Pseudonym's Space

Dumbing down your smartphone

After a long time of thinking about it, I pre-ordered the Light Phone 3 last week.

This has kicked off a number of ways I'm pursuing digital minimalism at the moment. I'm sure there are many definitions, but the way I think about digital minimalism is about having as little digital "stuff" as you need. I have a fair amount and I would like to have much less.

Minimizing your phone is an area that can make a huge difference in your day-to-day experience. For me, I've been experiencing compulsive behaviors around social media and phone use recently, which I've been wanting to change.

Even without owning a dumbphone or minimalist phone, there are steps you can take towards simplifying your phone use.

I've taken three steps recently that are helping a lot. These probably won't be new to you if you're familiar with common tips to reduce your phone use, but I think they're worth talking about and I wanted to share my experience.

1. Turning on the grayscale color filter

This has a huge impact and just generally makes your phone less interesting.

Pro: I feel less compelled to use my phone for long periods

Con: Some content, mainly videos and photos, can be harder to interpret when color is relevant (e.g. pictures of food).

2. Removing optional apps

Because I'm getting a LP3 in a few months, I used its feature set as a guide. The LP3 only has limited built-in apps, and no access to typical phone app stores. So this included removing social media, but also most of the apps on my phone. This is the list of what I ended up keeping:

This is a pretty stripped down experience. I also disabled Safari to prevent internet browsing.

Light Phone 3 will be similar to this, but more limited still. I'll have to get workarounds for my work apps, which I know is totally doable. The edge case apps are temporary, so I won't need them long term. But I'll need to keep my iPhone for them until I no longer need them, or for rare exceptions. I hope I can get rid of my iPhone eventually though.

I think the most challenging adjustment for me will be no longer having access to ride-share services. Light has said that they are considering implementing this functionality on LP3, so there's a chance I may not have to give it up forever. It doesn't represent a huge problem for my day to day, but it is something I'll have to work around.

Pro: My phone is much less stressful and less addictive. I don't waste as much time on it. I'm using it in a focused and utilitarian way for the most part.

Con: It is much less convenient to perform a lot of tasks as I have to go to my laptop to do them instead. Some conveniences that I've grown accustomed to, like ride-sharing, are not possible currently.

3. Turning your iPhone into a "dumb phone"

While #2 is a big part of this, you can optionally go a step further and setup your iPhone to resemble a more minimalist aesthetic. https://dumbphone.so/

This was an interesting exercise. You can only have 6 apps visible on the launcher at a time, so it made me reflect on what really mattered to me and what I used the most, and what was optional and could be let go. Even after removing most of the optional apps from my phone, this step helped change the way I relate to my phone, I think because I have ingrained behavior patterns that focus on icons. Changing the interface slows down those automatic habits and helps me take a step back.

I do think this is most effective in combination with #2 though. Otherwise you can just swipe over to your app drawer and everything is still there.

Pro: Having a simpler and more focused aesthetic helps encourage intentional use of your phone. Prompts reflection on what you actually need to use your phone for most.

Con: Configuration is a bit fiddly, and you're going to be searching out other apps that can't fit on your home screen, inevitably.

Conclusion

I'm re-reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport right now, and one principle that I like from the book is prioritizing simplicity over convenience. All of the above steps have downsides. Largely they make things less convenient. But they also make things much simpler. And that can be a huge benefit. Generally, in my opinion, simplicity leads to a better quality of life. Convenience isn't bad, but it is often offered with strings attached, and those strings often aren't worth it on reflection.