
How I Kicked My Smartphone Addiction, and Never Looked Back - alexwoodcreates
http://www.thememo.com/2017/03/09/how-i-kicked-my-smartphone-habit-and-never-looked-back/
======
kraftman
It's funny how these articles always go completely over the top rather than
being about learning self control.

Buying too much stuff? Cancel amazon prime, throw away everything you own, go
full digital nomad and spend the rest of your life moving from airbnb to
airbnb so you can never own more than you can carry.

On your smartphone too much? Man up! Don't just turn off notifications, delete
the apps completely! Throw away your smartphone!

Social media destroying your life? Delete it all, it's the only way!

If you're really addicted to something I think it will take more than just
these articles to help you, if not then you surely you can 'man up' enough to
control yourself?

~~~
noonespecial
You know it's gone too far when it starts to sound like yesteryear's
pretentious "I don't even _own_ a television".

~~~
Arizhel
What's important IMO isn't not owning a TV, it's not having or using
traditional TV services, namely cable TV or even over-the-air TV.

Having a TV by itself can be good, so you can watch a movie at home with
friends (preferably served by a mediaPC). It's cable/network TV, stuffed with
ads and mostly worthless shows, that's the real time-waster. (And even if
there's worthwhile shows in there somewhere, they're aired at inconvenient
times, you actually have to watch them as they air (without spending extra
money to rent a DVR), and you can't pause or rewind them (again without a DVR
rental). The whole scheme is archaic and ridiculous and inefficient.

Finally, a big factor is cost (except with OTA). The TV itself is pretty cheap
these days unless you get some big 60" quantum-dot display or something. A
simple 32" TV can be had for just over $100 now, and a 40" for around $200.
These are one-time costs. But cable TV can easily cost you over $100 every
month, or over $1200/year. And for what? So you can watch ugly, over-
compressed video, loaded with loud commercials, that you have no ability to
control when you watch, or pause or rewind?

------
dredmorbius
1\. Scrap your smartphone.

2\. If you must, carry a dumbphone.

3\. Keep that off except when necessary.

4\. If you must have a device, consider either an ultralight laptop (vastly
preferable: they are in fact generative devices) or a tablet, with severely
pruned apps, and no G4 / cellular internet (WiFi only).

I'm increasingly a fan of paper-based records and tracking systems -- index
cards, etc. For books and research, online has certain advantages, largely
bulk and weight -- I can carey a fairly formidable library in the palm of my
hand, though the access, interface, and organisation leave much to be desired.

I'm inclined to say there is _no_ generally acceptable mobile device or OS
presently, though I somewhat favour iOS over Android for a better privacy and
surveillance environment. Whatever CyanogenMod calls itself this week might be
slightly favourable. What I'd prefer is a generally tablet/folio form-factor
(e.g., non-wired, non-integral keyboard, lapable _or_ tablet mode, and no,
Windows Surface doesn't work either, though it's a fair start -- rubber
keyboards aren't acceptable), but running a Real Operating System (e.g.,
Linux). I'm keeping an eye on what's coming from Ubuntu, though without much
hope.

~~~
twostoned
I honestly love reading stuff like this, especially on a tech board like HN.
Sometimes these days I feel like I'm not allowed to be disconnected. It is
beautifully refreshing to hear about others who think that it's okay. Let's
find ways to use tech to our advantage and not have it control our lives.

~~~
iamatworknow
I think working with computers breeds a sort of contempt for them and you
start looking for alternatives.

One of my hobbies is photography, and lately all I've wanted to do is shoot
film. My big DSLRs can do some amazing things, but there's something about
being limited to between 12 and 36 images, advancing the film by hand,
controlling every aspect of the exposure, and standing at my kitchen sink for
half an hour developing each roll that makes rattling off a thousand images in
a blink then sitting in front of yet another screen a lot less appealing. I'm
already sitting at a computer for 40 or more hours per week, why add another
if I don't have to?

~~~
jff
Plus, unless you're buying a $5000 medium-format DSLR, your 35mm film camera
has a larger "sensor" size than the digital camera. And if you spend $100 and
buy a medium-format TLR, well, now your negatives are 6x6cm and holy crap
that's a lot of detail.

