I can understand why someone might want too if social media / certain apps are too addictive for them, but no way would I go back to a dumb phone.
There’s no better tool for satnav (truck, bike or cars), I use it to listen to music / podcasts, it’s the best camera I own and in turn allows access to my photo albums and my families albums. Whatsapp / Signal are much better than texts. I video call more than I use voice calls. It turns the lights on for me when I park up outside. I can track my fitness.
I don’t have any social media apps (in4 reddit is social media) so that’s not an issue and I’m not one of those weirdos glued to it while walking around / with friends. Then again, I’m a bit older and remember a time before mobiles / internet but grew up with it as a older child, so it might be different if I was born into this world.
Looking forward to the rise of dumbTV’s also. I dont need a TV to spam me with menu ads; pointless software updates and nagging to enable features like voice control. All I want in a TV is a button that says “HDMI” and displays whatever I plug into the port without all the “sMArT”
This thing looks awesome (not affiliated in any way)
Thing is being a phone is an incredibly minor feature for most. Appreciate for some it is but the bulk of phones in pockets are not really phones first and foremost, they’re just pocket computers.
I know I always wanted a powerful computer in my pocket back when that wasn’t technologically possible and now it is so not giving that up.
Then again Reddit is as far as social media as I go, I don’t ever feel too pressured to pick up my phone and everything is very shit down as far as annoying notifications etc.
I tried a “dumb” phone a couple of years ago, one of those new Nokia 3330 style ones. Drove me mad after a few days, there’s just too much I do on a smartphone that I couldn’t do easily or at all on the dumb phone. Even just going back to that style of keyboard was infuriating, trying to type emails was frustrating.
I use one of each now. One for apps and online, the other is my actual phone.
A dumb phone with a really good camera, Spotify and WhatsApp. That would do.
Maybe Email.. oh and google maps.. and android auto. Porn, yep, gonna need chrome too.. fuck… I dont ever make any phone calls, so i could lose that feature from a phone though..🤔
I wish I had a smartphone. When you don’t have one, it is really hard to participate in certain aspects of society.It is all well and good making the choice not to have one, but those dumb phones still take pictures, run what’s ap, scan qr codes e.t.c. So they are not really dumb.
I have a landline and a second hand laptop that has broken sound so no cheap chats with family and a camera that doesn’t work.
This whole article smacks of privilege .
I had one whilst in my last couple of years of Uni. I don’t even really use social media, but when you are working on your own accord, the fewer distractions can be nice. No, I’ll take 5 minutes to check the news/YouTube/TikTok and then 1 hour later you’ve done no work.
The only app I have downloaded on my phone is the Nectar app. Personally, I just hate using my phone for anything other than texts and calls (maybe photos if absolutely necessary), I use my laptop for everything else. A phone is a tool and it is what you make of it. Uninstalling apps, or setting personal limits on what you use your phone for or how long you use it per day, might be better than switching to a dumb phone.
> “I’m happy with my brick [. .]”
Shades of Father Ted!
I’d consider this if i didn’t need my VPN app to log into work remotely
I have been using a dumb phones for years. I had a smartphone but it never did it for me. It irritates me when you are talking to someone and their phone goes bing and they look at it mid sentence. Everyone just stairs at their phone all day long instead of just talking to people face to face.
Keep smartphone, but turn off all notifications, of any kind.
That way you’re using the phone and it’s not using you
It be great if we got into the habit of giving these to our kids instead of giving 10 year olds pocket sized computers.
I use one for certain aspects of life and there is something charming about it, but that’s probably just nostalgia.
I think it could be a good experiment to try every so often, just to use a dumbphone for a day or two and see how it changes your behaviour and cognition. Smartphones are shown to produce adhd-like symptoms in people, they encourage your mind to always be distracted by external, 2D or auditory stimuli and to get into patterns of pointlessly checking your phone, people are on their phone literally first thing in the morning when their mind if getting ready for the day (don’t think people did this with dumbphones). With a dumbphone maybe you’re o forced to calm your mind, to focus on your surroundings and the only people you can contact with the phone are those who really matter (friends, family and other people you personally know) – I’m sure I spend time looking at what some rando thinks that could be better spent on making sure I’m there as a support for family or friends, which would have been the case in all human history before smartphones.
18 comments
As someone who turns off the phone in the weekends and just see what life’s brings.
I can’t live without a smartphone during work or on a holiday.
