My Dumb Phone
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I'm not addicted to social media. I don't doom scroll. I don't use my phone while driving. I don't feel compelled to get every notification from every tiny interaction with my online persona. But I still feel like I spend too much time staring at my phone.
That's why I decided to turn my smartphone into a dumbphone.
In this post I'll walk through my reasoning, how I performed the switch (including why I didn't buy an actual dumbphone), and how it's going so far.
Let's start with the why. Tech is all around us, a cocoon of enticing distractions from our real life endeavors, relationships, and problems. I've noticed that too often I grab for my phone instead of observing the world around me. Long line at the store? Pull out the phone. Sitting on the subway? Pull out the phone. Waiting for the tea kettle to heat up? Pull out the phone.
I'm sure many of you have greater willpower than I do - or, more likely, don't see this as a problem. Great, I wish the best for you. But I don't want my life to revolve so much around the supercomputer tucked in my pocket.
Enter the "Dumbphone"
This is not a new concept, people have ditched smartphones for more simple versions many times in the past and likely will continue to do so - although I don't see this being a massive trend among my own friends and acquaintances. In many cases this means buying an old-style (if not an actual old model) flip phone, one that can make calls, send text messages, and maybe even browse the web - though I wouldn't want to do it on that screen.
However, there is a growing number of dumbphone devices that are actually much more interesting. There are some that are just curated Android devices that don't allow social media apps, games, or other high distraction services. There are some that use minimalist interfaces with bare-bones apps for just the modern basics (phone, text, camera, calendar, even maps!). And I've seen some that advertise that in addition to simplicity, they focus on privacy.
Frankly, they're all just a little off the mark for me. See, here's the problem: I just want a little relief from notification hell and the lure of the quick distraction that the various apps provide. I want access to good maps. I want to be able to browse my photos easily. I want to check my bank account. And I want to be able to look something up online if I need to.
Making a "Dumbphone"
So after researching all of those devices I linked to above (and a number of others), I realized that I had a really smart phone in my pocket already, and I bet it was smart enough to be dumb.
I was right.
There are various guides online that can tell you how to change your settings (and lifestyle) to reduce the addiction, but I'm just going to tell you what I've done and how it's going. You might look at these steps and say "that's too much," or conversely, you might say I didn't go far enough. But I'll talk through my own reasoning with each change (and a couple things I didn't change).
The first step was removing the apps. This one is probably obvious, but it's important to state. I removed a bunch of dumb apps that I don't need. Games? Gone. Social? Sayonara. Addictive? Adios.
Basically, anything that would draw me in and eat away my time and attention is gone... except one: Google Chrome. I couldn't ditch Chrome for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I read news on it. I also play logic games and chess on it. Yes, I said the games were gone. I lied, but to be fair, it's really only the logic/word games and chess. However, I did realize that you can get lost in the web very easily, and I could access things like Bluesky, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc. there even without the apps installed.
Enter step two, limiting screen time. I was not aware how good the screen time management was on Android, but apparently you can limit time for any given application, including on a schedule. For example, I could limit my usage of Google Chrome differently on Wednesdays versus Saturdays. (I didn't actually do that, but I love that I can.) Of particular relevance to me was that within Google Chrome, I can limit my screen time on a given web domain!
For social media and other distracting sites, my limit is now 0 minutes, effectively turning those off. I have limits for chess.com, NPR, even my logic puzzles. And I still have an overall limit on Chrome as well. It's set an 1 hour a day, so even if I stray into some new website, I can't get caught up in it too much.
You might think this means I'm 100% off of social media websites, but this is actually just part of step three, making tech use intentional. I still visit Bluesky almost every day. LinkedIn, too. I still play games, and I'm still doing a lot of the things I would before, but I do them on my laptop, and I do them when I decide to, not because of a push notification.
Oh, and in case you hadn't guessed, step four was to turn off (just about) every notification. I didn't do this within the apps that were left on my phone after the purge, I did it in the Android settings. The apps don't have a choice. This also included removing any notifications from my lock screen, which in hindsight may have been unnecessary. I summarily unplugged the notification engine on my smartphone, disengaging the distraction demon.
So what did I keep on? Well, you can't actually turn off phone call notifications, which is fine, and I also left on notifications from my bank (these are often fraud or large purchase alerts). Since I use Signal for chatting with my spouse, I was also able to set up a Signal "notification profile" (a feature I can find little documentation on). The profile allows me to block all notifications except from my spouse.
You might be asking, "but Jordan, how will you know when I send you a message inviting you to come over for drinks and board games tomorrow?" Remember step three: I'm making things intentional! I still look at all of my Signal and text messages, my emails, my Slack chats... I just do them on my own time, when I make a concerted effort to do so.
That brings us to the last step, and one that might not be for everyone: I switched my phone to a third party launcher. Frankly, the home screen of modern smartphones is intended to engage you. The icons, the backgrounds, the little dots next to the icons. I don't need that. Remember step three! So instead, I installed a third party launch tool that essentially does away with the home screen (sorry iPhone folks, you might need some other solution for this).
In place of the home screen I have the time and day, my battery percentage, and a short list of common apps I use (7 currently). The screen is all black with white text. There's not even a status bar at the top.
How it's going...
It's been a week so far. I'm still learning how to use this new device, and what to do in those in between times when I would have looked at the phone, but I feel less tied to it. I've been leaving my phone in various parts of my house (unintentionally) and I don't miss it. At first I was checking my phone every ten minutes wondering if I had missed a text or email or whatnot... but I hadn't. Or if I had, it was fine. Nothing bad happened, and if someone really needed me, I thought, they can call.
I don't know how long this will last. I don't know if this is something I'll do forever. All I know is that I feel less tethered to the device and more open to engaging with the world around me. Are you considering a switch? I'm curious to hear what you do!