Use More Paper - the global analog revival

We share our journey of rediscovering the simplicity of life through the use of "dumb" phones, as opposed to the highly addictive smartphones that dominate our lives today. Our podcast focuses on making unconventional choices and living an anti-cultural lifestyle, and this experience is no exception.

Like an old Nokia

Our experiment began when we decided to switch from smartphones to dumb phones, inspired by the Punkt MP01 design, reminiscent of the old Nokia phones we used as students. At first, the transition was uncomfortable and painful, as we had grown accustomed to the convenience and features of our smartphones. However, we soon learned that living without a smartphone was, in fact, much easier than we anticipated.

One of us, a busy mother of two, recognized the symptoms of smartphone addiction in her life, such as sleep deprivation and constant distraction from notifications. The switch to a dumb phone forced her out of her comfort zone and made her more aware of her dependence on technology. Despite the initial anger and frustration, she eventually found a middle ground with the Unihertz Titan Pocket, which provided some useful features without the addictive properties of a smartphone.

More talking, less texting

We discovered that using a dumb phone made us appreciate talking to people more, as the phone didn't allow for easy texting. We found that we would hide behind technology if given the chance, and the dumb phone helped us expand our social capabilities.

We both tried going back to smartphones at different points, only to find ourselves slipping back into old habits and addiction patterns. This realization led us to believe that short technological detoxes are not enough to break the cycle of addiction. Instead, using a dumb phone for an extended period can help identify the root causes of our discomfort and dependence on technology.

Balance and privacy

Through this experience, we learned that we could find a balance between the need for certain smartphone features and the desire to live a simpler, less addictive lifestyle. For example, one of us found that a minimalistic Android-based phone, like the Unihertz Titan Pocket, was the perfect middle ground.

While we understand that the privacy concerns regarding data collection by Android and other smartphone operating systems are important, our focus in this experiment was primarily on breaking free from the addictive nature of smartphones.

In conclusion, our journey with dumb phones has been an eye-opening experience that has taught us valuable lessons about our relationship with technology. We've learned that it is possible to find a balance between convenience and simplicity, and that breaking free from smartphone addiction requires more than just a temporary detox. As we continue to explore unconventional choices and anti-cultural lifestyles, we hope to inspire others to question their dependence on technology and seek a more fulfilling way of life.

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I am listening recently to Moriah Woods — highly recommended. It's a singer-songwriter that I didn't know that existed. Recently, with my daughter, we went to an Anneke Van Giersbergen concert and Moriah opened for Anneke. She's very good. She plays moody songs accompanied by acoustic guitar, very good songwriting.

Let's talk about music today.

After trying Tidal, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, I went back recently to purchasing MP3 files from Apple - from iTunes, because I want to own the music I listen to.

It's because I really don't like the concept of streaming. I don't like the fact that you pay a certain amount of money monthly to have access to everything. It's not beneficial for me as a listener because I'm overwhelmed with the number of tracks I have access to. It means also that I don't value those track because this mass of music is so cheap.

I like the fact of possessing the music, of having it on my hard drive, inside my computer, on my storage. Ideally I prefer owning the music on vinyl, but vinyl is not portable at all. So the albums I buy on vinyl, I buy them twice: once on vinyl and the second time as MP3s from iTunes.

You have the money

I think it's okay because first of all, it's not a cost that is prohibitive in 2022. I don't have to buy lots of albums a month, so my home budget is not suffering. It gives me the opportunity to listening mobile of course, but it's all also giving me the opportunity to listening in a better sound quality than I would normally do on Spotify, because I can choose from which player I will play the songs. I don't have to have it on Android on iOS, I can have it on an obscure audiophile MP3 player. I can just copy the files from my hard drive and it's done. It works offline. And I also know that by buying the album twice, I'm actually helping the musician because musicians are really screwed by streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, etc. You have to generate 3 million streams per month to have a few hundreds of dollars of revenue. It's crazy.

Business model

I've been a musician, so I know how it works. It basically costs you nothing to put an album on Spotify. And then because everybody's paying for the whole catalog, you basically get nothing in return, since the discoverability becomes a huge problem, not the barriers in putting the music on the platform. So you work two years to compose and record the music and then you get a few streams and everybody says: "Yeah, don't expect money for releasing music, play live and sell some merchandise." But I think that musicians should be paid for the music and not for selling merch. They are musicians, not apparel companies, after all.

I think Pink Floyd would not record "The Wall" if they were forced to tour 200 days per year and sell t-shirts in order to sustain themselves financially. They would not have the time nor the mental bandwidth to compose the masterpiece. This is what's happening today in music. Basically, the music that is available online it's usually not arranged in albums, but it's single tracks and it's released every two to three months because if not, people lose interest and forget about the artist.

