Ask HN: How is life without a smartphone? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How is life without a smartphone?

42 pointssuketk45 comments

What benefits or compromises of not having a smartphone surprised you?

Here is how you can have a smartphone and enjoy it:

- Disable notifications from all applications that are not vital to your life. I enjoy instagram, but notifications are hard-off for me. I check it on my time.

- Turn off all sounds, period, only do vibrations

- Shift from being pushed information to pulling it. Only check apps, SMS, etc... when you want to check them, not when your phone buzzes or blinks at you.

- For loved ones, emergency access, most phones will allow you to define people that bypass this and will ring you.

That's it. Now you can still enjoy your awesome smartphone but on your own time, under your own intention, instead of someone else.

My phone only rings if my wife or family calls, and it only vibrates when I get an email. I keep it face down on another desk in my office, out of view, or sometimes in another room.

> - Shift from being pushed information to pulling it. Only check apps, SMS, etc... when you want to check them, not when your phone buzzes or blinks at you.

Do you ever find this sometimes makes things worse? I've tried it with specific apps, and I often find myself checking those apps more to make sure I haven't missed anything! With notifications, I feel comfortable that if I haven't been notified, there's nothing else to see.

That just means you have identified a weakness to strengthen through meditation! You are reaching for those apps for a dopamine hit.

I read it more as they were worried they were missing something.

Which is a common excuse, but makes no sense, because nobody's Instagram feed is reading "come to hospital, your mum's dying".

I will say that when I wrote that, I was largely thinking of Slack in particular due to a recent experience.

I started graduate school this fall, and went down to part-time at my job. I'd originally planned to keep Slack notifications turned off on days I was focused on school. Everyone was aware I wasn't working on those days, and the rest of the team is perfectly competent and able to handle themselves. In the event of a true emergency, Slack gives colleagues the option to override snoozed notifications, and some people also had my phone number and instructions to send a text.

I kept checking Slack anyway. I never saw anything that couldn't have waited—there were no "oh my god, I'm so glad I saw this" moments—but I kept doing it. I finally gave up and decided to leave the notifications on, and now I check the app less.

So, am I worried about missing something important, or is it just dopamine? I really don't know!

Worried about missing something important that your competent coworkers could have told you about through a number of different avenues?

Definitely sounds more like (no offense intended) a rat frantically pressing a lever, waiting for one of the presses to yield a piece of cheese.

Dopamine then

I had this issue too and what I found made all the difference: try this for a week. Just a week. Do whatever you want afterwards but that week will teach you a lot about how much you really need or don't need your phone.

Nice to read a solution through self reflection and meditation. This should be the default for anything.

You can set an app to only notify you silently. This means it won't buzz or beep, but when you pick up your phone it will be on the lock screen. Android has similar (and more) customizability options.

Notifications are still cognitive asteroids. I use my phone predominantly as a clock so a clean lock screen means nothing to worry about.

There is also the option to bypass the lock screen and only go to the Notification Center. On iOS this is called "deliver quietly".

This has been my general approach after doing a very long brick phone break and it seems to work.

Oh my god that’s exactly what I do. Additionally: turn all iCloud syncing off, turn off Siri and the Siri settings for each app.

> Turn off all sounds, period, only do vibrations

I hate vibrations. I used to get PVS[0] a lot when I was naive and had all the default options turned on.

I still get it, just not as bad. Like, the smallest little rumble on my thigh and I think I've received a message/notification.

I agree with you on disabling notifications though. It's something many people don't consider. Notifications are more consistent with a 'nag' than a notification.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome

I have never owned a smartphone, but have a reasonable amount of experience helping others with them, as an IT guy in a previous life.

People have unreasonable expectations about getting replies to texts or emails. Those are asynchronous channels of communication on a smartphone. If you want an answer now, use the telephone as intended, call me. If it's not worth the seemingly endless stress of using a telephone as intended, then please patiently wait for my reply. ;-)

The only time I miss having one is getting around traffic (I know how to get places, I grew up before the internet). Sure, traffic news on the radio helps, but it's not repeated often enough to be useful.

The reason I don't own a smartphone is simple... I know I'd get addicted to it, and become a worse person as a result.

