How does it feel to live without a smartphone? ‘Almost spiritual’ | Hacker News Reader

How does it feel to live without a smartphone? ‘Almost spiritual’

theguardian.com

16 pointspseudolus11 comments

IMO it's worth distinguishing between (1) pulling out the pocket-computer to accomplish a goal already arising in the real world versus (2) letting it interrupt your attention to pull you into the virtual one with exaggerated importance.

For example, suppose I need to drive to a place I haven't been before. Using the smartphone for navigation allows me to enjoy the actual process of travel much more. I'm not filled with the same anxiety and I can take in more of the new sights instead of squinting at every sign. It makes it easier to "be present" and encourages a sense of freedom--yes, even despite its imperious stream Turn-Here instructions.

In contrast, low-value notifications are the curse, especially those that try to encourage you to care about meaningless stuff you didn't already care about. (Like how many people viewed the informative photos I shared of a small diner's updated menu.) Fortunately it's gotten easier to disable, filter, rate-limit, or change their severity. However it takes some work and discipline to do.

If I had no other way to navigate somewhere (which is possible!), I would rather pay for a dedicated satnav than put up with the downsides of a smartphone.

I bought my first smart-phone last year and have not noticed any changes from when I owned a $12 dumb-flip-phone from Walmart. I suppose it may be less about the tech and more about the way the tech is used. I don't install any apps and I used adb without root to remove most of the preloaded junk. HN is the only social site I interact with and I don't use my phone for that. I still don't quite understand what people mean when they say a phone is required to function in society. I often forget it at home when I go out and don't usually realize until I get home that I forgot it. So I think that people could just uninstall most of the apps on their phone for the same spiritual experience. Or just leave it in airplane mode or power it off.

Maybe someone could come up with an app that uses the auxiliary button that is commonly used for the flashlight mode or camera to toggle-hard-disable all apps not required for voice calls or something like that assuming it could be done without rooting the phone.

I got a OnePlus 6 this year and it's the best-spec'd phone I've owned; I chose it specifically for having 8GB of RAM. I barely use the thing most days and the most fun I've had with it so far was flashing LOS to it :p

Doom-scrolling and other time-wasting stuff is far more efficient from a PC, and I don't know how people use phones for hours to do that. Typing is also worse even with swipe!

I should try to go without a PC for a bit since I doubt I'd be able to waste time to the same extent from a phone :p

> I don't know how people use phones for hours to do that

I assume you stay off Reddit and Instagram on your phone then? I personally find mobile to be the biggest time sink for me on the low-brain-energy social media (memes and short-form videos, really) consumption front.

> Doom-scrolling and other time-wasting stuff is far more efficient from a PC, and I don't know how people use phones for hours to do that. Typing is also worse even with swipe!

This. I've never understood the appeal of smartphones: the tiny screen and lack of physical keyboard/mouse is just annoying to me. Maybe I'm addicted to my laptop, but I'm certainly not addicted to my phone. It's a useful gadget to carry around if I need to check a map, snap a photo, or make a phone call, but otherwise I don't use it much. I guess a smartphone is better than nothing, if it's your only computing device, but what a subpar experience!

I find it interesting that there isn't a movement to remove social and other distracting apps instead of completely ditching smartphones. Smartphone with default apps is about the same distraction as dumb phone but with a lot more functionality. It might be possible to use parental controls to enforce what apps can be installed or run.

An interesting point!

It's as if we've been taught if we don't want random notifications, FB, IG and all that garbage, then we have to use a flip phone.

No, it seems stupid to punish yourself with a system that forces numeric keypads into the alphabet (hit 1 three times for the letter C) versus just turning off notifications.

Also how weak are individuals' willpower? They can't resist the temptations?

Good points except for that last sentence. We already know that not only some people wired such that they're much more likely to be compulsive/obsessive, we also know that some of the worst "culprits"/software vendors have explicitly and deliberately designed their applications with such dark patterns in mind precisely to exploit this human weakness.

Can confirm. Gave up a smartphone in 2020 as part of a re-evaluation of my relationship with and dependence on technology, and the immediate peace was incredible.

I’ve been meaning to get a basic Nokia and live the smart free live but I like computing as a hobby and I sit at my desk all day.

So going without it would be tough.

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