
Phones Should Be Like Toothbrushes - aae1807
https://emptyyourcup.substack.com/p/your-phone-should-be-like-your-toothbrush
======
V-2
_> Your toothbrush is the greatest tool of all time. You only use it when
you’re supposed to for as long as you need to and then let it go._

I use my phone to play blitz chess online (I'm a chess player; if you play
chess, you shouldn't focus exclusively on blitz, but it does have its place
eg. to help quickly practice new openings)... to listen to podcasts (for
instance when I'm washing the dishes - no dishwasher where I live right now,
now that's quite a setback)... or to read articles on Hacker News, for one. Do
I _need_ to do any of these? No. Certainly not in the same sense as I need
brushing my teeth. But these are my pastimes. I also don't _need_ reading a
book, listening to a radio show or going to standup comedy. It's
entertainment.

A smartphone is _not_ like a toothbrush, and there's no reason why it should
be. Its applications go beyond bare necessities by design.

~~~
Funes-
> to listen to podcasts [...] or to read articles on Hacker News, for one. Do
> I need to do any of these? No. Certainly not in the same sense as I need
> brushing my teeth. But these are my pastimes. I also don't need reading a
> book, listening to a radio show or going to standup comedy. It's
> _entertainment_.

That's the thing: The apps that take up most of the average person's
smartphone daily usage[0] are _designed_ to exploit your psychological
imperatives and vulnerabilities, so they can literally _entertain_ you for as
long as possible--that is, to divert the user from other, more intentional
activities that are much more costly in terms of conscious preparation and
effort, by means of frictionless, persuasive design[1].

Being able to entertain oneself by using an electronic device is not a bad
thing _per se_ ; however, smartphones have enabled corporations to dictate our
behavior during every single hour of our waking lives, turning it into a
mindless, constant consumption of entertainment. Many people's lives have
become a never-ending pastime. Our attention, our time, our true beliefs and
desires are all we've got to develop as a person and lead a fulfilling life.
We should think critically of something that permeates our lives as heavily as
smartphones and their apps.

[0] All the people ranging from 10 to ~20 years old that I've recently met
significantly exceed the 2.5 hours of smartphone use per day that the article
mentions. That only illustrates my own experience, but I believe it's
something to think about.

[1] [https://captology.stanford.edu/about/about-the-
lab-1.html](https://captology.stanford.edu/about/about-the-lab-1.html).

~~~
V-2
_> Being able to entertain oneself by using an electronic device is not a bad
thing per se; however, smartphones have enabled corporations to dictate our
behavior during every single hour of our waking lives_

I see it as a mere externalization of responsiblity for being, well, lazy.

Somehow I'm never browsing Facebook or Instagram for pictures of cats and the
like. I guess they must have overlooked me when they "dictated" behavior to
people.

 _> Many people's lives have become a never-ending pastime._

Yes, ever since we no longer work in the field for 15 hours a day ;) There are
pastimes, and there are pastimes though. It's pointless to pretend all are
equal - in terms of intellectual or aesthetic stimulation.

 _> We should think critically of something that permeates our lives as
heavily as smartphones and their apps._

I agree.

~~~
anoncake
> Somehow I'm never browsing Facebook or Instagram for pictures of cats and
> the like. I guess they must have overlooked me when they "dictated" behavior
> to people.

It's great that the methods Facebook uses don't work on you, be it because
their "product" just does not interest you or because you have above average
self-control. Other people are not as lucky.

~~~
V-2
My point is that adopting such point of view is a form of fatalism that leads
to erosion of self-control.

~~~
anoncake
Realizing that your and other's self-control has limits does not erode it any
more than realizing you are not Usain Bolt keeps you from walking. But
pretending it has no limits means we rely too much on it when instead we
should reduce the need for it. It also means we expect people to resist
manipulation when they simply can't.

~~~
V-2
But "someone tries to manipulate me" is a quite different mindset than
"someone dictates my behavior turning my life it into something mindless" (to
slightly paraphrase the comment I originally responded to). Perhaps it's a
matter of phrasing that irked me.

~~~
anoncake
But the issue is not that someone _tries_ to manipulate us, but that they –
partially – _succeed_. So saying that they “dictate our behavior” may be
hyperbole, but aside from that, it's the better mindset. Denying a problem
exists is rarely useful.

Of course if you understand “dictate” as “dictate to the extent that I cannot
resist”, then you might as well deny the issue you believe you can't deal with
anyway.

------
vallode
> Your phone does none of these and that’s why it’s a lousy tool at best.

A phone is not a lousy tool, from the perspective of it being a tool it is
actually quite effective at what it does.

> People now spend 2.5 hours on their phones, daily. That’s 17.5 hours a week
> and, unless you work part-time at a call center, that’s way too much.

This is a silly point, in my opinion. It is not the quantity of time spent on
a phone that matters but the quality. If I call my grandparents each weekend
for 30 minutes is that already reaching my quota for phone usage that day?

I think this article is a rushed thought that should have been polished. The
core issue with phones, it seems to me, is not the phone itself but the self-
control of humans that overuse it.

I know people who scroll through social media for hours on end, in my opinion
that feels like a bad use of your time.

But what stops someone from reading a book? Or connecting with their distant
family? Learning math? Keeping track of their life?

_So_ much can be achieved with a phone, we have got to stop treating it like a
Devil's implement.

