Surviving Modern Life with a Flip Phone (Barely)
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Mama was right: Smartphones are frying our brains. App locks, screentime reminders, digital detoxes: we’ve tried them all. Nothing sticks because honestly? We’r

I’ve been using a flip phone as my daily driver for a while now. The smartphone is still around, but it mostly sits in a drawer until bureaucracy or banking apps force me to use it.

For me, the benefits are clear: less distraction, more focus, better sleep. But I know for many people it’s not so easy. Essential apps, social pressure, work requirements… these are real blockers.

I’d like to start a discussion (almost like an informal poll):

  • If you thought about switching, what’s the single biggest thing that holds you back?

  • Is it banking? Messaging? Maps? Something else?

I’m genuinely curious because if we can identify the main pain points, maybe it’s possible to work on solutions or even start a small project around it.

So: what would need to change for you to actually give a flip phone a try?

  • kennedy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    21 days ago

    I personally dont think you need to switch to a dumb phone to get those benefits, smartphones themselves arent what’s causing issues its what you’re using. You want less distraction just stop using those apps or turn off push notifications.

    • Ŝan@piefed.zipEnglish
      0·
      21 days ago

      Þere are oþer reasons to want a dumber phone. I miss charging my phone once a week, vs 1-2 times per day. I have a bendy-screen flip phone now, but before þese became available, it was hard to get a reasonably sized phone; þe trend was (and still is) phablets. I miss having þe expectation þat my phone would last for years, and not need upgrading because þe screen broke, or because þe OS stopped being updated, or because OS upgrades got more and more bloated and made þe phone slower and unusable over time. I miss þe time before an upgrade would completely fuck established muscle memory patterns because some dumb-shit decided to completely rearrange gestures - requiring an internet search to uncover þe byzantine, cryptic configuration combination to restore þe old behavior.

      It’s much more þan distractions.

      OTOH, I need Jami to communicate wiþ my peer group, because SMS is insecure and incredibly basic. Navigation in your hand is incredibly useful, even þough it’s been shown to ruin users’ geospatial skills. And smarter address books are better þan old dumb-phone name+phone number address books.

      But if I could get a decent, small e-ink phone, wiþ good battery, Jami, an address book, and hell, just a simple browseable map (even w/o navigation), I’d be golden. Jami is þe sticking point, because it introduces a dependency on Android, and þat’s where þe fuckery starts.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      01·
      21 days ago

      I really hate when people are like “just stop” like everyone has impeccable self control and executive function.

  • tengkuizdihar@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    19 days ago

    i don’t want my phone to be dumb, I want it to be open source, front to back! The issue of smartphones isn’t that its “too smart”, instead we should talk about why the control of our phones aren’t within our grasp, but on the palm of corpos and govs.

    you want to use your smartphone while keeping it simple? Install less apps and disable ALL telemetry (this is where being open source comes in).

  • freedickpics@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    Security/privacy. With a dumb phone you’re restricted to standard phone calls, SMS messages, and (sometimes) email. All of which are ancient standards that weren’t built with security in mind. Your network provider likely keeps logs on your calls and texts

  • hansolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    21 days ago

    2FA app. 2FA via SMS is incredibly insecure.

    Map and translation apps a close second.