
Digitally weary users switch to ‘dumb’ phones - walterbell
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/01ba2970-9e70-11e5-8ce1-f6219b685d74.html#axzz40uwFLMBc
======
bpchaps
I recently got rid of my cell phone. There are a lot of benefits and just
about as many negatives. Overall, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.
For context, I've been on-call for the past 7 years since the start of my
career, so ditching the phone probably comes from that. fwiw, I have a land
line, but that's about it.

Positives--

My instinct is no longer to check my phone when I'm bored or waiting. It was
rough at first, but I can be pretty content just standing in a line with my
own thoughts.

Nobody can call me at any given time, whenever they want. Social anxiety has a
mental toll on my energy, so not having a phone around gives a significant
boost.

It's easier to accept not knowing something.

Plans are planned significantly more concretely.

Negatives--

"You don't have a phone?! What's wrong with you?!" -everybody

Not having a GPS/google makes things hard to find in certain circumstances.

There's a huge expectation when dealing with any modern service that you'll
have a cell phone and can be contacted at any time. For example, it's
impossible to order an Uber on a laptop.

(I realize the article is about smart->dumb, but the problems are still
surprisingly similar)

~~~
matwood
A negative for me would be not being able to read whenever I have to wait on
something. I have read more books than ever before because I have them on my
phone.

It sounds like a lot of people in this thread do not need to quit using a
smart phone, and instead need to quit facebook. I don't do FB and do not have
many alerts at all on my phone. My email apps are smart enough to only show me
alerts for things that matter and everything else I get to when I get to it.

I do agree with you on one thing though. When hanging out with people leave
your phones in the car. Nothing is more annoying that having a conversation
and people messing around on their phones.

~~~
bpchaps
Sometimes it's not as easy as just quitting facebook. This argument comes up a
lot, but it's a solution that works entirely on a case-by-case basis.

When I had a smart phone, the methods of communicating with me were email,
work email, work IM, facebook, skype, hangouts, phone, and text. Because of
work, it wasn't possible to do airplane mode and it wasn't possible to do a
sleep-mode bypass for specific phone numbers because of the oncall situations.

The only way I could find to manage notifications properly was to essentially
create a black list for my contacts and blacklist all apps. It worked up until
somebody on the black list needs to reach me, so they get added to the white
list to avoid the issue. Oh, shit, they're texting me while I'm trying to work
- back to the whitelist!

It eventually just becomes an incredibly tedious task to manage your
notifications properly - which in itself is a dang distraction.

Agreed on leaving phones elsewhere - just as long as you live in a decent
area. Some of the most awkward times I've had recently are while hanging out
with others where everyone is on their phones and I can really only just
twiddle my thumb. Bringing the subject only results in "hipster" comments,
rather than an actual discussion.

~~~
wongarsu
Many people have two phones (and two accounts for every relevant messaging
service) for that reason; one phone for normal communication and one that
people are told to only contact in urgent cases. If you manage to make people
adhere to that you can put the normal phone in airplane mode as needed while
still being reachable for important things.

~~~
eli
Android and iPhone both have software settings that can mute calls and texts
from anyone who isn't on a whitelist. I use the "Blocking Mode" on Android all
the time: if you call me after 11pm and aren't on a short list, you go right
to voicemail.

~~~
wongarsu
For some cases that works great, but whitelists fall short when the same
people text you both for important and unimportant reasons.

------
zupreme
For those not willing (like me) to take the plunge into the world of no phone
or changing back to a plain old flip phone, try just using Airplane mode on a
regular basis.

I do this all the time when I want peace and/or focus and it does the trick
for me. I still have the benefit of a phone nearby if I have a genuine need to
make a call or to get some information, but I don't have the inbound calling
or popups which come with having data enabled.