~~~
gchamonlive
> _So_ much can be achieved with a phone, we have got to stop treating it like
> a Devil's implement.

I agree, that is why it is not the phone that is the devil tool itself, but
what's on it. Broadcasting tools like Instagram are the most time consuming
and addictive without actual benefits. Using those tools are actually
detrimental to mental health [1].

Thus I believe without understanding what makes phone usage harmful to both
productivity and mental health, we are bound to fall into the same traps with
other technologies.

[1] [https://www.salon.com/2019/01/30/a-gold-standard-study-
finds...](https://www.salon.com/2019/01/30/a-gold-standard-study-finds-
deleting-facebook-is-great-for-your-mental-health/)

~~~
ubercow13
Instagram can have benefits, like helping you attract a mate or improving your
photography.

~~~
gchamonlive
I meant without actual benefits in the context of being addictive

------
vortico
Getting a smartphone a few years ago was a great change of my life. I can now
catch up on boring emails, tech support, and GitHub issues while being in a
place otherwise doing nothing. Typing on my phone is only about 1.5x the
effort as typing on a keyboard. So when I'm in front of a real PC, I can get
straight to the useful work like programming without an hour of catch-up per
day. This results on me taking walks and going to social events more often
even when I have heavy workloads.

I'm a quite impatient person, so if a friend wants to meet for lunch and is 20
minutes late for whatever reason, I'm no longer annoyed/bored because I now
just read articles or play dumb phone games for 20 minutes. That situation
would drive me crazy before I had a smartphone, but now I'm always more
relaxed wherever I am because I have a super convenient personal assistant and
time-burner.

There are humans out there that make irrational decisions, but I think for
most people, if they willingly do something, it's because they have evaluated
that it gives them net benefit. Assuming that most people have no control of
themselves is definitely wrong.

~~~
majkinetor
Exactly.

Regarding people, you need to spend time with them and its not true that 100%
of that time is useful. While you previously did absolutely nothing, now you
can do infinitely many things of various complexity and usefulness WHILE STILL
BEING HALF-PRESENT. You have more choices. I am also VERY IMPATIENT, and with
phone stuff that were driving me crazy are now not a problem at all.

The article is completely meaningless - the two things are not comparable.

Many people like to do mostly meaningless stuff - watch reality shows, read
the newspapers, read pulp fiction, watch sport events every day with a lot of
emotions. Phone is another medium, nothing else. People will find ways to do
such things on any kind of medium.

One thing is more concerning - time doing nothing (boredom) is reduced a lot
with a phone because its so effective in accessing stuff from everywhere.
During such times human brain can practice imagination and problem solving
(there is nothing detracting ATM).

Simply turning off notifications and real time sync is enough - I usually
check for a mail 3 times a day manually and sync the phone even less then that
(not only on phone but on Desktop too). I think that method works pretty good.

------
Jorge1o1
I’ve never really bought into the argument that if we set aside our phones,
all that liberated free time will go towards “something useful.”

People aren’t going to spend those 2.5 hours a day learning a new language, or
coding a side project or whatever, they’re going to find something else that’s
mindless and entertaining like sitting in front of the TV for 2.5 hours a day.

~~~
0x5002
I'm inclined to disagree to a degree. I don't use my phone for anything but
Messengers and Twitter (apart from the "utilities", such as Uber or an alarm)
- and have deleted by Twitter account a while ago.

After doing that, I find myself looking at my phone out of habit/boredeom, but
realize I removed the last time wasting app (I got rid of reddit about a year
ago) and turn the thing off again. This results in me doing things I consider
to be a better investment of my time.

Yes, that might be watching a show on TV - but I found that to be more
engaging than mindlessly scrolling through people's opinions I ultimately
don't care about (as Twitter, as opposed to say HN, rarely spawns intriguing
thoughts).

