I've uninstalled all social media, which is the main notifications hook. I really think the power of apps is in notifications, and it's best to cut them out. If I want to see a Tweet or a Facebook post, probably because someone I know on Whatsapp sent me it, I'll use the website. I don't want to be dragged in by notifications.
The only browser I have on my phone is Firefox Focus (I even disabled chrome and the samsung browser since they can't be deleted), I have deleted Snapchat, Discord, Instagram, etc. My social life is perfectly fine. I just text or call my friends either on Signal or directly using SMS / regular calling. I think it has positively affected my mental health.
I am also at the point where I leave my phone at home when I go out if I can avoid it. The only times I bring it is if I'm going someplace unfamiliar or if I'm specifically trying to coordinate with someone, and they wouldn't be able to reach me otherwise (such as text someone else that I'm with).
Save a hacker news app (Hacki), I am the same way. HN doesn’t have the same addiction cycle that Twitter does for me, so I uninstalled the Twitter app from my phone and only use the site.
I still find myself scrolling on Twitter longer than I wish I would, but usually after about 5 mins of scrolling, I encounter some bugginess that snaps me out of the loop and helps me question whether or not I really want to be spending my time on the site.
What’s funny is that the bugginess is intentional to try to make you download the app, but it has the opposite effect for me.
I turn off all notifications apart from messaging apps, and I use a smart watch to "screen them". I noticed I had a bad habit of getting a message, picking up my phone to see if it's important and then mindlessly opening Reddit/HN and getting stuck there.
Now I just glance at my wrist, decide if I'm going to respond or not (or just reply with "Yes" from my watch), which limits how much I get stuck on my phone. I wish I had self-control to not have to "hack" around it, but alas I don't.
I'm only on LinkedIn, but not on my phone, so no social media. I'm also very reluctant to install apps to begin with, very few things really belong on a phone. I have very few apps and they aren't the kind you'd use regularly, other than a streaming app and podcasts.
Personally I have some issues with limiting YouTube consumption, but not on the phone, because I don't have YouTube on my phone and using it in the browser sucks. When I've attempted to seek out advise on reducing screen time everything seems to focus on the phone, but the phone isn't an issue for me, because the UI is absolutely terrible for pretty much any activity you could ever imagine. The small screen, touch interface and gestures are enough to keep my phone pretty faraway. I use it for calls and messaging.
It still amazes me that people are willing to do pretty much anything on their phones. So while I have looked into trying to dumb down my iPhone, it didn't seem like it was worth my time.
Mass social media: I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts years ago. I still use Reddit, but with no app and throwaway accounts. I also use Discord, but only on the computer.
Direct messaging: WhatsApp is installed and in use, but I disabled notification sounds. Work email is only on my work laptop, personal email is on my phone with notifications off.
That leaves iMessage and Signal with notifications on. I use the former with my wife and the latter with my closest friends. But I still mute my phone during focus work.
Aye. It's not the smartphone that's the problem, it's the async notifications pulling you into social media traps.
I dropped those apps about 8 years ago, but started to do most of my _reading_ on my phone - when I pick up my phone and habitually open something now, it's a book of some sort. It's a good idea to have something to replace habits with, if possible.
Yes! I have 2 personal emails. One that I want to be alerted for, and one where I check it once a day. Other than phone calls, the only time my phone reaches out to me is for calendar alerts/reminders, which I set myself, and texts and messanger apps for people I allow.
Yep, no notifications except sms+iMessage. And only family uses that to contact me, and only when it's urgent.
All the other apps, especially chat apps (including family if it's not urgent) are muted, and the mute slider is nailed down so it can't move accidentally.
That should solve 90% of the problem. Even doomscrolling if you ask me, because if the doomscroll app doesn't notify you, you'll forget about it. At first rarely, but more and more often in time.
I have often noticed that doing just thing is not enough, time and beyond there would be new apps that you end up installing, some notifications that you can not disable would end up consuming your bandwidth.