~~~
FreezerburnV
After reading an article on how multitasking kills your productivity/IQ, I
decided to take a step that's similar: disable all my notifications. (I'm not
sure how possible this is on Android, but on iOS it's relatively easy) The
only things I have allowed to give me notifications anymore are: calendar, to
do app, and the actual part of the phone that makes calls. This gives me
similar to what you're saying: I have my phone available so that if something
bad happens to my wife, I can react to that immediately, but otherwise it will
remain silent so that I can deal with things in a more "pull" manner than
having a million things "push" into my attention. (I also cleaned out most of
my apps, because most stuff on iPhone is designed to take over your life and
make you a zombie addict to them, and screw that)

~~~
matwood
You can turn on Do Not Disturb and setup people like your wife so her
calls/texts always come through. I started doing this with my phone anytime I
want some time to think without being bothered.

~~~
FreezerburnV
I used to do this when sleeping. Now I've decided that I dislike getting any
kind of notification unless it's objectively important. (thing I need to get
done via to do app, phone call, though with the latter I can still get spam,
but the rate at which those come through is low, so I still see them as
important) And I can still turn on some notifications in some circumstances.
For example, at a convention recently, I turned SMS and Facebook Messages back
on so I could coordinate with people easier.

------
mesozoic
Or you know the other option. Uninstall facebook and twitter and instgram and
snapchat and....

Your battery will last much longer. You won't get constant popups showing you
your life isn't as good as your friends lives. And you can access the internet
if you need to.

~~~
giancarlostoro
I do this as well, and I wish people did this more, it really is sad when I am
supposed to be the "computer nerd" and everyone else is glued to a screen
longer than me. I also get less of people's attention nowadays as a result.

------
dasil003
I understand the appeal of this, but I feel like the only way to get through
the modern world is to build up the antibodies to these distractions. We can't
all reasonably hide ourselves away in quiet country houses either literally or
figuratively. Giving up the conveniences of a smart phone for the truly useful
things in order to avoid the distraction of notifications and boredom-browsing
is the kind of measure that might be necessary for the truly addicted, but for
most of us I think it's cutting off ones nose to spite ones face. How about
just starting by uninstalling Facebook and turning off notifications?

~~~
mziel
Not a FB user, but actually it can't be uninstalled.

I had an Android phone with no FB (I probably deleted it after I got the
phone), and after the system upgrade it got installed without me agreeing to
it. And I can't seem to undo it.

~~~
enjo
To be clear that's because the FB binary is baked into the firmware. Buy a
better Android phone that doesn't stuff your default install with nonsense.

~~~
barbs
Or find a custom ROM like cyanogenmod

------
bronz
I have never owned a smartphone. For the last six years I have not owned any
kind of cell-phone, period. For the past four years I have used an Ipod touch
so that I can make VOIP calls and check the web if there is wifi around.
Despite what you might think, not having a phone is pretty liberating. If I
get lost then it is up to me to find my way. This has lead to some super scary
situations driving to and from the Oakland airport. Every time people ask me
if they can give me a call on my cell phone I have to explain to them that I
don't have a cell phone and that I use an Ipod instead, which can be awkward.
I have had a few situations where people came up to me and desperately begged
me for the use of my phone because they lost theirs or were presumably
experiencing some kind of emergency. Now I know from experience that people
will not believe you if you tell them that you don't have a phone in that
context. If you go without a phone you will quickly learn that people have
completely abandoned the concept of meeting at a place at a certain time and
planning it a day or two in advance. Also people look super stupid when they
are glued to their phones, especially in the car. I do scoff at those people
and it feels good. Anyway, I will probably be getting a dumb-phone soon. You
need one for two-step authentication and many other services nowadays. And
also it is much easier to just provide a number when people ask for your cell
number rather than explaining stuff to them.

------
rm_-rf_slash
I understand the appeal of partying like it's 1999, but for me the real
measure of mental fortitude is having all the options and choosing to avoid
them.

My girlfriend and I used to be on our phones all the time. It turned us into
reactionary consumers of information and we didn't like how our conversations
and feelings were essentially being dictated to us by our information sources,
so we stopped using phones in the evening, and we have significantly cut back
in the morning.

Working hours are hardest. The flip side of intense focus is a craving for
distraction when energy is between peaks. I have experimented with the
Pomodoro Technique from time to time, but so far I've had trouble breaking the
habit long enough to make it an expectation rather than an exception.