Also not having a simple distraction available does result in me being more
likely to spend time on more "important" things, might it be yard work or a
side project. But it certainly depends on one's personality and preference.

~~~
PascLeRasc
I think the quality of Twitter can be excellent if you're following "the
right" people. I'd be happy to recommend some users who post incredibly
intriguing content if you're interested.

~~~
0x5002
I would be interested in that.

------
danaris
This reads like a "those darn millennials" post, both in how the author seems
to think everyone should act like him, and in how out of touch with the way
other people _actually_ do things he is.

First off, phones aren't really _phones_ anymore. They're computers. For many
people, they're the primary or even the _only_ computer they own. It would
sound a lot sillier if he said "people are spending 2.5 hours per day on their
computers, that's way too much!"

Second, who the hell is he to say how we should be spending our time? Or how
we should be using our pocket computer-cum-worldwide-instant-communication-
devices? So what if I'm getting distracted by notifications? Maybe they're
from my close friends and family members who live hundreds of miles away, yet
whom I am able to converse with regularly without seriously interrupting my
daily work, because text communication is much less disruptive than an actual
phone conversation. Maybe they're reminders for me to get up out of my chair
on a regular basis and move around so I can stay at least moderately healthy
at my sedentary job. Or reminders of what piece of work I'm supposed to be
working on during this part of the day, so I don't get lost down a rabbit hole
and lose hours unproductively. Hell, maybe they're notifications to take my
life-saving medication that I'm otherwise too absent-minded to take at the
right times.

So sure, I've set my phone on vibrate, because a soft "bzzt-bzzt" is
unquestionably less disruptive _to the people around me_ than the Final
Fantasy victory fanfare playing every time a reminder goes off. And I've
disabled notifications from apps that just want to get me to spend more money
on them. But leave my phone at _home_? That's the second most absurd thing in
his piece.

The most absurd is the notion that your toothbrush prompts you to stop using
it when you're done.

~~~
Theodores
...the author also uses the buzzword 'mindfulness'.

I thought this had peak-memed about four years ago but apparently not,
interest in the concept of 'mindfulness' is marching ahead:

[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=mindfuln...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=mindfulness)

The problem I have with the word is that there are always better words to use.
Being 'aware of one's surroundings' rather than 'mindful' makes more sense to
me as I am not initiated into the cult of 'mindfulness'. The word is like
insisting that people do yoga instead of anything else involving physical
activity. For people that have the 'mindful' meme in their head the use of the
word resonates, but for those of us that are suspicious of the word it is a
turn off.

There is a certain amount of grandstanding with the use of the 'mindfulness'
word, it implies someone knows better when they probably don't. They are
holier than thou as they can do this 'mindfulness' thing. They are in touch
with some spiritual understanding that also needs kale and yoga.

In the premise of the article is that the person with the phone/toothbrush is
the most important person in the known universe. What they are doing is also
totally important.

But life is not like that. If you have a relative in hospital you will be
desperate to answer that phone. Same if you have some romance or job situation
needing a deal to be closed. How can anyone be so aloof that they are not
wanting to get messages?

Well one answer is that none of us really are that important. Six billion or
so people could phone any one of us up at any moment in time but it is
actually only a small handful of relatives and friends that do call. "Hi Mum!"
as the saying goes.

So what better than to create a false narrative for yourself where you are
that popular and so famous that you need to close down your communication
channels as if you were the Queen of England? Don't let people email you and
suggest they reach out over a 'tweet'. Now we have these instant communication
devices, heaven forbid anyone actually use them. Have no phone just because if
you had one then recruiters could call it. Have no email because if you had
one then someone might send you spam.

------
david_frier
I get the point, but "like a toothbrush" is a stretch. Dentists think none of
us spends _enough_ time with the toothbrush.

~~~
pqs
Well, we've read the article. That was the objective of the metaphor.

~~~
gjm11
Just as a data point, I looked at the article title and the comments here and
decided _not_ to bother reading the article.

------
ChrisRR
> People now spend 2.5 hours on their phones, daily. That’s 17.5 hours a week
> and, unless you work part-time at a call center, that’s way too much.

Says who? "Too much" is not a quantifiable amount. There's a time and a place
for everything.

------
rekshaw
My phone (iOS) is perennially on Do Not Disturb + let calls through. In my
life, calls are super rare, and 99% when they happen I want to know.
Everything else can wait until I check my phone. Sure, sometimes I check it
often when I'm bored, but when I'm concentrated / in the flow I am never
interrupted.

I can't believe most people keep notifications on, and sometimes at full
volume. It would drive me crazy.