Making music today is like making videos on Tiktok or YouTube - you have to keep publishing. If not, the channel won't grow.

So I'm very proud of myself that I am buying each album twice: once on vinyl and a second time as MP3 files from iTunes, because I know that at least the musicians that have worked very hard to create the music I enjoy are given a much larger "cut" from those transactions.

Discoverability

And one last word about discoverability: people often get trapped into thinking that Spotify gets them new listeners.

No, it does not.

The sheer amount of new music added every minute to Spotify makes it actually VERY HARD to get organically discovered on Spotify. YouTube is very good at that. Use YouTube for discoverability, and then put your MP3s on Bandcamp, maybe on iTunes - but specifically on a platform that allows the music to be bought by your fans directly and own the files. Not to be streamed. It will give you much more opportunities to gain new listeners than Spotify by word of mouth and by people supporting people, looking for what other listeners listen to and checking the bands other people support.

Like in the old, cassette days.

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There are two components to waking up effortlessly in the morning:

* the time at which you will go to sleep (and this is the most difficult for people who are willing to wake up early),

* patience and practice.

No alarm clock

For a very long time I thought that I had to have a fancy alarm clock or something like that in order to wake up early. Actually what makes effortless waking up early is not a fancy alarm clock, it's just a practice. If you practice long enough, you will wake up without an alarm clock. That's it.

How long you have to practice to not need an alarm clock anymore? I have used an alarm clock to wake up at before 4:00 AM (yes, because my goal is to wake up before 4:00 AM, so bear in mind that I am very, very ambitious on that front) for at least six months before my my body actually adapted to this rhythm and stopped forcing me to sleep when the alarm clock rang.

Right now I'm still having an alarm clock on my bedside table, but I'm actually waking up before this alarm clock - I'm just turning it off after I woke up naturally.

So, I needed to practice waking up early for far longer than the 30 days or 21 days some habit gurus are mentioning as the stretches of time needed to build habits.

Going to sleep

At which hour should you go to sleep? I don't want to give you advice like that. For me, I am aiming at between seven and eight hours of sleep per day, per 24 hours. In order to achieve that, I have to go to sleep (or at least try to go to sleep) at 8:30 PM. Usually it's not so simple and I'm actually asleep closer to 9:00 PM, because my kids want to spend more time with me. They just don't want to stop playing. They want to read a book with me, etc. Because those activities are important for me, I am often pushing back the time when we go to sleep.

It makes seven hours per night. If I am able to be home from work at a normal hour (which is rare, unfortunately), we are able to go to sleep earlier, closer to 8:00 PM and that makes eight hours of sleep per night.

Why so early?

Why am I aiming at waking up before 4:00 AM? It's because I want to be creative in the mornings. I want to read some paper books and I like to do it in the morning because it calms me before my day. I want also to have at least one hour of time before my kids awake to go running. So, all of this added together makes that I need to wake up rather at 4:00 AM. But I suppose that if you are waking up today at seven, a goal of waking up at five would be pretty amazing! So, you know - set your own goals, don't look at me.

Another thing that that helps with going to sleep earlier and and having this kind of schedule is that we have made a choice in our family to go to sleep together. Everybody.

I know that oftentimes parents stay longer when kids are asleep. This is something we did not want to do. Instead we wanted to make a ritual of going to sleep together and having our house "shut down" at night closer to 9:00 PM.

A family rhythm

From our experience, it is easier for everybody if the kids know that you don't go to play and work while they are asleep, but actually everybody goes to sleep together at the same time. It induces a rhythm into the family. The big value is that it's one rhythm for everybody, a shared rhythm - not different rhythms for kids and for parents.

Besides that, even if you don't have kids, I think that it helps to our body to be more in tune with the natural rhythms of the sun setting down and the world waking up with the sun the next morning. A lot of our hormones are linked also to natural light exposure.

So that's it.

Just two components.

People ghost each other while dating - this is how it all began - but then, it has spread all over the society, because it's comfortable not to end a relationship using a conversation. It's comfortable not to tell someone in their face:

Hey, I don't want to see you anymore.

Everybody ghosts

And so:

* candidates ghost employers,

* employers ghost candidates,

* employers ghost their employees internally (!),

* friends ghost each other,

* companies ghost clients.

I don't know how it is working in your country, but in mine - in Poland - people sometimes send 600 resumes and get zero replies.

Not even a “thank you for applying”.

Because it's so difficult to reply to an email, don't you think?

But it goes way, way beyond that. For example, companies, ghost clients also: I am a client of a law firm and the lawyer with whom I have an eight years relationship takes a month to reply to my emails. I usually get a reply after six or seven attempts at contacting him.