~~~
iamatworknow
Hah, definitely. Just ordered some rolls of 120 Velvia and Provia today for my
Mamiya, in fact.

~~~
jff
I haven't tried those, I'm a big fan of Portra 400 in my Yashica-mat

~~~
iamatworknow
This will be my first time with slide film, actually. I'm really looking
forward to it because I love the high contrast and saturation that those films
in particular produce. Of course Portra and Ektar are great color films that I
love as well, but I want that extra punch.

------
bungie4
My Nexus 5 is circling the drain. When it finally goes, I'll be going back to
my Sony-Ericsson feature phone. A quarter the size of my Nexus and true 14 day
battery life. It's a pain in the ass to text on, and thats a good thing.

After 30+ years in IT, I'm turning into a Luddite.

~~~
Finnucane
Me, too. When I was younger, I liked being an early adopter. Now I am turning
into a curmudgeon. IoT? Who needs that crap. I want things to work for me, not
the other way around. This is one of the reasons I still maintain a wet
darkroom--it is one of the ways I can be completely disconnected. (Even being
out on my bike doesn't do that-- I take my phone with me and use the GPS maps
instead of paper maps.)

~~~
bungie4
I hear you about the bike, I'm a LD rider (FJR). I travel with my Sena wired
up to my phone (for calls and tunes - even though I don't ever recall
listening to tunes while riding.) and my GPS for in-ear directions.

Over the last couple of years, if the batteries dead in my Sena, oh well.
Getting lost is kind of the point :D

------
overcast
While I haven't gone cold turkey with my iPhone, I started to take the first
steps a couple years ago. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and any other social app
thing. All gone. Deleted the accounts.

I've blocked ALL comments, except for essentially Hacker News, in all of my
browsers.

I disabled all notifications on my phone, except for actual incoming phone
calls.

All sounds are disabled, in fact the phone runs on mute permanently.

The phone gets plugged in a couple hours before bed time, in the other room. I
don't check anything on the phone, until I get to work.

Even the Kindle has been relegated to be ONLY for flights. I've bought tons of
hardcover novels in the last two years.

I don't think getting rid of smart phones is necessary, just much better
management. They've definitely saved my ass in more ways than one.

~~~
kraftman
Why has the kindle been relegated in favor of hardcovers?

~~~
overcast
I want real paper, not a glowing interface.

~~~
colmvp
This is not specific to you, but I've never understood the vitriol e-readers
receive. E-readers provide incredible benefits and don't have to be all or
nothing. Just because I cook at home doesn't mean I'm against eating at
restaurants.

Almost all the news and ground-breaking journalism I read today is from the
web rather than print. The combination of editorialized aggregators like
Longform/Aldaily with the portability of e-readers, I now read more long-form
articles today than in previous years because I don't have to sift through
plethora of sources to find those high quality articles worth reading. Now, I
can just preview an interesting article during the day, send it to my Kindle,
and then read it later before I go to bed, on a device that's dedicated to the
reading experience. I'll also add the consistency of the layout means the
focus is on the story rather than the editorial design.

Now with respect to books, a good portion of us live in smaller spaces like
condos/apartments. Not having to store tons of books on shelves is a great way
on saving space. Of course, I could borrow from the library, but I enjoy
sometimes re-reading parts of books or going back to important points I
highlighted. And while I enjoy the aesthetic presentation of books in a home,
it's very dependent on space.

Lastly, the fact that I can shop on my device was a real game changer. Like
it's wonderful when an author cites another book, or you just have an
inclination to read a certain topic, and you can get it instantly and keep
feeding the fascination. Like I remember last January, I read more books in
that one month on my Kindle (I think it was 12 books) than I remember ever
achieving in previous years.

Anyways, I'm certainly a proponent of removing oneself from digital devices a
few hours a day, but I don't see e-readers as following into the same category
as say, laptops/smartphones/tablets, which have far more versatile
applications that can lead a person to be distracted.

~~~
Arizhel
I'm pretty sure there's been research on the psychological effects of backlit
screens versus paper. So the comfort level alone could be enough for
"overcast" to eschew the Kindle.

