☎️
I've am using a dumb phone for a month and I'm now one week in! I have switched from my beloved iPhone SE 📱 to a trusty Nokia 225 ☎️. The first few days I was on a high I felt unstoppable 💫, strutting down the halls with my rose gold brick 🧱 glistening in the light. I got so many fans come up and take photos 🤳 with it and try it out, I was on top of the world 🌏! Until ... I started feeling symptoms of instagram reel withdrawal 🤬. My one true love is no longer I have been forcibly ripped from the hands of heaven due to our forbidden romance 🥀.
My sleep health has notably improved due to me not going on my phone before bed 🛌, it has increased my sleep quality and quantity 😴. This experiment has made me more laptop-dependent considering all the apps I need to use are online or on my Mac 💻. Overall my mood has increased and I am texting less but calling more 😊. I mainly communicate through mouth of words 🗣️, SMS, and phone calls. I found many challenges with the limitations of apps like I couldn't use my training apps or WhatsApp which hindered my ability to complete trainings and communicate with coaches 🏋️. I couldn't use Apple Pay, Airdrop, or Find My Phone which affected my organisation and safety👷♀️.
My studies have interestingly 🧐 remained the same, I thought because I wouldn't have access to distractions like social media my academics would improve however I procrastinated equally as with my smartphone 📚. To me it is clear why this has occurred, my attention span from my use of social media has shortened 😬 which makes me procrastinate similarly to previous times but instead of being distracted by my iPhone, I am distracted by other things like food 🍱.
Overall it has been pretty smooth sailing ⛵️, I do feel superior because I catch myself being more present and notice more things like how super awesome I am 🤘🤠
Mar 18, 2025
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I’ve converted to a flip phone and it’s honestly so fun lol. I think the way we have access to everything, and everyone, in milliseconds is rotting our brains and making us such an entitled society; entitled to other people’s time and energy on demand, their lives, business, etc. but I also think the way we get sucked in with links from app to app, ads, videos, and doomscrolling, everything is designed to be addictive and it leads (at least for me) to less productivity and more procrastination. I think having to work just a little harder, even to do something as simple as research something, can be good for us.
So what I’ve done is essentially converted my iPhone to a wifi connected iPod touch like from the old days. I’ve left on certain apps like FaceTime, banking apps, Spotify, kindle app, I kept this one to use occasionally and all my saved recipes on my phone of course, etc. but I leave it in my room and just use it in the morning or before bed for reading or checking emails, music for working out, stuff like that, and leave it at home for everything else.
Screen time of course is way down which is nice, it’s also really nice to not feel like I constantly need to be checking something, opening a message on an app, etc. I also have found so far and think it will continue to help me not spend so much money impulsively on things I don’t actually need.
Aside from all of the benefits, I think in general I just find it funny and all of my friends think it’s hilarious lol. I’ll have to figure out what I’ll do for airports, maybe bring the old iPhone with me, connect to airport wifi, scan boarding passes with it. I’ll figure that out when I get there.
Feb 26, 2025
i have been on a journey to untangle my tasks from my iPhone.
i'd be out in the world someplace, pull out my phone for something as menial as checking the time, or as well intentioned as capturing the moment in a pic, and immediately get sucked into texts and instagram™️ and all the virtual things happening in this tiny lil demon light box.
the goal: pull my phone out of my bag ONLY for phone things. that's texting, calling, and apps that can't be replaced
the solutions so far:
🕰️ i started with a watch (shoutout Casio) and i wear it every day. once I broke the habit of checking my phone for the time, I felt legitimately freed from something Major
📷 I bought a small digital camera to leave in my bag. the pics look better and I don’t get distracted by the virtual world when I'm trying to capture something in the now
📚 I bought a kindle. It fits in my jacket pocket (literally) and gives me something to do when I'm on the train or waiting for an appointment that isn't scrolling
I just realized so much of the time I spent on my phone was not intentional. It was a thing I was doing in between Other intentional moments. my screen time is still several hours a day (don’t get me wrong) but I think my brain has healed at least 3%.
welcoming other ideas as well💡
Sep 24, 2024
I've been rocking the flip phone since March - went through a few different models till I landed on this utilitarian workhorse; the Sonim XP3800. This thing feels like it can stop a bullet. The battery lasts for 3 days. Service is 5 bucks a month.
remixed my brain:
-got lost a few times (feels amazing + found my way back)
-bought an iPod mini (eBay, refurb 256gb)
-forgot about 1 million people that I didn't need to remember
-missed brat summer entirely (found out in late September, loved the album)
-learned how to wait and do nothing
-minimized unnecessary / instantaneous communication
-started taking photos with real cameras again
-started reading again
-stopped impulsively buying instagram shirts
-phone can be turned off during the charging cycle (not possible with iPhone)
-regained control over the flow of information into my brain
-restored my relationship with the computer as an appliance bound to one physical location
Am I a better person for this? Probably not. Is this all of this a bit loaded and pretentious and boomer esque? Definitely. But it feels good to know that I have the freedom to say no to smart phone tech that has been foisted on us as an essential to living for the sake of convenience - convenience which has a cost. I could go on and on and on about this but I would highly recommend that everyone gives this a shot for while even if it's just an experiment. You will be surprised by how you feel after a few weeks.
Dec 11, 2024
Top Recs from @MeowWhenBored
Wowee, week 2🙀! It has now been 2️⃣ weeks since I've replaced my smartphone 📱 with my dumbphone ☎️ and its been wild 🤪. Apart from how difficult it is to send a simple message 😔, I faced many challenges 😥. Excitingly 😸 I was at national this week so I had a different swing of life. At the birth 🤰 of the week I was at WOMAD which is a music festival 👩🎤 where all I wanted to do was share with my fans how much super fun 🥳 we were having but NEVER SHALL I BREAK 🫡, I shall resist the erges the universe presents me 🪐. I soared ✈️ to Sydney with my printed-out boarding pass feeling like an absolute elder. Throughout the week I heavily relied on others to tell me when and what we were doing.
A major point of realisation is that our generation look at ourselves way too much 🤯. Social media creates an unhealthy 👹 environment where we try and display ourselves in the most pleasing and likable 😊 way possible. Consistently comparing ourselves creates internal conflict snowballing ☃️ into a bunch of insecurities 😬. I've noticed every time I go out I am consciencely thinking if I look gorge 💋, if the girls want to be me and the guys want to be with me. NOT if I feel safe and comfortable, how freaking fricked is that brothers 🧌? We nitpick our appearances like monkeys 🐒, WHO are we trying to impress 🧐? WHY do we care so much about others validation 🤷♀️?
I invite thee to share if you think younger generations are too fixated on their personal online image, does this sacrifice mental health due to the insecurities it brings?
xoxo MeowWhenBored 🤘😼
Mar 22, 2025