Ghosting destroys people's self-worth

I think it's a societal problem and it should be resolved. You can of course try to resolve it at a personal level by means of retribution: you can make a list of people who ghosted you (that’s what I do!), because one day you will use it against them (I will!) - they will want something from you and it'll be a chance for you to ghost them in return (I will do it!).

You might say:

Oh, there is nothing wrong with ghosting, since everybody does it.

Really? Think about it.

First of all, ghosting in dating, in the job market or between friends - is a sign of disrespect. If you couple disrespect with atomization of society caused by social media and electronic communication services (marketed as better means to connect people, but in reality putting us apart farther away) - it's a very, very bad combination. Moreover, before texting, before Facebook, before the various text chats - you could at least rely on your friends to console you when someone ghosted you. You could rely on some kind of a sense of living in the same world, with other people, with your friends and neighbors.

The game for today is very different: if you send 400 CVS for 400 different job offers, each of the hiring managers that chooses not to reply to you is actually making a very, very small decision based on her or his comfort. But this decision gets added up on your side. One small decision on the side of the hiring manager can appear to be insignificant, but for you 400 not replied job applications can have a consequence on how you see yourself, on your self-worth. It can make you tip over from a state of depression to considering suicide, for example. None of those hiring managers, of course, thinks about that when choosing not to reply to your email.

A part of the process?

They think that it's part of the process. But if you add this process to what happens in dating (dating apps that objectify people, disrespectful decisions based only on looks, disrespectful loss of contact after one meeting), between friends (no reply for no reason, you ask yourself whether you did something wrong) and very often also in the family - you get the idea.

You might think now that it's because I'm not modern enough, I don't understand how modern communication works. If you think that - please, start blogging or maybe even start making TikToks. You probably heard that people are making millions of dollars blogging. Do it. People on TikTok have massive audiences. Try that.

A decent human being

Guess what? Time passes and you don't have millions of followers on TikTok. Nobody looks at your TikToks, you get 45 views at best. And of course, you don't make millions on your blog. Actually, nobody opens your blog.

So you buy Facebook ads, maybe Instagram ads - and still nothing. Just wasted money.

Add this kind of systemic ghosting facilitated by technology to the ghosting performed by other human beings in dating, between friends, in the family, on the job market - also via a technology that facilitates it. Do you see it? It's not a really cool image of the society.

That is precisely why I think ghosting is a very serious problem. That is why I also think that digital minimalism is one of the best solutions to it, since it promotes respect and using technology as a tool and not as a comfortable escape from normal human behaviours.

Please be aware of the fact that your small decision of ghosting someone will add to a series of ghosting that this person is experiencing and it can profoundly affect this person's life.

You can always choose to be a decent human being.

I have changed a lot in my life and in the life of my family using environment shaping. As far as I know, it's the only way to achieve long term results. I learned how to eat clean by shaping my environment, for example. But what does it mean — by "shaping your environment"? It means, for example, that

if you want to stop eating potato chips, you should not have potato chips in your house.

The same goes for bread. We have stopped eating bread and pasta. In order not to be tempted, we have actually thrown away every piece of bread and every packet of pasta we had in our house. And we have never bought them again.

And — yes! — the same goes for running, the same goes for digital pragmatism also!

I shape my environment by having my camera in the main pocket, the left pocket in of my trousers, instead of my smartphone.

Environment shaping appears in a lot of books about habits, productivity and changing your life. It's in the James Clear's “Atomic Habits”, it's in the Kathy Milkman's "How to change?" book. There's a lot of talk about environment shaping in the “Make time" book by the two guys from Google.

I think it's the best way to achieve long term change. Environment shaping is not a strategy based on your strength of a character — which is good since your character can sometimes be weak. It's not based on a force of you not-doing-things-that-you-would-like-to-do. We have finite amounts of will. We have finite amounts of decision power throughout our days. Moreover, lots of today's media and professional environment actually makes it very difficult to make choices and decide. You have to choose which lunch to eat. You have to choose which tshirt to, to buy. You have to choose...

This is precisely why environment shaping works — because once you set up your environment so it helps you make those changes or maintain something in your life, you have much less of a hard time sticking to it.

You don't train for a marathon by making one big training.

You train for a marathon by going for a run every day for three months.

This is how it happens.

Or to follow your gut feeling, should I say? All the escapist services tech is giving us are really meant to occupy us, to steal our attention and they mask our gut feeling.

I have experienced it first hand. The camera I'm using recently to film my vlogs is a camera I already had six years ago. I had it and I sold it.

I sold it because the news, the reviews and a good part of YouTube was masking my gut feeling. I felt that this is the best camera for my needs for vlogging (because it has tremendous stabilization) and also for black and white photography (because I love black and white photography).

Why black and white photography?