Agree 100%! It's really annoying how games (yeah, I confess, I installed a "free-to-play" game recently, I should have known better) and over-gamified apps (looking at you Duolingo) want to "engage" you by flooding you with notifications. "You're back at full hearts, use Duolingo now!" "Only 00:59 left to continue your streak!" (with a live countdown in the notification no less) and so on...
I use the iOS "Focus Modes" pretty heavily. All of them are set up in the "whitelisting" mode.
The "Personal" focus allows call and message notifications only from a set list of contacts and apps which are mostly OS-level (alarms, calendar, etc) and the chat app I use to talk to my wife and a couple important friends.
The "Work" focus allows call and message notifications from anyone, and the above app list plus some work-related apps (e.g., Slack).
From time to time if I'm waiting on a notification (e.g., the teleheath app to start an appointment) I'll just turn focus mode off and deal with the firehose until I see the one I need.
Doing it this way I can have the apps available so I can easily use the service/product _when I want to_, but it's never forcing itself in front of my face.
I really don't know how people use their phones otherwise. There's so. much. noise.
Sure? It’s not really very similar to Instagram or TikTok even if we all spend some time here. I hardly know anyone else by name or expect them to know me. There’s little to no social clout and few users here are “influencers” in the conventional sense.
I created lockmeout.online for that specific purpose - change your phones unlock code to a randomly generated one and time-lock it away for a period of time you want to be free of distractions. Carrying a locked phone is still pretty usefull: Emergency calls, take photos using camera, taking/making regular calls using Siri, Music, Background GPX tracker etc.
I have multiple iPods and it’s a shame I can’t use them with subscription services. It’s too expensive to buy all the music I like because it’s just the perfect use case.
You highlight 2 important use case though that are almost impossible to have without a smartphone (but an alternative can be done on the desktop computer and the map with a paper map). They are just the collateral because it’s not those that cause addiction …
I have a kitchen phone and a desk phone (both VOIP), a Linux workstation, a DSLR camera, a radio, and read real books and play CDs. Also an RCA Orthophonic High Fidelity phonograph for 78, 45, and 33⅓. After the last Star Trek went off the air, and Jeopardy! went woke, there was nothing to watch on TV and it got left behind somewhere.
Computers are nothing but free software. Had a mobile phone (a flip-phone with real buttons) for years but never used it, and just let it lapse, as being unnecessary. Never understood why so many folks bought into being abused by their handheld pocket computers, and paying for the "privilege." Anyone who gives MS/Apple/Google/Amazon (the evil MAGA) money is being an enabler for the abuse of others.
The grayscale suggestion is pretty interesting. I was skeptical it would make any difference, but I tried it and my home screen instantly felt more calming to look at at. It seems like we really underestimate how much visual complexity exhausts us.
Not sure how long I'll keep it like that, but I think I'll leave it for now as I've been trying to minimize my phone for a while now (biggest difference was removing social media apps and disabling most notifications). If you're a busy person with a lot of demands on your attention, I highly recommend it.
For anyone on Android, you can bind holding down both volume buttons at the same time to toggle grayscale on/off.
To do this, go in Settings, then `Accessibility > Color and motion > Color correction`, and set it to grayscale.
While still in the `Color correction` submenu, click `Color correction shortcut`, set it to `Hold both volume keys`, and toggle it on.
I just discovered this myself, but with the ability to quickly flip it off when needed (taking pictures/watching videos/etc) I may actually end up keeping it enabled this time around.
The article mentions enabling Color Filters as a shortcut action via triple-clicking the power button. It just so happens that the default filter is greyscale.
If you want to play around with the other options (or permanently set greyscale), it’s under Settings —> Accessibility —> Display and Text Size —> Color Filters. Or just search Color Filters from the main Settings search bar.
accessibility -> display & text size -> Colour Filters.
