Loosening The Phone Grip

Digital hi-tech is kind of my playground. Yet I've been exploring more analog and lo-tech lately. It's part of my ongoing desire to keep things simple. It's also my aim to avoid smartphone addiction — like endless scrolling, checking, and YouTube rabbit holes. Most important is fleeing from tech idolatry too.

Minimize Phone

One thing I keep trying to do in recent weeks is to practically minimize my phone. That means deleting apps I don't need. Easier said than done. Some apps I just want. And some, like YouTube, can't be uninstalled from an Android phone. If I can disable the app, what's to stop me from accessing the same content through the phone's browser?

Feedly is one that I'm debating. It's nice to have new articles to read everyday, but most of the them get skipped. For now, I have gone through all my feeds and deleted many that produce too much or too often. And the for the ones that made the cut, I reorganized them into better categories. That reduces the overall mental clutter the builds up since I check for new items less often. But I might end up deleting it anyways, at least to prove to myself that, surely, "I can quit any time." Because the fact that I find it hard to delete from my phone — to let go of — likely means it has a hold of me, which wouldn't be great.

Deleting apps from my phone isn't just for the sake of deletion. I'm trying to hone my device to become less distracting and more focused, but on what? Glad you asked. My mental picture that's driving me is the memory of a previous hi-tech device I once enjoyed circa 2003: the Dell Axim X3. I'm talking about a PDA.

A PDA (personal digital assistant, before the term was used for Siri and Alexa) was a small device like a smartphone without the phone or internet connection. It had no communications but was like a computer. The Axim X3 I used was called a "Pocket PC." To me, it was an modern take on the old Casio B.O.S.S., a pocket gadget that was like a calculator with basic planner apps: to-dos, calendar, contacts, and notes.

On a PDA, disconnected from the web, nothing new ever automatically appeared on the device. Only the text or other data you added was on it. The Pocket PC could store audio files and simple games, but it was not addictive or distracting like the modern smartphone.

I've been envisioning my smartphone being reduced to a simple utilitarian device like the Pocket PC of yore. It's about being practical.

My Moto Razr now has only one home screen without a single folder. There are only nine apps and two widgets there. At top, there's the clock/weather widget. At bottom are my frequent or most useful apps:

• communications (phone)
• audio playback (iPod)
• calendar/tasks (PDA)
• notes (PDA)
• blogging

The middle is most prominent with a large calendar-schedule showing my next event, appointment, or task. So the main focus is getting things done (GTD). I've hidden the YouTube app deep in a subfolder within the App Library. The browser is also tucked in the all-apps drawer.

Pocket Puzzles

Okay, this is where things get interesting. When bored, or out of habit, we grab our phone and go down a rabbit hole, right? Videos, games, social media, news etc. Pick your pleasure poison. It would be hard to simply stop doing that and instead do nothing but sit on your hands.

So instead, I'm going to try to keep my hands and mind engaged in another way: Sudoku and Word Search.

I picked up two travel-size puzzle books today at Dollar General. They cost just four dollars altogether. They both fit in my EDC bag easily (a Tom Bihn Small Café bag). One exercises my brain with numbers, the other with words. They're analog, requiring me to handwrite with a pen on paper. So they're tactile, keeping my fingers busy instead of scrolling and tapping a touchscreen. And fitting in my EDC bag, the Sudoku and Word Search books are always with me, just like my phone. I hope that helps me put some distance between me and my habit of checking and scrolling.

Wrap-up

Minimizing apps on my phone and giving myself things to do besides check my phone should help me reduce undue attachment to it and loosen its grip on me. Then maybe I'll have more calm in my brain, less distraction, or less anxiety. Hopefully I'll tear down a tech idol.

It may take more time and likely won't be easy, but I'm aiming to simplify things a little here and there. I don't think I'm able to switch to a 'dumb' phone for various reasons, so I'll keep trying to exercise discipline over myself and my computer phone. Moderation is key.