This is the kind of photos I'm taking of my family, on our trips, of our day to day life.

There's a reason to the fact that it's black and white. We see the world in colour. Our memories are in colour. I want my photographs to be somehow different from what I see with my own eyes and how I recall my memories. That's why I want my photos to be in black and white.

Aesthetic

Besides that, of course, I like the aesthetic. I like the fact that when you make black and white photos, you don't really care about the colours. Obviously. You rather care about composition, about light and shadows — about such things. The things that normally, when we use our colourful vision, we don't pay so much attention to. Probably because our processing power is finite. If we process colours, shapes, shades — it leaves us less processing power for light, contrast, shadows and composition. But let's get back to our intuition.

Intuition needs time and space

It was difficult for me to listen to my gut feeling and to leave this camera as my main camera, at the time. So, I went on a years long research looking for the best vlogging and photo setup I could find. Actually, every so often my thoughts came back to this camera and I thought:

Yeah, but this camera was nice; this camera was really okay.

It's very difficult to listen to your gut feeling in today's world because of the amount of external information that is thrown at us every day, every hour, every minute.

I was sick and at home for the last 2 weeks. I'm very happy that during that sickness time I had lots of time to think or to do nothing — really, to be bored while staying in bed with a high fever. Such boredom-filled time helps take good decisions. It helps thinking about those past experiences. I have figured quite a lot during those two weeks — for example, that this camera ticks all the boxes for me. Too bad that the company that produced it will probably not continue making those cameras, but hey — we'll see!

I have figured a lot about my productivity stack, what I will be using in the future to be productive and to have enough mental bandwidth to listen to my gut feeling and to reflect on my past experience in order to push my life towards my goals.

Today's tech landscape is making it really, really difficult to reflect during our busy days and to arrange knowledge in our heads. Every time you have a fraction of time that you would normally spend on reflecting, on thinking, on watching the leaves on the trees move — you're looking at a smartphone.

And:

* if you're not looking at a smartphone, you're listening to music;

* if you are not listening to music, you're listening to podcast;

* if you're not listening to podcast, you're listening to audio books;

* if you're not listening to audio books, you are reading kindle books;

* if you're not doing...

You get the idea.

Before algorithms and the "like button"

Earlier on, before 2004, you had the opportunity to draw conclusions and to slowly build your life experience. Today, you have to actively struggle to be able to draw those conclusions and to actually build your life experience, which is crazy. If you're not doing that, if you're not ruthless, if you're not actively making time in order to have those reflection moments regularly to build your life experience, you are making the same mistakes again and again in your life. And if you don't believe me, look around you, amongst the people who are really very addicted to their smartphones — you can spot patterns in their lives, patterns that normally would never be patterns. Normally, you'd see growth and a slow increase in life experience. They would make better decisions with time. But those people who are really, really addicted to the electronic devices are following the same patterns again and again.

Humanity would not be so successful on Earth if it was not able to draw conclusions

To reflect is to be human. Building upon your own knowledge of life, and then the knowledge of past generations, of people who died a long time ago and preserved their life experience — is to be human.

So please, if you want to remain human, listen to your gut and make actively time in your days, in your weeks, in your months to build this personal experience and to actually get better at life choices.

This post is a consequence of my vlog about why I shadow-ban people. Actually, a lot of the times the people that are shadow-banned or whom I remind that they transgressed some clearly defined limits I have communicated, are tempted to apologize — but very often they don't know how to do it.

People have forgotten how to apologize

What comes from that is a sort of bizarre tapping on their own back instead of really apologizing and showing that they want to save the relationship. So I wanted to help them, because I think that social media and the tech landscape make it very easy to ghost people, very easy to stop contacting someone, and therefore people have forgotten how to apologize properly, how to nurture a relationship, how to repair something that interpersonally was broken.

#1 - You want to repair the relationship

The number one thing for apologizing is that you have to really want to repair the relationship.

A side note is that the people that are your real friends, for whom you are important, they will actually not wait for an apology before they forgive you. They will forgive you instantly just after you made something stupid, just after you acted in a bad way. If the relationship you are trying to repair is something valuable in your life and something strong, the mere action of apologizing is just a formality. It's not something that is needed in order for the relationship to survive.

#2 - The apology is socially needed

What I wrote in the paragraph above is quite important, because it sets the stage — and the stage is that most of the time, you will apologize on a more unstable, moving ground. You will do it in those relationships in which you are not 100% sure that they are strong. In situations in which what you did could actually damage the relationship. So, for example, at work with your boss. You will want to apologize to your boss from fear of your boss retaliating to you. You’ll want to do it because you suspect that it's something your boss actually wants from you.

