Help me quit my smartphone (addiction)!

October 27, 2017 5:21 AM

I miss my pre-smartphone life-- free of compulsive news checking, stretches of actual boredom. I want to get rid of my smartphone, but I need texting for work, and maps are useful when I'm traveling. Is there a phone with only those two features? Or another foolproof workaround? (The "just uninstall social media apps" advice is no good: I just use the browser.)

When my husband and I wanted to quit sugar, we made a rule: no sugar in the house. It's a lot easier to not do something when you don't have to actively use willpower to avoid it. That's why I want to get rid of my smartphone. I want to make it *impossible* for me to pick up a smartphone when I'm bored. But for these two features (texting and maps), I would just hurl it into a ditch.

posted by Mystical Listicle to Technology (19 answers total)

You can buy a GPS device that isn’t a phone. You can buy a non-smartphone for texting.
posted by little_dog_laughing at 5:35 AM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

The answer is - two devices. You carry a dumbphone for texting regularly. They tend to have browsers but they're so awful that you won't want to use it.

When you travel, you carry a GPS device with maps downloaded of the country or city you're in.
posted by notorious medium at 5:39 AM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

There are non-smartphones (sometimes called dumbphones or feature phones) like this one that have decent keyboards for texting. My wife had one up until a couple of years ago, and sometimes the texts would be a little wonky, like splitting up long messages and not recognizing emoji. For the maps, you could go with a dedicated GPS device like this.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:39 AM on October 27, 2017

This feature phone apparently has GPS and navigation, but maybe its Internet capabilities are too good?
posted by Rock Steady at 5:45 AM on October 27, 2017

The Apple Watch with LTE (voice) service has been talked about as a way for people to leave their smart phones at home. It gives you GPS, voice, and basic text messaging without having to carry your smart phone around. (Text messaging works using canned responses, voice-to-text, and a scribble-one-letter-at-a-time approach.)

I don't have time right now, but if you google you'll see articles about it.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:53 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yes, a dumbphone for talk and text, and for maps, you can put NavMii or another offline GPS tool on your old, deactivated smart phone. I have not watched this through, but this guy seems to be talking about how to do that.

Could you just cancel your data plan so it's not even an option, or so it's enough of a pain in the butt to turn on data that you won't do it? I have data turned off on my account, but I can turn it back on if I need it at any point. (I do often compulsively look at stuff on the internet, but only when I'm on a regular computer or mobile with wifi, so I don't have that compulsion with my phone and don't know if it'd work for someone who does.)
posted by ernielundquist at 6:19 AM on October 27, 2017

Second the Apple Watch - I drop my phone on my nightstand when I get home, no I don't constantly pick it up. When I got out to the store, etc I often leave it home knowing I will still get important phone calls or texts. At work I leave it on my desk when I go to meetings. Nothing has come close to limiting my smart phone usage like my AppleWatch.
posted by UMDirector at 6:31 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You can disable safari in the restrictions settings, and delete the app store? Do you have someone you could trust to keep the password and put lots of restrictions on the phone?
posted by ellieBOA at 6:35 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Navigating with downloaded maps doesn't need data. Text messages don't need data. So if you can get rid of the data on your plan, that will help a lot. I'm not sure what you'd do about wifi though.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:13 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

There are apps for that. (Others not on that linked list: Freedom, StepLock, DinnerMode, Onward.) They can time-limit or block access to certain sites, apps, or the entire internet. Some track and discourage your usage. Many have paid versions for more advanced features. Some people also put their screens in greyscale in accessibility options to lessen the appeal.

Otherwise, I agree with the suggestion to delete any distracting apps, including browsers, and enable restrictions to disallow installing apps. Maybe your husband could keep the user controls password? You could also change your phone's network settings so you don't auto-join wifi, reduce/cancel your data plan, or configure your router at home to limit access. For maps, you can use an app like Maps.me or offline Google Maps and download areas ahead of time when you travel. Good luck!
posted by eyeball at 8:03 AM on October 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

(The "just uninstall social media apps" advice is no good: I just use the browser.)

Set your phone's browser to block facebook.com (and metafilter.com, if necessary).
posted by roger ackroyd at 8:03 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

My habit is to check my phone at 5 'til every hour. That keeps me in touch, but eliminates the obsessive checking I was doing every few minutes. Can your replies to texts be deferred for 30 mins? Set your phone to not beep or buzz, and set a reminder to beep every 30 mins, when you can check for incoming msgs. Or every hour if you can get by doing that. People have to expect that you're in a meeting sometimes, or in a convo, right?
posted by at at 8:51 AM on October 27, 2017

It's not a 100% solution, but I do feel much calmer since I disabled push notifications for everything but text messages. I feel much less obligated to check Facebook if that little red 2 isn't staring at me.
posted by telepanda at 9:47 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

ellieBOA has the answer here (assuming you have an iPhone).

You can basically set up your iPhone to have only the apps you allow yourself, with everything else behind a restrictions pin. You'd need to trust your husband or whomever to not give you that pin, of course. Looking through my kid's iPhone, it seems you can disable just about everything (including the ability to install apps and safari) except phone and messages, and if the only app you've allowed yourself is maps, that pretty much satisfies all your requirements.
posted by NoRelationToLea at 11:40 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My wife's done this and gone back to a flip phone. She did it for a trial period but loves it and isn't going back. She still has her iPhone around, and can use it on wifi when needed, but mostly she's on her flip phone and it's helped her cut down the same behaviors you're trying to curb. The main issue has been some weirdness with texting--because she used to use the iPhone/imessage platforms, some texts from other apple users still go to her imessage account and not her new phone. And for some reason, she doesn't get some group texts. But these seem to be minor annoyances for her.

Have you thought about a Blackberry? They are still great for texting and email, but aren't as capable as smartphones for other app-purposes. They have map capabilities but aren't great at them.
posted by benbenson at 12:58 PM on October 27, 2017

Disable image loading in your browser and social media becomes less sticky.
posted by jointhedance at 2:00 PM on October 27, 2017

Best answer: Keep the phone in your car's glove box, along with a car charger. Get rid of the phone-compatible chargers in the house.

You might bring the phone in the house if you're expecting a text or need to look up directions for somewhere you're thinking of going, but if you use a full charge, the phone is going to have to go back in the car and wait until the next time you drive so the car charger will work.
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 6:06 PM on October 27, 2017

If you have an iPhone, you can disable your Apple news app. I did this a week ago after realising refreshing my news app had become an obsession. It was the first thing I did in the morning, the last thing I did at night, and something I did over and over again all through the day. It was terrible for my arms as well as terrible for my brain. So consider figuring out how to disable your news app and doing that as an interim step. Good luck!
posted by Bella Donna at 7:52 PM on October 27, 2017

This is made for kids, but it might work for you. They have a helpful video and a free trial period.
posted by 4ster at 2:24 PM on October 28, 2017