But other HN users may find it useful. Pomodoro helps you work _with_ the time
you have, instead of against it, and it helps enforce a protection from
distraction by design.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

------
delazeur
I had a Sony Ericsson for 3 or 4 years; for the first year or two it could go
almost a week without charging (it was always on but I rarely used it). I'm
still not a huge mobile user, but now that I have a smart phone it's nice to
have Google search and maps when I need them. On the other hand, while I don't
think my phone has much pull in my life, I can certainly see why a heavier
user would want to get away from it. Sometimes it seems like all people do is
stare at their phones.

------
username223
Speaking as someone with a dumb phone and standalone devices for many
smartphone features... I don't want to carry an expensive, fragile device that
needs to be charged at least once a day, and that does a mediocre job. My iPod
Shuffle is several years old, lasts a couple of days, holds plenty of music,
and survives rain, snow, mud, and being dropped with nothing but a bit of
cosmetic damage. My phone fits easily in a normal pants pocket, costs all of
$30 to replace if it dies, and doesn't require an expensive monthly data plan.
My camera has an interchangeable lens and takes printable pictures, even
indoors.

I see the potential advantages of a smartphone, but the tech isn't there yet,
and it is moving in the wrong direction. I don't want a thinner, wider, taller
thing with more pixels. I want a smaller, tougher, cheaper thing with more
battery life.

------
eastbayjake
I had a flip phone until two years ago but it became a professional liability.
I was interviewing at a tech startup in SF and the interviewer saw me pull out
my dumb phone after the interview to check the time -- I got an offer, but not
before the interviewer made a condescending follow-up call to ask if I was
"willing and capable" to design for mobile because I had a flip phone.

Needless to say, I declined their offer... but I bought an iPhone shortly
after so I wouldn't ever face that situation again.

~~~
lucaspiller
Just give him some line about your side project needing to support WML :-)

------
marssaxman
I can understand that impulse. I find that I'm using my phone less and less
over time, as I find the whole "install our app!!! check in with our server!!!
let us track your location!!!" ecosystem increasingly irritating and just
don't want to deal with it. I check my email, I send and receive texts, I kill
time on the web, and that's about it. Sometimes I call a car with Uber or
Lyft, too, but it turns out that [http://m.uber.com](http://m.uber.com)
actually works better than Uber's app, and punching my address in is a small
enough irritation that I generally just leave location services disabled.

Entering text hasn't gotten to be any less of a chore over time and browsing
the web through a telescope hasn't gotten any less tiresome, but people have
gotten more clever about exploiting the mobile web, and I just... well, I say,
"fuck off, ad industry, I'll find something else to do rather than put up with
you".

But I'm lazy, so I'm still using my Moto X, and it's not easy to figure out
what kind of featurephone would be able to do what I wanted without irritating
me, so my next phone will also more than likely be yet another smartphone
whose features I mostly ignore.

------
Animats
Just turn stuff off. I removed most of the Google services from my Android
phone. There's no Google account. (At initial startup, you're prompted to sign
up for Google. Choose "Not now", and then disable Google One Time Init.)

I miss voice dialing, though.

~~~
sliverstorm
Do you skip Maps? That's one of the most concrete positives on a smartphone,
to me, aside from phone calls, texts, and calendering.

~~~
Animats
I use ZaNavi, from the F-Droid repository.

It's not great, but it's OK.

------
Dylan16807
Have any of these people complaining about inherently low battery life simply
tried turning off data when they're not using it?