~~~
actionowl
I'm in pretty much the same camp here. One day I was chatting with a collegue
and he asked if he could call me to work out a problem and I realized I had no
idea where my phone was, the battery was dead when I found it. I hadn't even
used for a few days.

The majority of my time spent looking at my phone is for 2FA , taking a photo,
or bored somewhere waiting.

~~~
HenryBemis
Same.. usage may vary, but I have only kept notifications for messaging (but
none on "groups" and I user "Favourites" for the calls/messages while on DND.
Everything else sits in absolute silence as it should (for me).

------
josefresco
Sorry but I have a small business, active family, 2 kids (1 teen and 1 tween)
and silencing my phone, or putting it away for long periods of time just
doesn't work. I don't spend as much time on my phone as the article claims is
"average" (thanks screen time!) but it's simply unrealistic for people that
have a busy, dynamic life.

Every single day is a symphony of coordination between myself, my wife and my
kids. Schedules change, buses are late, appointments are rescheduled - going
"offline" would seriously effect my ability to operate on a daily basis.

~~~
KozmoNau7
I understand the dilemma, however people used to manage life just fine before
cell phones became a thing.

You can make a plan for the day, everyone does their thing, you don't have to
be available 24/7\. If your day-to-day life is a constant flurry of schedule
changes and time-critical communication, maybe that needs to change. Being
constantly on edge like that is a surefire recipe for stress.

~~~
josefresco
> If your day-to-day life is a constant flurry of schedule changes and time-
> critical communication

You must not have kids, or much going on. I'm not saying it's chaos, or that
everyday is that insane, but it requires coordination. "Blanket advice" like
this I find only applies to a small percentage of people. Just the kids alone*
make my day pretty nutty, both have hobbies, practices, games, after school
events, play dates, sleepovers, they forget things, they need to be picked up
because "so and sos" Mom is sick or late - I have doctors appointments which
also require multiple prescriptions, I have client meetings, they too are busy
and reschedule occasionally. Again, not every day, but enough that using my
phone like a f _cking toothbrush is just insane. Sorry for the rant.

_ I have only TWO kids. My peers, with 3 or more would laugh maniacally at
this suggestion.

Edit: I apologize, I realize I simply re-stated my original comment, adding
more detail. TLDR; I disagree with your assertion ;-)

~~~
KozmoNau7
And yet, people did all of those things just fine before cellphones were
ubiquitous. What I'm saying is that all of this stress of modern life is
artificial and unnecessary.

------
JulianMorrison
The primary problem of the phone is that it's a lineal descendant of a
technology that was unavoidably based on "stop what you are doing and pay
attention to me". (Contrast telegrams, from the same era.)

It's not just that voice calling necessarily interrupts you (or if you arrange
that it goes to voicemail, this is considered rude), it's that the whole
mental model of a phone is a thing that interrupts you.

------
d--b
Maybe if my toothbrush was a little more like my phone, I wouldn't forget to
brush my teeth twice a week...

~~~
HenryBemis
Not trying to promote electric toothbrushes, but what worked for me is to get
an electric one, keep the charging dock right next bathroom sink, with the
toothbrush latched on, so you have the visual queue/reminder to brush them
100% of the mornings/nights.

------
Funes-
I always say that any use of screens, given their captivating mimetic and
sensorial nature, should be preceded by a clear intention regarding _what_
will they be used for. Moreover, I wholeheartedly agree on the fact that
electronic devices--any kind of devices, really--should only be used for as
long as they are required to accomplish the task at hand, which has ben
decided _a priori_. Anything that deviates from that is effectively dictating
our behavior to a harmful extent.

------
magicalhippo
Use it twice a day and get a new one every three months or so?

------
Angostura
Imagine how great our oral hygiene would be if toothbrushes were more like
phones.

... flossing away during meetings, on the bus etc.

------
_rutinerad
My toothbrush has bluetooth... and an iPhone app...

([https://www.oralb.co.uk/en-gb/products/electric-
toothbrushes...](https://www.oralb.co.uk/en-gb/products/electric-
toothbrushes/oral-b-genius-9000-electric-rechargable-toothbrush-white))

------
hamilyon2
The endgame is whole population wearing AR headsets so that corporations
control your whole vision and hearing. Everything is consentual of course!
Nobody is forcing you. But everyone is wearing them anyway.

------
abalos
> Kill vibration.

I did this a while ago. What happened was I ended up checking my phone
significantly more due to FOMO. Hiding your phone is a better solution, since
it's more out of sight.

------
purplezooey
"2.5 hours on their phones daily?". Sheeeat. Before lunch, maybe.