#3 - The relationship is not strong

So, if you are a real minimalist, you'll pretty much come to a conclusion that if you need to apologize, then it means that the relationship is not very strong — and it's true. So, think for a moment whether you want to apologize or not — it's the first thing to do. You can come to the conclusion that:

No, you don't want to apologize.

A lot of bad bosses at work — bad managers, actually — come to this conclusion. They think:

Yeah, those employees are not important for me, because if they were not my employees, I would actually not entertain any relationships with them. So, even if I'm acting as an a*****e, I will not apologize.

This is how you can very easily spot a bad manager. A bad manager will instantly trade your relationship for your utility.

#4 - You are forced to apologize

Another point to reflect upon is to determine whether you seem forced to apologize or not. Because if you seem forced to apologize, it can be a form of passive aggression. The best way to do this is to see whether the need to apologize is something you really feel from inside of you, or whether it is something social. Whether you think you should apologize, because if not someone will judge you (or you will appear as a lesser human being in the eyes of someone). And this “someone” can be your spouse. It can also be your boss. Maybe your mother? It can be a lot of people actually.

If you don't feel the need for apologizing inside of you, it's a very good indicator that you should not apologize.

But let’s assume that you feel it from inside and you take the decision to apologize.

#5 - How to apologize properly?

It's very easy, and at the same time it's very tough.

You will have to be vulnerable.

Today, people don't like to be vulnerable because they have been sold a stupid story of how everyone should be tough and everyone should not be emotional.

Everyone should be ideal in all the circumstances, at all the levels, in all the moments of their lives.

It’s crazy stupid. But most of the world is actually gulping on this stupidity. If you feel the need to apologize, you have to be vulnerable. The best way is to actually say it:

I'm sorry for what I did. I understand that I hurt you. Please accept my apologies.

That's it. You rarely hear this kind of apologies, especially in the media, are you?

Stay away from bogus apologies

The bogus apologies in the media sound usually like this:

I am sorry that you are feeling bad right now.

You cannot be sorry for someone feeling bad! You can be sorry for something you have done that made them feel bad, but you cannot be sorry for their reaction. You don’t own their reaction. You own your actions, that’s pretty much it.

This is actually a kind of apology that is not an apology. This is something that is wasting everyone's time, because it's not showing good intent, it's not repairing the relationship, nor it’s even logical. It's just empty media time.

Don’t pair apologies with verbal aggression

A lot of the times the people who feel bad and want to apologize will actually try to turn the apologies around to make them feel as if they wanted to repair the relationship, but at the same time they also wanted to point the finger at you to show you that there were times when you also were an a*****e. One day. Earlier on.

This is pure manipulation. It’s made uniquely with the goal to lessen the bad feelings they feel. It’s purely selfish.

The apology is for the person who is apologizing

The apologies are not really for the person you are apologizing to. As I wrote before, if the relationship is strong enough, you don't have to apologize. The relationship will survive because you will be forgiven way before you actually make the apology.

The apology is actually for the person who is apologizing. This is something that very few people understand. If you decide to apologize, the sooner you do it, the better will it be for you. The faster you will tame remorse and sadness.

If you decide to turn this situation around to point the finger at the other person, you will actually not feel better about this situation. You will delay the resolution of the situation — the resolution that would be good for you.

So, how to apologize properly?

Be vulnerable and do it fast.

That's it.

Why?

Because you will feel better.

I am listening recently to Moriah Woods — highly recommended. It's a singer-songwriter that I didn't know that existed. Recently, with my daughter, we went to an Anneke Van Giersbergen concert and Moriah opened for Anneke. She's very good. She plays moody songs accompanied by acoustic guitar, very good songwriting.

Let’s talk about music today.

After trying Tidal, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, I went back recently to purchasing MP3 files from Apple - from iTunes, because I want to own the music I listen to.

It’s because I really don’t like the concept of streaming. I don’t like the fact that you pay a certain amount of money monthly to have access to everything. It’s not beneficial for me as a listener because I’m overwhelmed with the number of tracks I have access to. It means also that I don’t value those track because this mass of music is so cheap.

I like the fact of possessing the music, of having it on my hard drive, inside my computer, on my storage. Ideally I prefer owning the music on vinyl, but vinyl is not portable at all. So the albums I buy on vinyl, I buy them twice: once on vinyl and the second time as MP3s from iTunes.

You have the money

I think it’s okay because first of all, it’s not a cost that is prohibitive in 2022. I don’t have to buy lots of albums a month, so my home budget is not suffering. It gives me the opportunity to listening mobile of course, but it’s all also giving me the opportunity to listening in a better sound quality than I would normally do on Spotify, because I can choose from which player I will play the songs. I don’t have to have it on Android on iOS, I can have it on an obscure audiophile MP3 player. I can just copy the files from my hard drive and it’s done. It works offline. And I also know that by buying the album twice, I’m actually helping the musician because musicians are really screwed by streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, etc. You have to generate 3 million streams per month to have a few hundreds of dollars of revenue. It’s crazy.