It’s just too practical too look stuff up
I’ve always appreciated [Louis C K’s take on smartphone addiction](https://youtu.be/2Df4xdr_5pk?t=142)
I can understand why someone might want too if social media / certain apps are too addictive for them, but no way would I go back to a dumb phone.
There’s no better tool for satnav (truck, bike or cars), I use it to listen to music / podcasts, it’s the best camera I own and in turn allows access to my photo albums and my families albums. Whatsapp / Signal are much better than texts. I video call more than I use voice calls. It turns the lights on for me when I park up outside. I can track my fitness.
I don’t have any social media apps (in4 reddit is social media) so that’s not an issue and I’m not one of those weirdos glued to it while walking around / with friends. Then again, I’m a bit older and remember a time before mobiles / internet but grew up with it as a older child, so it might be different if I was born into this world.
Looking forward to the rise of dumbTV’s also. I dont need a TV to spam me with menu ads; pointless software updates and nagging to enable features like voice control. All I want in a TV is a button that says “HDMI” and displays whatever I plug into the port without all the “sMArT”
This thing looks awesome (not affiliated in any way)
https://www.thelightphone.com/products
Thing is being a phone is an incredibly minor feature for most. Appreciate for some it is but the bulk of phones in pockets are not really phones first and foremost, they’re just pocket computers.
I know I always wanted a powerful computer in my pocket back when that wasn’t technologically possible and now it is so not giving that up.
Then again Reddit is as far as social media as I go, I don’t ever feel too pressured to pick up my phone and everything is very shit down as far as annoying notifications etc.
I tried a “dumb” phone a couple of years ago, one of those new Nokia 3330 style ones. Drove me mad after a few days, there’s just too much I do on a smartphone that I couldn’t do easily or at all on the dumb phone. Even just going back to that style of keyboard was infuriating, trying to type emails was frustrating.
I use one of each now. One for apps and online, the other is my actual phone.
A dumb phone with a really good camera, Spotify and WhatsApp. That would do.
Maybe Email.. oh and google maps.. and android auto. Porn, yep, gonna need chrome too.. fuck… I dont ever make any phone calls, so i could lose that feature from a phone though..🤔
I wish I had a smartphone. When you don’t have one, it is really hard to participate in certain aspects of society.It is all well and good making the choice not to have one, but those dumb phones still take pictures, run what’s ap, scan qr codes e.t.c. So they are not really dumb.
I have a landline and a second hand laptop that has broken sound so no cheap chats with family and a camera that doesn’t work.
This whole article smacks of privilege .
I had one whilst in my last couple of years of Uni. I don’t even really use social media, but when you are working on your own accord, the fewer distractions can be nice. No, I’ll take 5 minutes to check the news/YouTube/TikTok and then 1 hour later you’ve done no work.
The only app I have downloaded on my phone is the Nectar app. Personally, I just hate using my phone for anything other than texts and calls (maybe photos if absolutely necessary), I use my laptop for everything else. A phone is a tool and it is what you make of it. Uninstalling apps, or setting personal limits on what you use your phone for or how long you use it per day, might be better than switching to a dumb phone.
> “I’m happy with my brick [. .]”
Shades of Father Ted!
I’d consider this if i didn’t need my VPN app to log into work remotely
I have been using a dumb phones for years. I had a smartphone but it never did it for me. It irritates me when you are talking to someone and their phone goes bing and they look at it mid sentence. Everyone just stairs at their phone all day long instead of just talking to people face to face.
Keep smartphone, but turn off all notifications, of any kind.
That way you’re using the phone and it’s not using you
It be great if we got into the habit of giving these to our kids instead of giving 10 year olds pocket sized computers.
I use one for certain aspects of life and there is something charming about it, but that’s probably just nostalgia.
I think it could be a good experiment to try every so often, just to use a dumbphone for a day or two and see how it changes your behaviour and cognition. Smartphones are shown to produce adhd-like symptoms in people, they encourage your mind to always be distracted by external, 2D or auditory stimuli and to get into patterns of pointlessly checking your phone, people are on their phone literally first thing in the morning when their mind if getting ready for the day (don’t think people did this with dumbphones). With a dumbphone maybe you’re o forced to calm your mind, to focus on your surroundings and the only people you can contact with the phone are those who really matter (friends, family and other people you personally know) – I’m sure I spend time looking at what some rando thinks that could be better spent on making sure I’m there as a support for family or friends, which would have been the case in all human history before smartphones.