It'd be different if these stupid companies would make color e-ink display
readers, because then your argument would be very apt. But as it is, you're
completely ignoring the technical detail of the backlit screen that modern
e-readers all use.

------
wriggler
I found myself spending far too much time on my iPhone, and most of this time
was spent using Safari and Twitter for mindless browsing.

My approach to this was to uninstall all "problematic" apps, especially
Twitter. Then I used my iPhone's Restrictions settings to hide Safari, and to
prevent the installation of new apps. I then asked a friend to set a passcode
on "Restrictions" so that I was unable to reinstall Safari, Twitter or
anything else even if I wanted to.

After a few weeks, I got hold of the passcode again (to install something
"essential" :)) but I have never since reinstalled Safari or Twitter. The
habit was broken. Result: no longer do I walk down the street browsing the
news, nor do I find myself staying up too late browsing in bed.

It's been a positive change for me.

------
kenjackson
Am I the only that never really physically feels better doing these extreme
things? I recently went with no sugar for January (my New Years Resolution). I
actually ate some sugar, but it had to be "natural" (in fruits/vegetables) and
no artificial sweeteners allowed. Everyone else who had done it (on the
internet) spoke of how much better they felt after doing it.

After a month I felt like I did before I started. I felt fine, but nothing
special. I didn't feel bad before I started, but people described how
incredible it made them feel and it didn't do that for me at all. I felt the
same. The first day of February I had teriyaki chicken for lunch and had a
snack of M&Ms. I felt completely the same.

I also tried going vegan before and gluten free (both for time periods shorter
than a month), and neither did anything either. I get that all these things
may be healthier, but they didn't make me feel any better.

Reading this guys account, I have a hard time believing that using my phone
less would make me feel much better either. That said, I have been turning
more notifications off as I do agree that there is very little that justifies
interrupting what I'm doing to look at that app.

~~~
Arizhel
Everyone's body is different, and there's so many variables: age, fitness
level, etc., so the sugar thing may work for some people and not be noticeable
to you. Personally, FWIW, I had a bit of a weight problem ~12 years ago, and I
was drinking soda a lot every day. I cut out the soda, among other things, and
no longer have a weight problem. I attribute much of it to the sodas; there's
a lot of calories there, and no fiber (as in fruit) to help you moderate it.

The gluten free diet isn't likely to help you at all unless you have a problem
with gluten. Gluten-free foods are NOT healthier (in fact, quite possible the
opposite, to a small extent, according to recent research). The only reason to
eat GF food is because you have Crohn's disease or some other gluten
intolerance, which affects I believe about 5% of the population or so. If you
don't have any of these problems, then stick with gluten.

Vegan diets are not healthier. The main reason people adopt these is because
they don't believe animals should be used for food, including animal products
(eggs, milk, cheese, etc.). It's not for health. Of course, too many eggs
isn't healthy either, so you might get some side-effect here, depending on
what animal products you were eating before and how much, but this isn't the
goal of veganism, it's all about an extreme view of using animals and their
products as human food. If you think that meat is bad for you (which again
isn't scientifically supported; we're omnivores), you can always just adopt a
vegetarian diet. Or, if you think you're eating too much red meat (which is a
common problem with Americans), you can always just eat _less_ of it, instead
of adopting an extreme diet.

It sounds to me like you're young (under 30) and healthy, so of course you're
not going to notice any difference with various diets unless they're cutting
out something you really need or not supplying you enough calories.

------
soylentcola
Honestly, I just don't install Facebook, Twitter, etc. so I only open the
mobile or desktop sites when I want to read them (not every time I get a
notification).

Otherwise, I just keep notifications off for most things other than work email
and leave my phone on silent for the vast majority of the time. I still get
calls and messages but I'm not constantly being pulled away from what I'm
doing because my phone is beeping again.

As an ADHD-type person, it's one of many ways I've found to reduce distraction
and interruption when I need or want to be doing something else. I do leave a
charger at my bedside (and my desk, and my car, etc...basically anywhere I
plan to be sitting for more than an hour at a time). This is probably just a
throwback to the early smartphone days when you needed to keep your device
topped off whenever possible since you never knew when you might need to (
_gasp_ ) use it and kill the battery in a few hours. Not really an issue
nowadays but the habit remains. Still, silent/quiet hours make a big
difference.