Business model

I’ve been a musician, so I know how it works. It basically costs you nothing to put an album on Spotify. And then because everybody’s paying for the whole catalog, you basically get nothing in return, since the discoverability becomes a huge problem, not the barriers in putting the music on the platform. So you work two years to compose and record the music and then you get a few streams and everybody says: “Yeah, don’t expect money for releasing music, play live and sell some merchandise.” But I think that musicians should be paid for the music and not for selling merch. They are musicians, not apparel companies, after all.

I think Pink Floyd would not record “The Wall“ if they were forced to tour 200 days per year and sell t-shirts in order to sustain themselves financially. They would not have the time nor the mental bandwidth to compose the masterpiece. This is what’s happening today in music. Basically, the music that is available online it’s usually not arranged in albums, but it’s single tracks and it’s released every two to three months because if not, people lose interest and forget about the artist.

Making music today is like making videos on Tiktok or YouTube - you have to keep publishing. If not, the channel won’t grow.

So I’m very proud of myself that I am buying each album twice: once on vinyl and a second time as MP3 files from iTunes, because I know that at least the musicians that have worked very hard to create the music I enjoy are given a much larger “cut” from those transactions.

Discoverability

And one last word about discoverability: people often get trapped into thinking that Spotify gets them new listeners.

No, it does not.

The sheer amount of new music added every minute to Spotify makes it actually VERY HARD to get organically discovered on Spotify. YouTube is very good at that. Use YouTube for discoverability, and then put your MP3s on Bandcamp, maybe on iTunes - but specifically on a platform that allows the music to be bought by your fans directly and own the files. Not to be streamed. It will give you much more opportunities to gain new listeners than Spotify by word of mouth and by people supporting people, looking for what other listeners listen to and checking the bands other people support.

Like in the old, cassette days.

Why Ditch the Smartphone?

One of the worst parts about owning a smartphone is the email function. If you have your work email synced to your phone, it’s like you are never actually leaving work. You feel the pressure you feel at work 24/7. Sometimes, you might find yourself answering work emails in the middle of the night because you couldn’t sleep.

This sets an unhealthy precedent that our employers should be able to reach us at all hours, even when the issue at hand could wait until the next workday. You’re not getting paid for these hours, so why carry the stress of the job?

The dangers of smartphones are well known by anyone who’s used a smartphone, or anyone who’s tried to spend time with people with smartphones (especially younger people who’ve grown up with these devices). According to helpguide.org, there is a growing issue of smartphone addiction, similar to other addictive activities like gambling. There are a number of distressing and alarming ways that smartphones can negatively impact our lives:

* Increased loneliness and depression;

* Fuelling Anxiety;

* Exacerbate Attention Issues;

* Disturbing your sleep; and

* Encouraging Self-absorption.

Another issue with smartphones is that they can diminish our ability to think creatively. According to this Time article, boredom can lead us to our most creative ideas. You’ve likely experienced this before, where you are doing a menial task, or doing nothing at all, and you have your deepest, most creative ideas. By allowing our brains to rest and just exist, we are better able to think deeply and creatively. Smartphones make this kind of deep thinking time hard to come by, as when we get bored, we often pick up the phone and start scrolling through Twitter or checking emails. Without this distraction, you’ll have more time for deep and creative thinking.

How has getting rid of my smartphone affected my life?

When I initially sold my smartphone and bought a Punkt phone, there was a lot of anxiety initially. I worried that my work and social lives might be hurt or diminished by the lack of a smartphone. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to advance at work because I wouldn’t be able to respond to emails 24/7. I worried that I would miss out on social activities by not having as many ways for friends to contact me. But now six months out, I can say confidently that I had nothing to worry about, and that my life has definitely improved.

As far as work goes, I now feel as though I have true work-life balance. I do my work during my workday, and I respond to emails during my workday, and this has not made me any less productive. In fact, I would argue that without the distraction of social media apps, my productivity at work has actually improved. Researchers have been studying whether smartphones aid or diminish productivity, and some are finding that smartphones become obstacles to deep thinking or reach a “flow” state. This same researcher found that, on average, people checked their phone every 18 minutes, which adds up over the course of the day, and additionally noted that those with higher smartphone usage tended to have more negative social lives.

I’ve also seen a marked improvement in my social and family life since selling my smartphone. Without the constant need to check my phone, I have more time to spend with my family. I also feel like I have become a better role model for my children, as they see me not being distracted by technology like other adults in their lives. There’s actually a term for parents who use their smartphones when they could be spending quality time with their kids: distracted parenting. If parents spend their time on their phones, instead of with their children, these relationships will be much weaker. This could also affect the development of our children, as they absorb communication skills from us, and if the only communication they see is us typing on our phones, this might be the only communication they come to understand.

