Ask HN: What's it like to not own a smartphone? I'm considering ditching my iPhone and deleting all major social media accounts cold turkey, but am wondering if this will have any unintended negative effects. Anyone doing this already? What's it like? |
That said, I am probably going to buy one soon anyway. More and more, it's becoming expected socially.
The funniest example: I was at a bar with a bunch of friends. One paid the whole tab and asked everyone to Venmo him their share. As a non-smartphone-user, I only have a vague idea of what Venmo is. So I reached into my wallet for some cash, and handed it to him.
He waved it off. "It's too complicated, don't worry about it."
Twitter would be the hardest for me to let go. I enjoy seeing posts from friends, developers, journalists, and comedians there. Using Jumbo app to prune any tweets older than a month helps me feel like it’s less a permanent record on myself.
And finally, the tech I’m most worried about keeping but can’t really let go of because of family and friends is WhatsApp. They’ll have to make money with it one day and all the pressure from other governments to decrypt seems like it might hit a breaking point for them.
It means I have two modes. When I am out and about I can fully experience my immediate surroundings. When I am at home I interact with the online world using full sized monitors and keyboards.
Smartphones strike me as technologically primitive. I carry a light laptop with me at all times so I always have access to comfortable and capable computing. I carry it in a narrow knapsack that stays out of my way.
This works quite well for me. Out is where there are new things to experience. In is where everything is the same so it is more worth the bother to get out in a virtual way.
For me it has worked out well, but YMMV.
Sent from my iPhone.
To be honest, I don't know how she makes it work but the only change I see is those who ask her contact number roll their eyes or worse case the eyes popping out when they realise she doesn't own a phone!!!
I really liked what happened. I still could message people or use the apps I liked but because my smart phone wasn't just to hand I only checked it say 10 times a week.
As another person mentioned, fix the problem with yourself, don't blame the technology.
Any benefits you gain from fewer distractions is outweighed by how much harder everyday life becomes.
Are you ever excluded or written off as crazy for going phoneless?
Over 80% of your opportunities come from your network, but over 80% of your time needs to be spent on actual work. That said, social media isn't your only way to network, but it really helps if you're not somewhere full of talented people.
If you're planning on going more into work, keep in mind that mentoring also comes from your network, and that also includes book recommendations.
But personally I'm stopping with Facebook and most social media, because it is taking up more than 20% of my focus.
Use the best tool. Phones and social media are the most popular but may not be best.
You don't need a drastic "I'm deleting all my accounts and ditching my phone" intervention. And in my experience, in the long run big sweeping changes are far less effective than incremental changes to your habits.
Also, many services I’m used to turned to depend on them - taxi, payments, organization for all kinds of events with friends and colleagues, etc.
In the end, it turned out I’m just blaming social media for flaws in my own character. Once I pointed these out and started working on them, I started having a significantly more beneficial relationship with social media.
Note and address your concerns and behaviors.
Do this for 30 days and re-address your questions and where you’ll go from there.
No issues.
I do have a Samsung Galaxy tablet that I use for reading.
Personal phone -> A feature phone Business phone -> Smartphone if you're in primarily customer-facing role(e.g. sales, customer support)
My Story:
3 years back, I gave away my smartphone and switched to a simple feature phone. I had to get a smartphone for a duration of 6 months in between this period(when a lot of my day job couldn't be finished without accessing whatsapp groups/messages and travelling)
For my job as a programmer/founder, I prefer no smartphone at all and use following formula
1. For Personal Use: phone on feature phone 2. For Business Use: iPad with only business whatsapp, toto app, book reading app(and that too only when I am not able to lure any other team member to handle it for me)
Location services, cabs, all these things can be handled without smartphone. Although, it takes little longer and inconvenience but also gives an opportunity to live in the moment, ask people for help.
I downgraded to a flip phone about a year ago. It’s a mostly positive experience for me. Although, it’s important to say that other people you care about are going to be to a certain extent affected as well.
I’d like to highlight a few nuances:
- No ad-hoc access to online Maps means I need to plan my trips including back up routes and memorize city by heart. I cannot get off a subway, open a smartphone and figure out how to get to a point B. This is a two-edged sword and while I can experience surroundings and explore cities, sometimes I need to ask people for directions.
- My flip phone’s battery lasts for about a week. It’s generally great, but sometimes I forget to charge it. It’s not a big deal for me as a flip phone is already an emergency phone but I communicated to my close friends and family that if they cannot reach out to me this very moment, I’m still safe and no one needs to panic.
- I hate writing text messages on a flip-phone, it’s slow and painful. As a result I send less messages to people I love. It had a minor impact on how they feel, but they got used to my downshifting choice in about a month.
- I used to heavily use Notes app to write down my thoughts. Now, I always carry a small notebook and a pen as a replacement. Whether I read something in a book, hear a funny story, make a grocery list, it always goes to a paper form.
- I cannot do quick fact-checking and look up something using online sources anymore, there is no ad hoc internet option. Whenever there is something worth checking, I make a note in a notebook and get back to this item when I’m in front of a laptop to do more thoughtful analysis.
- I cannot make dumb photos. Again, if I see something worth remembering, it goes to a notebook. It’s not perfect, e.g. when I am at a museum then a visual media is a much better option, receipts cannot be digitized instantaneously, which is especially handy at business trips, etc. On the positive side I got rid of my Dropbox subscription since I don’t have a continuous photo stream anymore.
- In a moment of boredom, I cannot skim through messages, news, or articles. Now I carry Kindle in my backpack; this year I managed to read two to three times more books than the last year.
- I cannot use QR codes, e-tickets to check-in. Everything is either paper-based or I forward them to my wife who uses a smartphone.
- I don’t listen to music as much as used to during commute time.
- This could be specific to my flip phone, but sometimes it cannot properly render text messages from iPhone users. It shows them up as blank.
- I still keep my smartphone at home and use it as a Google Authenticator device.
Ultimately, the whole experience is not about the technology, but about changing addictive unintentional habits.