~~~
Bartweiss
This is basically my approach too, and I haven't felt any need to step it up
to the things in the article.

I keep phone chargers at work and by the bed, but I've got an old phone that I
don't trust to wake me up. At night, Twilight and silent mode mean I'm not
having my sleep delayed or interrupted. During the day, texts and calls get
vibrate, but everything else just gets a status bar icon. My news apps are
slow to change (BBC) and social media only gets opened in browser via links.
Problem solved.

------
ptrptr
What helped me personally was buying phone with smaller screen - iPhone SE
have all the features of bigger phone I've might ever need but due to 4 inch
screen I tend to use it as little as possible. For me it's more private
communication device than internet machine - that what phone was suppose to
be.

~~~
vinay427
This sounds like an interesting factor that I want to experiment with. I
anecdotally have been using my phone far more than before (and more than
desired) since I switched to a phone with a display about 6 inches in size.

------
kome
I don't use a cellphone, AMA. I have a "Nokia 101"
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_101](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_101))
for emergency situations tho.

~~~
amorphid
Without Google Maps, or functional equivalent, or do you ever manage to find
your way anywhere? When I think about leaving the getting rid of my phone, my
first thought is that not having maps would suck. I planned a bus trip from
Point A to Point B yesterday, and without a phone, that would have sucked.

And I like Lyft a lot. It'd be a pain to get rid of that.

~~~
backpropaganda
Funny how we both asked exactly the same question. I wonder if there's a niche
for making phones which just have the basics + Maps and Uber/Lyft. Perhaps
Uber or Lyft should try to make such "devices".

~~~
CalRobert
A GPS (Tomtom, garmin, etc.) with access to transit feeds would be really
useful. We already have a standard for transmitting traffic information via FM
radio; maybe it could be put to use transmitting bus/train info as well?

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

Phones are pretty good at nav but I still really like having a standalone GPS.

------
analogmemory
The comments so far seem to be in response to ways that phones and other tech
distract us. I feel like the author glossed over a key part. Where before his
experiment he would wake up tired and feeling hung over. To me this is a sign
of poor sleep habits and/or waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle. I've had
better sleep habits and have been waking up refreshed after I paid attention
to the needs of my body. I go to bed at a consistent time, 10:30, fall asleep
by 11, and wake up 7am. I've been doing it consistently now for the past 3
months. I have the phone alarm set and usually wake up a few minutes before it
goes off. Phones are a distraction, but the real goal should be in learning to
make them work for you. Going cold turkey feels like a bandaid solution to a
larger problem of learning to change your habits.

~~~
Starwatcher2001
I do similar, bed around 10pm and sleep until I wake naturally. I have my
watch alarm set for 7:30am (just in case), but haven't needed it for months. I
just wake up when my body is ready, usually around 5:30am. Not having an alarm
jolting me awake and letting my body wake at the right time in my sleep cycle
has made a big difference to the energy I have, especially at the start of the
day. I hit the office at 6:30am, couple of golden hours to go deep without the
phone ringing... and home every evening on time.

------
0x445442
This is a great opportunity to make Blackberry great again!

1.) Great for calling and texting. 2.) Useful in a good way for email. 3.) Not
enough apps available to be annoying.

------
owenwil
There's actually some really solid advice in here – I never thought about
Android as being "better" for reducing distractions, but the amount of control
you can get over _not_ having self-control seems useful. Apple, on the other
hand, is busy trying to get you to open as many apps as you can every time by
resisting adding change to the home screen, outside of those luring red (1)
icons that show up constantly, often for no reason.

I might consider switching to a Pixel for this alone.

~~~
seltzered_
I'm about to switch to an iphone (oddly been a cocoa/mac developer while being
a android user for years), and have been a bit worried that it'll be a more
distracting experience while watching friends more engaged with their phones
than conversatin at dinner. This said, here's my tentative iphone-specific
plan on managing myself from becoming addicted:

\- Generally, don't keep social apps on the phone. Use the web versions with
content blockers.