Another way I think I’ve become a better parent as a result of not having a smartphone is that I don’t model negative social media behaviour. Many children now see their parents posing for hours for Instagram pictures, or sharing just the best parts of their lives on social media, and again, children learn by observing, and will mimic these behaviours later (but not that much later) in life. Instead, show your children the things that you are passionate about in life, and spark their own curiosity and drive to find their passions.

Similarly, I’ve found that since ditching the smartphone, I no longer compare myself to others constantly. It’s natural for us to compare ourselves to others, especially for those of us who are competitive. But when we see other people on social media, we are only seeing the best parts of people’s lives. We don’t see the thousands of hours that went into working for the beautiful house, we just see the gorgeous (staged) photos of the house. We also don’t know what someone’s upbringing or background was like. Maybe that person grew up rich, which is why they’re 21 and can afford that sports car. Another important point is that social media is global, and life can be extremely different in different parts of the world. For all of these reasons, the constant comparison can only be detrimental to our happiness. Instead of trying to chase what others have, consider what YOU actually want in life, and go after it. This will make you so much happier than chasing the dreams of others. A number of studies have examined the correlation between social media and mental health, and while correlation doesn’t equal causation, there is definitely some sort of link between the two.

Another positive to getting rid of my smartphone has been that I’ve been calling people to communicate instead of communicating via SMS or email. Though not as good as talking face-to-face, I’ve found that having conversations with someone is so much better than communicating by writing. So much of how we communicate cannot be captured in text. Verbal cues and sarcasm can’t be articulated as easily in text versus verbal communication. I’ve found so much more enjoyment in life by actually picking up the phone and calling a friend I haven’t seen in a while instead of sending them Facebook messages, and by improving my social circle. I’m improving my life.

Getting Started

So maybe I’ve sold you on getting rid of the smartphone and living the tenets of digital minimalism. But before you dive in headfirst, let’s check the water depth. Extremism is never sustainable. If you throw your smartphone out the window and vow to disassociate from all technological-based communication, either your life will take a major hit, and/or, you will be buying a new smartphone a month from now. So how do we transition to a life of greater fulfilment, and less reliance on technology?

For starters, you can use technology sparingly, and with intentionality, something I’ve spoken about in past vlogs and blogs. Make a list of all your applications and devices, and only keep the ones which ADD value to your life. A calendar app might actually add value to your life. On the other hand, an app like Instagram is most likely not going to add anything to your life (unless of course you run your business on that platform). If you’ve already pared down your apps, and you feel like you’re ready to ditch the smartphone entirely, getting a punkt device might be a realistic alternative as these devices allow you to make phone calls and hotspot a laptop for checking emails during work hours.

One thing to remember is that the whole point of digital minimalism is to add value to your life. There’s no trophy for being the most stoic person and using zero technology. We want to make our tech use efficient and minimal, so that we have time for the things we love, be it family, hobbies, friends, etc.

Go make your list of technology, evaluate your technology uses, and go from there. And remember this (like life) is a process, and there may be bumps along the way, but as long as you are putting in effort, and being mindful, you can always improve your happiness.

Today, we’re going to look at why I decided to ditch my smartphone, how I think it’s affected my life, and why you might want to consider something similar.

Why Ditch the Smartphone?

One of the worst parts about owning a smartphone is the email function. If you have your work email synced to your phone, it’s like you are never actually leaving work. You feel the pressure you feel at work 24/7. Sometimes, you might find yourself answering work emails in the middle of the night because you couldn’t sleep.

This sets an unhealthy precedent that our employers should be able to reach us at all hours, even when the issue at hand could wait until the next workday. You’re not getting paid for these hours, so why carry the stress of the job?

The dangers of smartphones are well known by anyone who’s used a smartphone, or anyone who’s tried to spend time with people with smartphones (especially younger people who’ve grown up with these devices). According to helpguide.org, there is a growing issue of smartphone addiction, similar to other addictive activities like gambling. There are a number of distressing and alarming ways that smartphones can negatively impact our lives:

* Increased loneliness and depression;

* Fuelling Anxiety;

* Exacerbate Attention Issues;

* Disturbing your sleep; and

* Encouraging Self-absorption.

Another issue with smartphones is that they can diminish our ability to think creatively. According to this Time article, boredom can lead us to our most creative ideas. You’ve likely experienced this before, where you are doing a menial task, or doing nothing at all, and you have your deepest, most creative ideas. By allowing our brains to rest and just exist, we are better able to think deeply and creatively. Smartphones make this kind of deep thinking time hard to come by, as when we get bored, we often pick up the phone and start scrolling through Twitter or checking emails. Without this distraction, you’ll have more time for deep and creative thinking.

