About three months ago, I returned to an experiment I started, and abandoned, in 2019: Attempting to use a feature phone (or a basic phone, or a dumbphone, as you like) as my primary cell device. I learned lessons from all my previous experiments. I will be giving excessive technical details for my own benefit as I will forget them over time. The timeline looks something like this:
Why is tethering 5G important? Because I keep my Pixel 9 on standby, in a crossover bag I take mostly everywhere. If I need driving directions, I turn tethering on and use Brave to look up the turn-by-turn directions. If I need to check my work apps, I turn on tethering, check them, then turn tethering back off. My biggest problem is not checking my smartphone for days and so it dies in my bag.
My son's admonition to "stop looking at your phone" was the reason I decided to try this again. Even though I fought and fought to pull myself away from my addictive apps, one by one, I still had compulsions - compulsions to Google things, to play around with AI, to check websites, to check social media proxy tools, and ultimately, to check messaging apps like Telegram and Signal.
The hardest hurdles were Signal and work apps. I still truly believe that Signal is the best texting app available and if you must use a smartphone, you should absolutely use it. But I annoyed a lot of people - and I mean a lot - goading them into installing this app and abandoning texting entirely. Signal's biggest downside is that when you nag people into using it, this is not going to necessarily start them on their own privacy journey. They're just not going to check it except when you text them. And if you don't text them for two weeks, Android is going to remove Signal's notification permissions. Ironically, this caused me to spend a lot more time on my phone, creating groupchats and keeping them alive, trying to get people to open their apps enough to get my text notifications. It all required a lot of work and it made me feel like I was irritating people, because I was.
The work apps required me to get over my fear of missing emails and Teams messages in the evening. I used to see evening work as an opportunity to prove that I could be a hero when something went wrong and store up goodwill for my next review. And that was fine, and probably good, for when I was a single 30 year-old. Here's the thing though: I'm 43. I am a veteran developer. I have a family that needs my attention. If I am truly needed in the evening, someone will call or text me, I am able to anticipate the times in which I am needed, and can get online to check things then. But I am a much, much happier person not being online 24 hours a day, finally ridding myself of the compulsion to check my phone every 5 minutes, picking it up every idle moment despite my best intentions to the contrary.
There were a few other issues I attempted to address with my "EDC" (everyday carry) crossover bag, and so these come with me virtually everywhere:
Overall, I consider my anti-smartphone life modifications a success. I'm able to conduct my life in a way that doesn't require constant connectivity, and I'm still reachable when necessary. I feel, mentally, much closer to how I did in the late aughts. The internet was a substantial part of my life, but something I frequently walked away from for hours to balance with other parts of life, and the lie of the early-mid 20th century is that this is no longer an option if you want to be a socially fulfilled person with a stable career. You can if you're willing to work at it.