I can't answer your question OP, but I'd really like to try going smartwatch-only some day.

The things I really need a phone for are directions, making calls, listening to music/podcasts, and occasionally replying to short messages. I should be able to do all of that from a smartwatch. Anything more in-depth can and should wait until I'm at a computer and ready to focus.

I would need the right product to come along, though, and that might never happen.

Not exactly what you're talking about, but I recently got a cellular Apple Watch and I've been trying to have only that with me as much as possible. I can do all the things on your list from it and my distraction plummets whenever I leave my phone at home and just have the watch. But I still maintain the bare minimum of connectivity and conveniences like music/podcasts/calls (with airpods)/texts/gps. Just not having the ability to open a web browser or reddit while having those less distracting essentials is the perfect balance for me.

Used to do this semi-frequently, for years on end. But now it's impossible. Here in China, you need a 'health code' or you can't enter a lot of spaces, including hospitals, transportation services, hotels, etc. You also need 'mobile cash' or people won't transact with you. In short, you are effectively immobile and bankrupt without a phone, and if you were to have an accident you may risk failing to obtain access to appropriate medical services.

I recently spent a week without my phone and it was incredible. When I got my phone again, I had hundreds of missed alerts and I realized 99.99% of them were not worth having. I'm now leaving my phone in another room rather than carrying it around. I'm really enjoying not getting interrupted by alerts or being tempted to look at it every now and then.

I wish I could just get a dumb phone, but I at least need communication apps like WhatsApp on my phone.

Do you? You went without WhatsApp for a week.

I have a smartphone, but disabled everything except calling and messaging. And I always have it on vibrate. It's amusing to walk through a crowd of people and realize I'm the only one who isn't staring at something a foot in front of their face. I also quit FB 1/1/19 and that was a huge bunch of time I got back to use for more interesting things.

I'm not sure of the benefits of using a dumb phone for productivity reasons today. In the past I was fine with just text messaging and calls, but today I do most of my calls and texting through apps like WhatsApp and Signal so I need a smart phone for basic communication. It's also not possible to pull up an eTicket or pay via contactless which happens quite a lot these days and is really useful. I do however try to limit what apps I use on my smart phone -- specifically the social media apps. These days Twitter is the only social network I use and I've recently cut use of that to once a day on weekends which I feel as been good for my emotional stability.

This year I've actually been trying to go without a personal computer which has been far more interesting as I felt I personally had more of an internet addiction than a smart phone one. I'm writing this on my work laptop, but on the weekends and evenings I don't have access to a computer which means less gaming and less mindless web-browsing. I think that's allowed me to be more present in the evenings which my girlfriend appreciates and I've been doing other things like cooking and DIY.

I will need to start using a personal computer again at some point because I have some personal projects I want to work on, but I want to keep use to a minimum and ideally just use it for personal projects. I suspect people on HN may be more like me and have addictions to their computers rather than smart phones so it could be worth limiting your computer use to a certain time window rather than getting rid of your smart phone.

You can go even farther than no smartphone and eliminate email, as Donald Knuth did on January 1, 1990, after using email since ~1975-1989. His reasons for wanting long hours of uninterrupted concentration may well align with yours:

https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html

I carry around an F1 Orchid Dumb Phone from Sunbeam Wireless (voice to text on it is awesome!) and try to leave my smartphone in my office and find I am more relaxed and have more time when I don't scroll HN and News as much. I still usually bring my smartphone when I leave home but I love spending evenings without it.

I got a smartphone a couple of years ago. The only real difference for me is I no longer bring a camera around on shorter trips, and having a map app was helpful when I was living abroad.

Life with a dumb phone was fine. I guess sometimes I had to type urls people would send me into my computer. Near the end it was a bit annoying when people would send me five texts in a row, or when people wanted to be super loose with their plans. Planning social stuff has become a lot looser, I noticed, in the last five years because of constant texting.

If you’re considering getting a dumbphone, all I can say is, it’s easier than you think. Carry a little notebook around with you, wear a watch, ask people for directions. I wasn’t shunned by my friends or anything like that. I’m in my early 30s and I even had a landline when I was in college. It wasn’t a problem. You do need a printer, though.

