Hi. Just thought I'd write about how, over the last 3 months, I've gone from a smart phone to a dumb phone to a dumb/smart phone. I decided 3 months ago to get away from being connected to the internet all the time when I am out and about. I still have a laptop that I look at in the evening, so it's not like I'm cutting myself off completely.
So one day in Feb I switched to a dumb phone. It didn't even have a calculator! I immediately saw a positive difference. I slept better, my memory improved, I spoke to more people, I read more books, and it definitely improved my attention. It was a really good experiment and I'm glad I did it.
But there were two things I struggled with.
1) Texting - Going back to T9 predictive texting was hard, and although I persevered, it never got easy and quick enough to stop bothering me. Friends would keep sending more texts, one after another, before I'd finished replying to the first one.
2) Making small notes - I used to use a small app called SimpleNote to make text notes. Things I wanted to remember, flight details, to-do lists, etc. Although I carried a notebook and pen in my bag, there always lots of times when I didn't have it with me and lost track of things.
So... here's the compromise I've ended up with that will be long term....
I've gone back to my iPhone, but I've deleted all the apps and switched to a phone contract that has an extremely very small amount of data, and committed for a year. My screen now looks like this: http://ift.tt/2rcuPHA
I can still send texts the 'new' way, and make text-only notes that sync up with other devices, but virtually everything else that can be removed has been (except a calculator). The only thing that uses mobile data is SimpleNote which only uses a tiny amount. By switching to very low data contract, my monthly bill has fallen from £57 to £4.99.
So now my smart phone has become a nearly dumb phone, with just enough smartness to keep me from going insane.
Submitted May 16, 2017 at 11:47AM by samwgc1974 http://ift.tt/2pGGQ89
