I would love to see mobile phones be a thing of the past.
It really sucks to see people stare at a tiny screen all the time, lost in another world.
I hate having to do it as well, but I’m so addicted now and it feels counterproductive to fight it.
Not sure what the best alternative looks like. Wearable? Nothing? Go back to pre-phone days? What about all the conveniences?
What are your thoughts on this?
Theres only 3 reasons I use my smartphone and that is:
1) Message my family and friends
2) Take photographs
3) Track my steps
But I like your thinking tbh.
Before I got rid of all legacy social media, I would switch to a Nokia dumbphone to "detox" a bit. Could do that.
Now Imagine a world with Vision Pro. You know #Apple will sell them. A lot of them when the non-pro version comes out
Yeah but will people wear outside? Perhaps when they get the size of glasses?
Google Glass already did that over a decade ago. They'll fit them in glasses in no time.
Imo you'll still have zombie people staring at their AR HUD. Staring at a screen vs thousand yard stare is just a lateral move.
People paying $3k to put a corporate surveillance device on their faces, getting in the dystopia 😥
Non-pro version will be IDK $1099 or something and people will buy them.
Spending any money on a product that exists primarily to train a neural net with your personal data is crazy to me, wouldn't wear one if they paid me.
I have no doubt that like food, apps, games, and the like are designed with addictive elements to keep you there. Hell, I’m typing this on a phone.
Under accessibility settings change your phone to grayscale color. Makes it less attractive to use. Actually did work for me although Nostr is one of the 4 things I do on mobile.
If you work as an information worker employee not having a smartphone is likely impossible.
nostr:npub1fl7pr0azlpgk469u034lsgn46dvwguz9g339p03dpetp9cs5pq5qxzeknp has the right idea to define the usage and use it as a tool.
Also, moving activity (like nostr) to a laptop helps a lot. It creates a barrier.
Once you have defined what you are doing with it, you can start defining what you might do instead.
I wouldn’t be surprised if people focus on smart phones, but totally forget to sum up the total amount of screen time across video games, work computer, TV, etc.
My childless direct reports think I’m eccentric b/c of all the things I get done on the weekend, and I have to wonder, what the heck are they doing with their time?
I couldn’t stay within my own defined limits when i tried.
Heck, I don’t know. Delete apps?
Go for a walk?
Read books on your phone?
I don’t set limits for myself because what I use the tool for leads towards my goals.
Right now the phone is stacking sats while I type on my laptop.
Maybe the problem is up at the goal level and the phone use is just a symptom?
yeah, I can really relate to this... I fantasized for years about just ditching my smartphone in favor of a flip phone.
it's Google maps though... That's what I can't imagine being without day to day. and also Uber when I'm traveling. besides that, I could really get by with an old flip phone again. I feel you.
Graphene OS and minimal Applications.
It helped me overcome my addiction.
only Nostr, Messengers(no whatsapp) and wallets, weather and Email
I'm not keen on wearable, never been a fan of unnecessary stuff touching skin. I can't see myself reverting to a life of less movement either. Mobile is great for me because it's there but it doesn't require stopping. 99% of my work related online stuff happens on mobile. But that's me... trying to find ways to integrate it into lifestyle without it becoming cumbersome. I do scroll way too much during slow parts of the day. I don't think a different device would change that mentality. Need to retrain my brain.
I think it depends on what you're doing with your mobile device. If you're reading and differing valuable information then it's time well spent. We are the first humans in all of history to have nearly all the cumulative knowledge of humanity instantly available at our fingertips. What are you using it for?
You can't really put the cat back in the box...
Check out Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport - it helped me out. Also, an Apple Watch with LTE is one option as a tiny screen means you can only do basic things.
Smart watch with a data plan such as the Apple Watch is a pretty good set up, especially if you set up a shortcut to access ChatGPT API.
With just the watch, and one Bluetooth earbud nearby you can still be present in the world and with people while doing about 50% of what you can with a phone.
Especially while driving.
You see a SUV drive erratically you can be 100% sure the driver's on his phone.
I support going back to T9 texting with physical buttons.
What worked for me was getting my phone out of my pocket and carrying it in a backpack. Becomes a much more intentional act to get it out for a scrolling session.
Remembered I wrote something up about the experiment when I first started it, has some of my impressions and the benefits I found keeping the phone in a backpack: https://davidbaunach.com/#hitchikers
TBH, I've never really had much of a phone addiction. I basically treat it like a tool. I try to maintain a balance in things and to not be overly reliant on any particular tech. So I could never understand how people can be so addicted to these damn screens. I dunno...guess just built different.
I tend to only use the phone when I step out of the house, connect the bluetooth to the cars, the occasional useful app from time to time, when I'm not using English, or when I need to translate something on the fly. I don't even take my phone with me when I go jogging.
Whatever it is I can do on the phone, I can do on the various desktop computers I've assembled with my own hands while viewing it on a much larger monitor or big screen TV. Though I've taken a liking to the seamless multilingual capabilities on a phone over a pc.
I would personally love to go back to the pre-phone days back before humans devolved into mindless zombies trapped in their own self-induced bubble. (maybe they were always like that but the tech and incessant advertising/propaganda helped amplify it in an exponential way) In a way, I am grateful to have lived through the analog era albeit briefly.
I commend and do wish you the best of luck in trying to detox even slightly from the electronics.
I personally have come to the conclusion that people fear to miss something if they don’t keep checking their feeds and that, in turn, comes from the fact that social networks are built around engagement.
We should be smart enough to see through all this.
Like eating or drinking too much. Self control and limits are the solution. I am not saying it’s easy!
Not easy indeed
I think it is important how one uses the smartphone, when meeting friends I try to not get distracted by it it, turning off notifications is one of the most important things when using a smartphone.