I don't use a smartphone in exception of receiving SMS for auth for banks and stuff.

My smartphone is always off, almost no one can join me on it and almost no one can call me unless I specifically tell them I will be reachable at a certain time.

The benefits:

- No stress of having to respond to a call in the middle of nowhere, or to have to compromise my time for non urgent conversation.

- No wasting mental energy in having to wait for a response or a call from someone.

- No stupid apps to siphon my time

- Bed time and outdoor time is not hijacked

- Way less exposure to EMFs

- More time thinking, meditating, better mental health overall

- More present in life and for people around

- More peaceful life

Cons:

- You are difficult to reach, and people will have hard time reaching you when on need

- Your social life may suffer as people consider to be reachable something essential

- Modern life is more and more centered around smartphones and this can make interaction with society unoptimized if you don't use it

Never owned a SIM card, so don’t have to deal with phone calls when I am out and about. Use Skype and TeleGuard to make voip calls. Have WiFi at home and work, so people can easily get hold of me when I am working. Can usually find free WiFi if I need to get hold of someone when I am out and about. Have an old iPhone 7, so can still use the apps I like. Love that there is no constant notifications, calls or emails. Things like banking can be annoying though as they like mobile numbers. Had a Skype number for a few years, so might have to go down that road again sometime unless I look for another solution. Happy to have a camera, podcasts and toy in my pocket, but not to be working 24/7.

I’m 38 and I’ve never owned a smartphone. In 2012, my boss made me get a cellphone so he could stay in touch with me at a conference. I bought a flip phone for $15 at Office Depot and used that for awhile. Overall, outside of work it was pretty pointless. No calls were ever worth answering and the T9 texting was annoying.

I have a Google Voice number that I use for calls/texts from my iPod Touch or iPad. For awhile it worked with my 3G Kindle so I could text on the go without Wi-Fi. Then Amazon turned off the free 3G and I haven’t had cellular internet since.

Really don’t think I’m missing anything significant.

Did it for years with no real issues until I wanted to get a dev job. My friend said "you cant walk into a software interview with that" and immediately bought me a used iphone. Having one after a near 6 year break hasnt really bugged me, I think the break let me see them for their benefits and more easily identify negative / compulsive behavior before engaging in it. Also my wife is a lot happier that Im easier to communicate with and Ive been able to take hundreds of priceless photos of my baby without whipping out my canon. Or maybe thats just what Tim Cook wants me to think...

I started using the feature of iOS where you can block a website. Once I realize I’m using a site too much I block it. That’s been amazing for me to get time back. Ditto on my laptop, /etc/hosts.

It’s easy to experience. Delete/disable all apps except phone and sms, and try it. Maybe you’ll like it.

My teenager is grounded right now. he doesn’t seem to like life without a smartphone very much.

It's liberating. Try, switch it off for few hours or even for whole weekend.

Never had one. Phone carriers haven't invested to have cell coverage in my neighborhood, why should I invest $1000 to have a $100 a month bill?

Can you describe how life is without a smartphone?

I've got two landlines at home. I usually have one if not two tablets in my backpack. Skype is my "mobile" phone plan and works wherever there is WiFi.

My bill is generally less than half of $100/mo and my phone was significantly less than $1,000. I also use Wi-Fi the majority of the time and still find my phone generally useful in areas where I don't service. Although admittedly, loss of service is a rarity for me.

Spending $500 to get a $50 a month bill doesn’t sound that much better to me.

Of course when you word it that way :) I don't spend money on a phone for the purpose of paying a bill. I spend money on a phone and pay my monthly phone bill because I think it adds enough value to my life to make it worthwhile. Others may make a different decision on the tradeoffs and decide it's not worth it. I was just pointing out that the numbers used in your previous comment seemed very high to me.

Me too. Never had a smartphone or any type of cell phones.

When I'm out, I only have my bank card, driver's license, car key in my pocket. And a bootable USB stick containing all my working environment.

How does you USB stick work? Is it just a Linux ISO or are you able to boot into a system with custom configuration?

It is a Debian setup with my custom configuration

Surprisingly comfortable, for me, at least. I'm somewhat older, so I had some pre-smartphone habits to dust off and fall back upon

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