It is no secret that I detest the smartphone culture in which we live, and I look forward to the day that I can ditch mine in the river. However, that might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I think that if we keep ourselves disciplined, we can use the glass slab for good, but it means being militant about what we will NOT use it for.
What I don’t do on my phone: #
First of all, I don’t use a phone in the way that many people do. I do not allow myself to:
- Scroll social media apps
- Use colors. My phone is on greyscale and redshift 24/7
- Watch videos
- Play games (I do chess puzzles once a day to warm up my brain)
- Have audible or screen-on notifications for anything but the most important things (phone calls).
Here is How I do use a phone #
Maps #
Perhaps the biggest justification for the smartphone is using maps to get places. I think this a valid decision.
Reading #
The only thing that I use my phone for “scrolling” purposes is to read books.
When I am standing in line at the bank or the DMV (heaven forbid) - I am reading a book.
I have various reading apps on my phone, both from F-droid and the Aurora store:
- Koreader - Open source e-reader application
- Audible - Amazon gives you free books intermittently, so I listen to them at the gym.
- Libby - Library app
- MuPDF - For reading PDFs
- Bible Study - For studying the Bible, of course!
As a wallet/banking #
Using the phone as a bitcoin and monero wallet is a good use, but keep your keys safe and off device. I use the cheque scanning feature occasionally in the banking apps, but I may opt out of this entirely in the future.
As a SSH client into various services #
For Notetaking in Obsidian using my note system #
2FA #
For contacting people! #
Calls are a lovely way to keep in contact with people, and I value video calls especially when travelling away from friends and family.
Track your screentime #
As you start to use a phone in this way, you will see that you have far less interest in the addictive stuff, you’ll want to get outside more and you’ll be more enthralled with the world around you. It will be like a cloud has been lifted from your eyes. Keep yourself accountable and watch how much you are using a screen. It should be under and hour a day on your best days! Keep yourself accountable and watch how much you are using a screen.
It should be under and hour a day on your best days!
How do you keep yourself from wasting all your life away on a smartphone? Post in the comments below!