I could never go back to not using a smartphone; texting on-the-go, maps, contactless payments, and ride-sharing are too important to miss out on. That said, it's possible to avoid most of the bad things about smartphones: Don't install any Meta products, and discontinue their use entirely. Don't use any Google products. Be extremely judicious and stingy about which apps you install. If it can be done in the mobile browser, do that. I've also disabled news alerts and most other alerts so that it's a pull rather than a push. It's greatly improved my mindset and freed up a lot of time.

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bnpxft a day ago | parent | next [-]

This is the middle way.

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627467 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> it's a pull rather than push

This is under appreciated, low effort'ish perspective. The simple fact of disabling all notifications (but for a couple basic ones like calendar) returns a good 80% of control back to you.

Pair with battery saving mode - that on iOS and Android - even locks involuntary notifications and saves you from battery anxiety.

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matt-attack 16 hours ago | parent [-]

I’m always blown away, when someone shows me something on their phone, let’s see a photo or something, and during the brief demo, I see an on slot of random notifications popping up. Retailers, email, promotions, etc..

Like seriously? I completely blew my mind. I think I basically have just iMessage and calendar.

	▲	baggachipz 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And, far as I can tell, that's the vast majority of users. Like, most people live like this. I think they don't know how to disable that shitshow (or even that it's possible) and have just learned to live with it. And we wonder why everything's shit.