~~~
khedoros
What's the threshold where a device could be said to have good battery life?
The article talked about devices with 29 and 38 days of standby time. If I
turn off data and don't touch my phone, maybe I'll get three days. That's
great battery life for a smartphone, but on the low end in the context of all
cell phones.

~~~
Dylan16807
I'm not sure what the cutoff should be, but at least a week. My smartphone
uses less than 10% battery a day on standby. My last smartphone wasn't that
different. And this isn't even in a spot with a good signal.

On the other hand if I let skype run on the data connection, it uses hundreds
of megabytes of mystery data and burns out the battery in two days.

------
nickysielicki
I used a Nokia 208 for about 8 months last year, coming from a Moto G, and
leaving to a Nexus 6.

Battery life was the best part by far. My phone wouldn't need to touch a
charger more than every other day. One feature that I was glad to not be
without was tethering-- it has a 3g radio, and after some setup I got
tethering working on my laptop.

The part that I didn't like was not having a GPS and Camera. I used a sansa
clip for my music, but I don't have a standalone camera or GPS. I wonder if I
would have enjoyed sticking with a dumb-phone if I had bought a Garmin eTrex
and a DSLR instead of a Nexus.

That's something that I think we take for granted with our smartphones:
They're really not that good at what we use them for. My sansa clip has 128gb
of storage and plays my FLAC library flawlessly, gets days of battery life,
and is convenient for exercising. A DSLR will knock the socks off my Nexus 6's
camera. An eTrex has enough battery life and precision to make sure I never
get lost, and can be loaded with OSM data-- no internet required.

I think generally speaking, you know when you're going to want to take a
photo, or be navigated via gps, or listen to music. So why not take the route
that allows you to experience those tasks at their best?

I can't speak much for the social effects of it. I didn't feel any more in-
the-moment.

~~~
icebraining
Because getting a decent camera, standalone GPS, music player, ebook reader
and phone is quite expensive for many of us, and the marginal benefit is often
minimal (Offline OSM maps? Try OsmAnd. 128GB of storage? Most smartphones
accept SD cards).

~~~
nickysielicki
I don't disagree with you. These things are expensive, and I don't own a
camera or a GPS or an ebook reader for that reason.

I will say this, though. my MP3 player cost $30 (+$50 for sd card) and my
nokia 208 cost $30 on ebay. I'll use my mp3 player for years to come, and if I
didn't go back to a smartphone I'd be using that phone for years, too. I
imagine a good camera, ebook reader, GPS, etc. would outperform smartphones
for years to come, too.

It might be more expensive in the short term, but I think it can ultimately
save money.

~~~
icebraining
Smartphones last years, too. My 2012 Nexus 7 (I use a tablet + $20 dumbphone
combo, not a smartphone) is still going strong - even after being literally
submerged while turned on! - so I'm not planning to upgrade it any time soon.

Around here, we pay for our smartphones out of pocket (the vast majority of
people have prepaid SIMs, not contracts), so you can bet we're not replacing
our phones every year :)

------
laughfactory
I'd pay a lot of money for a medium-smart phone: one which has only the
essentials like calling, Google maps, email, camera, and maybe Uber. I'm not
on Facebook but I have a horrid news reading addiction. I only keep a
smartphone because I don't want to lug around a separate GPS unit, dumbphone,
and camera. And because it's actually as cheap to have a smartphone on Project
Fi as it is to have a dumbphone on the cheapest provider. Ugh. I don't want a
smartphone which makes me such a consumer of mindless news and entertainment!
But here we are...fighting the good fight, trying to avoid wasting time on a
device which seems to encourage it.

------
aledalgrande
That or just be more focused with what you want to do in your life. I have an
iPhone 6s and I don't spend hours a day on it (if not for dev work), I am too
focussed into other matters. Anybody can do the same. It's not what you have
around, but how you use it.

------
anta40
Switching to 'dumb' phones is probably not feasible to me at the moment, for
several reasons: 1\. When I'm bored or waiting for something, usually I read
books/comics. Not so much on games anymore. 2\. I'm into digital photography.
It's much easier to send your photos from the camera to your phone via wifi
and do the postprocessing there, instead of using Lightroom on your PC/laptop.
3\. Messenger apps like Whatsapp or Line. Curiously, I use them more than
phone calls :p 4\. Blogging

------
waiquoo
I had an LG cosmo up until the middle of last year. I finally had to ditch it
for an iphone because imessages broke texting. I was missing texts because of
imessage. Group messages were a pain because there was no way to turn off
notifications (phone buzzes anytime someone responds) and messages would be
out of order or missing because imessages. I wonder if any of the 'new dumb
phones' are better equipped to deal with these issues.

