Ask HN: Best Low-Addictive Phone?
A lot has been written about the damaging effects of modern smartphone use/addiction recently. I'd love to give up my aging Android phone for something with a good camera, good battery life, and no Internet browser / social media. I still need WhatsApp, Google Maps, Uber, and a few other basic apps for work, but I want to get rid of anything with the potential to keep me scrolling infinitely. Has anyone else succeeded in this task? Are there good modern phones which can be successfully locked down to such a degree?
5 comments
Android with a special low graphical theme is how i do it
As I always say: whatever you want - it's up to you what apps you install and use. It's all about the self discipline.
I have an iPhone but I don't use any social media (beside business related topics). At a certain hour, I switch on do not disturb mode - and problems are for tomorrow.
I have an iPhone but I don't use any social media (beside business related topics). At a certain hour, I switch on do not disturb mode - and problems are for tomorrow.
You could probably just use a regular modern smartphone and restrict apps on it.
Option A - not installing said apps at all
Option B - using focus modes/Android Wellbeing (and the iOS counterpart) or even battery saver's "disable all apps other than x" features
Option A - not installing said apps at all
Option B - using focus modes/Android Wellbeing (and the iOS counterpart) or even battery saver's "disable all apps other than x" features
For A, you can also disable the ability to download apps.
Lock everything behind a difficult to type password. If that’s not enough, ask a friend to set such a password for you without telling you what it is. For optimal lock-out, ask a few strangers that don’t know each other and that you’re unlikely to ever meet again to each type a part of such a password (warning: this may make it impossible to download security updates or even to restore the phone to factory defaults)
Lock everything behind a difficult to type password. If that’s not enough, ask a friend to set such a password for you without telling you what it is. For optimal lock-out, ask a few strangers that don’t know each other and that you’re unlikely to ever meet again to each type a part of such a password (warning: this may make it impossible to download security updates or even to restore the phone to factory defaults)
Unihertz Jelly. Look it up. You can install all the social media crap you want, but there is not much doomscrolling to be had on that tiny 3" screen. Same thing with internet - browser is there, but I only ever used it in dire circumstances. There are downsides (maps are not exactly great experience) but also upsides. Not least of which is poking fun at iphone owners about having 2.5mm audio jack in this tiny thing that their huge brick apparently is too small to fit :-)