Turn that on and then you can select "Greyscale" as an option. I have this mapped to the double tap the back of the phone with an accessibility shortcut.
Basically I can double tap the back to toggle greyscale mode.
Same-ish, except my dock is Phone, Messages, Camera, and Safari.
I never liked any apps on the screen when I had Android, and liked (and still like) its swipe-for-app-drawer mechanism. It’s unfortunate that on iOS it’s more difficult to have a clean Home Screen, and no options that I’m aware of to get the Android launcher actions.
There is no science behind this, and the article spends far too many words for something that's very simple to accomplish:
1. Hard reset your iPhone
2. Remove Safari and AppStore (via Settings -> Screentime restrictions -> Content & Privacy Restrictions) and have someone trusted set a Screen Time password.
That's all. You still have weather reports, agendas, alarm clocks, maps, translators, phone+messenger, email, a music player, a camera, but zero time wasters. With this setup you can give an iPhone to a 6 year old with zero anxiety about "screen time" (which in reality is really internet time: disable internet access and they're bored with the phone in less than a day).
Pretty much everything that we tell ourselves we really need instantly are lies: almost nothing is really so time sensitive that it can't wait till you're behind a desktop/laptop.
I have in my backlogs of projects (one day I will have time for them...) an extreme "dumb smartphone".
I want to have maps, whatsapp, chatgpt, a document scanner, my banking app, a guitar tuner... these are tools.
So I need both an app whitelist (there are only so many apps that I actually use on my phone) and a website blacklist (no more HN, reddit, twitter, facebook, news websites, etc). I can use those on my computer but it won't be a mindless scroll whenever I have 5 minutes.
Unfortunately I don't think this is feasible on iOS (I have tried Opal but it was so buggy I gave up). A custom Android launcher seems promising, but I have not found how to install a system wide firewall yet. Maybe creating a custom Android OS is the only way to have enough control?
I have some expirience implementing an extreme dumb phone: I did it on a samsung smartphone using "Google family link" which is the parental control feature of android.
You need a second ios or android device (yes the family link app to control your "children" also exists for IOS). This device you store in an inaccessible location and you tie it to an account of which you dont remember the password (just write a long sequence of random characters on a sheet of paper and store it in the same inaccessible place)
Then you set everything up:
You install the desired apps on the main phone.
You prevent installation of additional apps through parent phone.
You blacklist all addictive websites.
(You can also block all preinstalled apps, in my case I had to block the browser app from Samsung, because the family link app does not restrict this browser it can only restrict chrome)
I ended up with a very watertight dumb phone. One goal was also to prevent any access to porn through the phone. This is also a process, because sometimes you find new ways to access such content despite the google family filters. Then you just blacklist those additional ways.
What I still have:
WhatsApp (people suggest sometimes to just use a feature phone or light phone, but this is not an option because at least in europe you need whats app, else you are excluded from social life)
An iPhone has this (not widely-known) feature already: Assistive Access Mode [0].
It is meant for elderly or people with disabilities. You can specify which apps to show in a simple grid, no access to any settings and dumbed down rights for the apps. Exiting the assistive access mode requires a 4-digit PIN. You can ask a friend to set the pin for you and write it down on a piece of paper store it in a safe space, or use an online time-lock service [1].
This is NOT the parental control mode where you need to setup stuff from another iCloud account.
You don't need Assistive Access Mode, even without parental control or another iCloud account you can disable pretty much any app (including Safari and App Store) via Screen Time -> Content & Privacy Restrictions.
You do indeed need a trusted person to set a Screen Time Passcode and keep it safe.
It can be done in iOS: in Settings -> Screen Time -> Content & Privacy Restrictions you can disable almost any app, including Safari and App Store. Ask a trusted person to set a Screen Time Passcode (and keep safe backups) and you'll have pretty much zero opportunity to waste time on a phone. (You'll probably waste it on a laptop instead.)
