TV is the same. Some people turn on the tv and “flick” to see what’s on to watch to fill time, some people turn it on with purpose when time has been carved out for something specific.
But out of the box all this shit is constantly begging you for your attention, they come with so many attention sinks installed that you have to find time and energy to sit down and curate, there's entire huge industries based on getting you to stare at your phone forever that you have to consciously spend time and effort to get rid of, versus "this ipod just plays music and cannot do anything else".
It's something I noticed in myself when I switched from streaming services to a curated local library. I actually listen to entire albums and savor them instead of jumping around from one infinite content firehose to another. Streaming is convenient, but the friction of maintaining a local library makes it meaningful.
2) Apps may change and often experience “enshittification.” Hardware can break but non-connected hardware is otherwise unlikely to change.
3) Many apps collect private data through telemetry or ad networks. Data may leak or be sold.
4) Decoupling allows you to precommit to different situations. For example, you could bring your media player but not your phone to your workout if you have trouble staying on task, or if you just want to disconnect for a while.
5) Many people have limits to their self control, hence the prevalence of destructive addictions (gambling, alcohol, drugs) in society. For these people it’s a good idea to precommit when possible in addition to working on other skills to manage the problem.
This is a huge part of it. Connected apps are never complete. They can't be. They must always evolve in pursuit of the marginal user, eventually betraying their core audience.
An unconnected single-purpose device doesn't need to make anyone happy other than the user who owns and operates it, which makes it more valuable for the user in the long-run.
If you think this is hyperbole or over-reacting, you're either too far gone, or part of the problem and should be included in the erasure.
Why even bother trying to moderate the use of a device that has been purpose built to hook into our reward centers like a slot machine? An addict’s worst enemy is “just one more can’t hurt”
I've often thought the same as you wrote in your comment, but my inner contrarian just gave me an answer.
I think it takes discipline to accept that it's impossible (for you) to "purposefully" use short form content and choose the higher-friction option of single purpose devices. The discipline just happens at a higher level, where the Pavlovian temptation to scroll hasn't kicked in yet.
For some reason, that option is commonly seen as lack of self control. Perhaps that is true in the literal definition of the word, but I'd argue (since the result is the same - less time wasted) that it's equal to not scrolling when you have a phone.
Granted, less drastic options are available. I've installed a lot of feed-blocking plugins and time limits (HN noprocrast) which works reasonably well for me.
That is not to piss on single use devices, I still have calculator on my desk just because it is more convenient for me to have key per function, but most of those are outright worse experience.
Tho there is something to be said for pressing play and just getting music instead of waiting for spotify mobile app to sort its mess and still somehow forget on what state it was last time...