------
vmorgulis
Phone is more a way of socialization than a useful tool.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement)

The real tool is in the access to the human knowledge with Wikipedia but
people don't do that too much. They play games and send textos.

~~~
akkartik
This was my reaction exactly. On the one hand, I'm sick to death of modern
phones that can't hold a charge, keep crashing apps, and get super hot after
just a few minutes. On the other, a dumb phone seems too excessive a reaction.
I mostly don't use my phone to make calls. I use it to read. There's something
to be said for a phone that has a nice touch screen but doesn't provide a
browser, just a few basic apps for reading and taking notes.

A few months ago[1] I was day-dreaming on HN about an alternative to html
designed from the ground up to minimize webpage bloat and avoid tracking. Now
I have a further refinement in mind: build a device that has exemplary
reliability and power-utilization with a big touch screen and a cellphone
number. Build a bare-bones browser for it supporting a tiny subset of html (no
images, so no pixel tracking). Have the new device proxy through an ISP server
that also as a bonus filters out ads and third-party cookies. Gradually
encourage people to build hobbyist or paywalled reading experiences out of the
subset of html and fork off a new world wide web. Then win :) Or something.
Who's with me?

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10496611](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10496611)

~~~
vmorgulis
Do you know Gopher (the protocol)?

It's just a tree of directories and files. Files can be text like markdown,
images or videos. I think it's enough for a lot of use cases.

~~~
akkartik
Not a bad idea. That's actually the second time somebody's mentioned Gopher to
me this week. (Was it you the first time? :) But yeah, if we're going for
retro, why not go deeper.

------
w8rbt
I've owned a refurbished LG 505C (Verizon is still CDMA here) for more than 3
years now. I paid $9.99 for it. A battery charge still lasts a week. I spend
roughly $100 a year for TracFone minutes. It's always been cheap and good.
Nice to know that it's stylish now as well.

------
dredmorbius
I've rightgraded to a pay-as-you-go dumpphone, and largely go without it.

If you don't need to be constantly reachable, a phone isn't a necessity.

The biggest single pain point is for information while moving. A device with
wireless capability, a map, and transit information would be handy. It also
removes virtually all distraction modalities.

There are a few factors underlying this trend not adequately mentioned in the
article:

1\. Phones suck. They suck as phones: poor voice/call quality, spotty
coverage, poor coverage indoors, poor battery life, poor messaging
capabilities.

2\. Phoning sucks. Yes, there are times when direct voice comms is useful. I
spent a couple of hours in a productive international video call courtesy of
Google Hangouts last week -- one of my few significant voice comms in months.
But the lack of text-transcribing, syncronous nature (we'd set up the call
days in advance), likelihood of interruptions, and failure of virtually all
devices to offer blacklist / whitelist or meaningful quiet-hours capability
are all horrible.

3\. Devices suck. Even smartphones lack many capabilities I'd consider
essential (several listed above). The near-commodity nature of feature phones
means that capabilities and interfaces are horrible. I'd be willing to pay a
_slight_ premium for durability, a decent set of basic ringtones (melodies
suck), and some sort of voice messaging system of my own choice.

4\. Privacy. Celebrity (and non-celebrity) nudes, voicemail hacking, messaging
/ email hacking, and absolutely ubiquitous advertising-based and,
increasingly, governmental tracking are all massive turn-offs. If I don't need
a pocket spy, I won't carry one.

Caveat to much of this: I've got a tablet. It's WiFi only, and 10'. This means
it doesn't fit in a pocket, and isn't online when I'm travelling, but is often
usable at stops (public WiFi is surprisingly prevalent, though yes, that too
presents problems). With onboard storage, I've got vast amounts of stored
information which I can (and do) access. With a bluetooth keyboard it's close
to a laptop replacement (though I'd prefer a more capable OS and set of apps).

For road trips, it's quite useful: parked when not needed (or feeding to my
car's sound system), pulled out at rest stops to check routes and hotels (I
still rely on, and know how to use, paper maps). But it avoids many of the
negatives of a cellphone.

Device identity is of course random strings and principle account is rarely if
ever used.

------
T-A
Reminded me of
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8)

------
tedchs
Note, this article is basically a plug for Light Phone.

------
yingwei_wang
Don't call me, I will call you.

------
pjc50
One thing to note: no adverts on `dumb` phones.

~~~
icebraining
Well, except for telemarketers.

