💬 Friday Thread: To smartphone or not?
I'm thinking of switching to a flip phone
I don’t know about you, but I struggle with protecting my attention in our always-on world, especially when it comes to my phone. (I’ve even written about it once before, you may recall.)
While I know this about myself, I got a welcome reminder earlier this week when one of my favorite newsletter writers
shared his own struggles with giving too much of his attention away to his smartphone, and the solution he came up with: switching to a flip phone.So, I’m thinking about doing this myself and I’d love to know: do you struggle with this too? Have you ever thought about ditching yours for a “dumb” phone? What might persuade you to make the switch?
And if you have, how has it worked for you? I’d love to hear any and all perspectives, as I love hearing your stories. Let me know! — Terrell
Okay. I have thoughts. They may not be particularly good ones, but they ARE thoughts.
I have actually recently asked myself what about my iPhone is causing me to behave like magpie on crack--running after one shiny little thing to the next.
When someone suggested a boycott of FB and IG for a week. I decided I wouldn't look at SM for that entire period. OMG. (she said, pretending she was still a teenager.) Anyway, I got soooo much done. So...
I'm considering removing all SM thing-ys off my smart phone...but I'm KEEPING Kindle so I can read in line etc. (Because that has value.)
Having said all that...(more like, babbled all that) I think it's a matter of discipline--which is SO hard...but as a senior tech exec friend of mine said yesterday when we were doing a catch up call--You've got to figure out where your "net positive" actions come from. If--for example--SM (other than Substack) doesn't generate a net positive--leave it behind. My Smart phone is a net positive--It's ME, the USER, than can have a net negative effect.
Smart phone + social media can be dangerous and toxic - while I’m not dependent, I’ve come to realize that I allowed both too early into my kids’ lives when they were in their early teens. Luckily we came out of the dark times without catastrophic results. For those with tweens or younger kids I recommend reading and considering the advice from an eye opening book by Jonathan Haidt “The Anxious Generation”