How has getting rid of my smartphone affected my life?

When I initially sold my smartphone and bought a Punkt phone, there was a lot of anxiety initially. I worried that my work and social lives might be hurt or diminished by the lack of a smartphone. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to advance at work because I wouldn’t be able to respond to emails 24/7. I worried that I would miss out on social activities by not having as many ways for friends to contact me. But now six months out, I can say confidently that I had nothing to worry about, and that my life has definitely improved.

As far as work goes, I now feel as though I have true work-life balance. I do my work during my workday, and I respond to emails during my workday, and this has not made me any less productive. In fact, I would argue that without the distraction of social media apps, my productivity at work has actually improved. Researchers have been studying whether smartphones aid or diminish productivity, and some are finding that smartphones become obstacles to deep thinking or reach a “flow” state. This same researcher found that, on average, people checked their phone every 18 minutes, which adds up over the course of the day, and additionally noted that those with higher smartphone usage tended to have more negative social lives.

I’ve also seen a marked improvement in my social and family life since selling my smartphone. Without the constant need to check my phone, I have more time to spend with my family. I also feel like I have become a better role model for my children, as they see me not being distracted by technology like other adults in their lives. There’s actually a term for parents who use their smartphones when they could be spending quality time with their kids: distracted parenting. If parents spend their time on their phones, instead of with their children, these relationships will be much weaker. This could also affect the development of our children, as they absorb communication skills from us, and if the only communication they see is us typing on our phones, this might be the only communication they come to understand.

Another way I think I’ve become a better parent as a result of not having a smartphone is that I don’t model negative social media behaviour. Many children now see their parents posing for hours for Instagram pictures, or sharing just the best parts of their lives on social media, and again, children learn by observing, and will mimic these behaviours later (but not that much later) in life. Instead, show your children the things that you are passionate about in life, and spark their own curiosity and drive to find their passions.

Similarly, I’ve found that since ditching the smartphone, I no longer compare myself to others constantly. It’s natural for us to compare ourselves to others, especially for those of us who are competitive. But when we see other people on social media, we are only seeing the best parts of people’s lives. We don’t see the thousands of hours that went into working for the beautiful house, we just see the gorgeous (staged) photos of the house. We also don’t know what someone’s upbringing or background was like. Maybe that person grew up rich, which is why they’re 21 and can afford that sports car. Another important point is that social media is global, and life can be extremely different in different parts of the world. For all of these reasons, the constant comparison can only be detrimental to our happiness. Instead of trying to chase what others have, consider what YOU actually want in life, and go after it. This will make you so much happier than chasing the dreams of others. A number of studies have examined the correlation between social media and mental health, and while correlation doesn’t equal causation, there is definitely some sort of link between the two.

Another positive to getting rid of my smartphone has been that I’ve been calling people to communicate instead of communicating via SMS or email. Though not as good as talking face-to-face, I’ve found that having conversations with someone is so much better than communicating by writing. So much of how we communicate cannot be captured in text. Verbal cues and sarcasm can’t be articulated as easily in text versus verbal communication. I’ve found so much more enjoyment in life by actually picking up the phone and calling a friend I haven’t seen in a while instead of sending them Facebook messages, and by improving my social circle. I’m improving my life.

Getting Started

So maybe I’ve sold you on getting rid of the smartphone and living the tenets of digital minimalism. But before you dive in headfirst, let’s check the water depth. Extremism is never sustainable. If you throw your smartphone out the window and vow to disassociate from all technological-based communication, either your life will take a major hit, and/or, you will be buying a new smartphone a month from now. So how do we transition to a life of greater fulfilment, and less reliance on technology?

For starters, you can use technology sparingly, and with intentionality, something I’ve spoken about in past vlogs and blogs. Make a list of all your applications and devices, and only keep the ones which ADD value to your life. A calendar app might actually add value to your life. On the other hand, an app like Instagram is most likely not going to add anything to your life (unless of course you run your business on that platform). If you’ve already pared down your apps, and you feel like you’re ready to ditch the smartphone entirely, getting a punkt device might be a realistic alternative as these devices allow you to make phone calls and hotspot a laptop for checking emails during work hours.

One thing to remember is that the whole point of digital minimalism is to add value to your life. There’s no trophy for being the most stoic person and using zero technology. We want to make our tech use efficient and minimal, so that we have time for the things we love, be it family, hobbies, friends, etc.

Go make your list of technology, evaluate your technology uses, and go from there. And remember this (like life) is a process, and there may be bumps along the way, but as long as you are putting in effort, and being mindful, you can always improve your happiness.

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