In defense of the minimalist phone
I'm trying to reduce my phone usage and regain focus. Obviously, modern smartphones have a lot of distractions, and I've noticed them affecting me more lately.
I'm interested in getting a "minimalist phone" (basically a modern dumbphone) to help with this. I've pre-ordered the Light Phone 3.
I am struck by the discourse surrounding this, and other similar minimalist phones online. There seems to be a range of reactions from the people who really love the idea and want it to people who can't imagine why anyone would want it. It seems to strike a chord. Articles about it seem to commonly have negative reactions. For example, see some comments on this article.
Most objections seem to fall into the following categories:
"You don't need a minimalist phone, just use willpower to avoid being distracted."
"This thing barely does anything, it's so overpriced and a bad value."
"I could never live without a phone that does X."
"This is just marketing to make you buy another gadget to solve your gadget problem."
"Just uninstall your social media apps and that will solve the problem."
"Who would even want this? Who is this for?"
I disagree with all of these responses so I want to take a moment to respond to them.
The notion of using willpower is an understandable kneejerk reaction, but I think misses the point. Smartphones and their apps have been engineered by the some of the richest and most powerful companies in history to be engaging, to profit off of your attention. It's a device you use every day, and have to contend with every day. Willpower is a physiological (nor moral), and limited, resource. Even if you exercise "perfect" willpower, eventually you're going to have a day where you're tired and fall down a rabbit hole. Or maybe you're dealing with depression and have less willpower to resist. Etc. There are many factors that would make you be less than perfect at this. The bottom line is that using willpower is not a good strategy for avoiding distraction. I think it's more important to change your environment so that less willpower is required to avoid distraction (maybe by getting a different device!). It's like trying to avoid ice cream in your freezer vs not buying ice cream while at the store.
Someone viewing a minimalist phone (I'll just say Light Phone 3 / LP3 from here on) from a cost perspective are often thinking about this backwards as well. I'm not interested in LP3 due to it having such a good number of features for the price. I'm interested in it having the right set of features, doing no more than certain amount. But more generally, I'm paying for a certain curated experience, an intentional design that is made to facilitate focus. It's true that LP3 is pretty expensive for this kind of phone, but it's also a niche product without the economies of scale that we're used to with smartphones. I'm actually not interested in debating whether it's expensive or not for a minimalist phone, but just want to point out that with this phone you are not paying with your attention and time the way you do with other phones, and that's why it's worth it to me.
I'm not really bothered by this response - I'm not going to tell anyone what their needs are. No one is asking you to give up your smartphone if you like it. But I do think that an important part of the design of these phones is that they are limiting and inflexible, so that you can't choose to add more apps to them, because then you're back at relying on willpower. Another aspect of this is that I like constraints, they can be instructive. Sometimes it can be satisfying to use creativity to adapt to a limitation. And this can simplify your life, if you are no longer relying on a device to do something for you. This one is more personal, but just my two cents.
I'm more sympathetic to this response, and it makes me reflect on my choices a bit. But I also think it misses the point about how smartphones and apps have been engineered to be addictive and documented to be harmful. Given that, it's not unreasonable to want to change to a different device that has been designed with different principles and aims, and importantly doesn't profit off of your attention. You're not blindly following marketing if you're reflecting on your experiences, your needs, and deciding that a different device might be more aligned with your needs and values. Ultimately though I think this is a straw man, because it's not just marketing; the devices are actually meaningfully different.
Uninstalling apps can be a useful strategy when managing distraction from phones or other devices, but it's not a complete solution. The barrier to reinstalling the apps is too small, it's too easy to re-install them. And can you already hear the willpower argument coming? I think it's important to leave judgment at the door though. Let's base this on evidence. My persona, empirical experience: I've tried to uninstall apps, disable notifications, use a minimalist launcher, etc, many times. It works for a while, until it doesn't. Eventually, I will reinstall all the apps and go back to old habits, even though I don't want to. Judge me if you want, but that's just the fact of the matter. Knowing that it's easy to revert my phone config to a more rewarding and addictive state is enough for me that I will eventually do it, if there isn't a bigger barrier in the way to stop me.
Translation: "I don't want this, I don't understand this, this isn't for me." Which is fine, you don't have to like it. People have different preferences, experiences, and relationships to technology. But I think it's fair to acknowledge, again, that phones are designed to be addictive and that doesn't work well for everyone. I think we all deserve the option to purchase a device that meets our modern needs without also being an addictive slot machine designed by multi-billion dollar companies.