago - I'm not sure what I'm missing localy to call it madness, have examples? Still seem to pickup what's broadly going on from talking to people/whatsapp/lfgss/etc.

The idea of having a £50 nokia that does only calls/text/whatsapp/maps is appealing - I've certainly got a mild addictions to checking mine.

Anyone know of methods to have 2 phones, 1 phone number? A smartphone is still a great tool to have.

I think it would have to be all or nothing for me, I'd just be frustrated with a rubbish smartphone... if someone made a phone that had calls, text but also maps, Spotify, camera and WhatsApp that would be pretty fantastic... come to think of it perhaps I should start deleting some apps...

Local news, not so much. It's important to know broadly what is going on around your immediate physical locality

I can't say I'm missing the abundance of anti-cycling articles and being swamped by intrusive advertising on my local area news site.

I'd be more than happy with calls, texts and maps.

Come to think of it, just text and maps really.

Does anyone do one of those? Maps but no apps?

I spend far too much time scrolling instagram

Most online news is garbage. There are exceptions, but unless you are paying a subscription it's probably mostly, definitely garbage.

Local news sources aren't limited to online, at least where we are.

I spend far too much time scrolling instagram

This. My feed is full of shit too. I literally do not know why I do it. Think I'm going to delete the app.

My girlfriend touched on this subject last night as she's worried she's scrolling too much, but knows that really she does need a smartphone, for texts, calls, emails, video calling family, torch, calculator etc etc.

I suggested that the best option for someone suffering from alcoholism isn't the extreme option of relocating to a dry country, but learning to control their addictions.

Delete all the shit apps, and retrain your brain?

You can setup time limits at an App level on Pixel/Android. It's a few steps to unlock but still too easy for most with a mild addiction. Sometimes those time wasting apps are still useful so maybe better than deleting.

I'm liking the look of this

https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_gb/nokia-800-tough

Can still get apps but the usability on them is probably annoyingly shit but it does whatsapp and maps, has a battery life of 43 days on standby, has IP68 proofing which means more than 1m submerged in water no problem and you won't smash the fragile screen or back when you look at it the wrong way like an iphone. Also has a dedicated flash light

downsides are a poor res screen and a measly 2mp camera

I did the cowardly thing and just uninstalled twitter, facebook and insta. apps. I almost never want to look at them when on my laptop so I'm basically off them now. Still check facebook for comments on birthdays and baby pics but don't post really.

The big timesucks for me are YouTube and LFGSS. Time well spent both, so I'm all gravy.

Instagram has a timer function, which warns you when you hit your self-defined time on app each day, which is nice.
I'm moving slowly out of my compulsive app-opening habits by muting notifications more, using aeroplane mode and simply leaving my phone at home.
I've also always had my phone entirely on silent, which means I often just take my phone out of my pocket just to see if anything has happened, being careful with what notifications are enabled, and actually having the phone set to loud, has helped my habits too.