I went down this path, it's actually very easy to uninstall the built-in web browser and the Play Store via adb, which actually got me exactly what I wanted in my dumb phone without too much technical work.
The thing is I do want the web browser, because there are various situations where you can be very penalized by not having internet access. I want a whitelist for apps but a blacklist for websites. (One of my friends was stranded on the road after a car accident and his insurance required him to go on a specific website to get assistance...)
Yeah that's rough, the world isn't friendly to dumbphone users.
A website blacklist is pretty easy with the parental controls on most smartphones these days. Unless you're like me and you just disable the whitelist when it slightly inconveniences you :) I guess a better option would be to use a really low-spec smartphone, like the Cat S22 Flip, so that you can browse the web but it's really painful and less habit-forming. I used the S22 for a while and did kill my smartphone habit. The only problem was that it would crash randomly, which isn't acceptable for me. No silver bullet I'm afraid.
Yes I tried it and I always end up disabling it... that's why I need something more radical.
As for the flip phone I want a good camera so not an option for me.
For years I had a 50% grey background on all of my devices. People asked me if I am depressed (jokingly) but in fact a calm clutter free background makes me happy.
This is great advice but mostly ineffectual without addressing the root of the problem here. Phone apps are designed to be addicting, and that addiction has been socially normalized (I.e. it's totallly normal to momentarily zone out and browse Instagram on your phone while out with friends).
I found that Android was better for dumbing down. If you have enough technical sophistication to run adb over a USB cable, you can run a single command to uninstall any app, including the built-in web browser app. Super nice for getting exactly what you want on your phone.
Are having issues accessing your social media or experiencing social media account issues? I recommend you contact Angelina for any type of issues concerning your social media account, she work's with META and i can assure you that she is very much reliable also she's always available to attend to you as regarding your account issues. I suggest you feel free to contact her through email at AngelinaChristopher1738@gmail.com or you can also contact her on instagram at Angelina_Christopher1738 she’s the ultimate solution. Her prompt and reliable service turned my frustration into relief. Don't hesitate to contact her for swift assistance!
Why is it impossible to reduce color saturation on all apple products? I still like a slight hint of color context but don't want these CASINO looking MacOS and iOS experiences.
On iOS, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > Greyscale and then adjust the intensity level as needed. I think that's what you're asking for? I don't know how to do it on macOS but I'm sure if it's possible, Google knows
iPhone is already dumb. It's a toy that's not within the control of its user, and Android is only marginally better. I'm using GNU/Linux on my phone and while it offers me the power of a full unrestricted computing device in my pocket, it only ever distracts me with things I explicitly opted into. Despite of some of its shortcomings, it really ends up being a much calmer and more usable experience overall.
Tbh it's much easier to turn off all notifications on iOS than other platforms.
But say, what happened to Ubuntu? I haven't used desktop linux in quite a few years (in spite of doing headless linux projects 2/3 of the time), now I have a project that requires that I see the desktop and it feels... spammy. What's with all those notifications and auto downloading of updates? Do they want to remind me why my main desktop is a Mac?
Canonical has a poor track record of freedom in general, IMO, at least for desktop. Ubuntu Server is pretty straightforward, but unless you need the extended security updates or Livepatch, I don’t see the point.
Between telemetry enabled by default, pushing everything to Snap, and their brief “let’s send searches to Amazon” experiment, it’s a no from me. I’m not a purist who refuses to use non-free things, but I don’t particularly like being herded towards a single way of doing something (Snap). systemd is nearly at my breaking point as it is.
> it's much easier to turn off all notifications on iOS than other platforms.
...and much harder to make it notify in exactly the way you want, to make it run what you want, to customize system behaviors. Taming user-hostile applications is a completely different experience to running things that aren't hostile in the first place.
> But say, what happened to Ubuntu?
tbh it completely left my mind about a decade ago. I don't see any reason to use it over, say, Debian these days.
Anyone else the same?