\- Email: keep using gmail's importance filtering and set notifications only
for 'important' messages - been doing this for years and it's mostly worked
fine.

\- Content blockers - find a safari content blocker that lets me block social
sites at certain times, or write one myself.

\- Keep using a smartwatch - I really like using my pebble to let me minimize
phone use, ideally I can still do voice replies like I can on android.

------
forgottenpass
Things like 'smartphone addiction' are why I believe software developers
should have a strong professional code of ethics.

Does nobody notice when they're writing software with features designed around
user "engagement" and "retention" that they're doing a disservice to their
users? If not outright building addictions?

I think a most developers _do_ notice _pieces_ of it, but don't connect the
dots and/or rationalize it with some "mutual benefit" mental hand-waving.

Taking ethics seriously would force us to confront the idea of software built
for addiction. Show us how to spot it, and remove the mental wiggle room to
minimize it.

There is a set of common software practices that rise from iterating designs
and throwing ideas up to A/B test that are so psychologically manipulative it
would seen as downright sociopathic if it was planned from the get-go. - I'm
not saying that's what's happening here, but if we can't even get rid of
_those_ , what chance do we have overall?

~~~
Arizhel
>Things like 'smartphone addiction' are why I believe software developers
should have a strong professional code of ethics.

What good is that going to do? Software developers write software that they're
told to. If you say "this is unethical and I'm not doing it", your employer
will fire you on the spot and find someone else.

Also, what you're talking about is something that's far more visible to
someone working at a high level, e.g. the architect. An individual developer
not only has no real power to change the system design, he also has limited
visibility.

------
bsharitt
I deleted my Twitter account, removed my Instagram and Facebook apps. I
trimmed my Facebook account down to only my local table top gaming groups
while deleting friends and family(who aren't associated with previously
mentioned groups). I've disabled all notifications on my phone other than
SMS(and the people who have my number is a small group). It's greatly reduced
the amount of time I spend on my phone(and on social media off the phone too)
now that it's not constantly alerting me to look at it. I won't be replacing
it with a dumb phone because there are still plenty of times it's a useful
tool, but now it's a tool that stays in my pocket until it's actually needed
rather than a focus of activity itself.

------
titanix2
Article advice #5 is totally the opposite of what I do: because my email app
(outlook) categorize important messages and only display notifications from
them I can keep my mailbox closed while working on the PC.

Surprisingly buying an Apple Watch greatly reduce the time I spend on my phone
and the stress related to where it lies on my house: I don't need to be close
of it anymore and notifications are displayed as a red dot. If a notification
is irrelevant* I can dismiss it on the spot without any temptation to use the
phone for something else.

* I already highly curated app allowed to notify me. Only mail & chat (fb messenger, Line, etc.) apps remains.

------
bda5
Contrary to this article, there is an easy way to block apps - and websites -
on iOS. There's an app called Freedom that lets you create lists of sites that
you'd like to block. Once blocked, their apps will not work either. I find it
to be a phenomenal way of increasing my focus. When I compulsively grab my
smartphone and realize that my usual time-waster sites and apps are blocked, I
just put it right back down.

Unfortunately it does cost money, but they regularly run promotions up to
half-off on their "forever" plan.

------
timsayshey
If you want to go nuclear you can add OpenDNS to your router and block
specific sites or categories of sites. This will work for all devices on your
network, android, iphone, laptops, etc. Or edit your hosts file and 127.0.0.1
the sites you want to block. To do this on android you have to root or you
install Firefox and add Ublock Origin and blacklist the sites you don't want.

------
dbg31415
Traveling... driving to new places, exploring new cities... I know we had maps
in the past but man... I just cringe at having to plot routes manually. Anyone
have a reliable solution that isn't a smartphone for this? I have an old GPS I
could fire up, but I think the battery is dead and not sure it works when it's
not plugged into my car...

------
6d6b73
Few more ideas that helped me

\- Remove Play Store replace with FDroid - makes it harder to find and install
crappy apps like FB, Snapchat etc.

\- Install AFWall+ or other firewall and make sure you disable internet access
for most apps

