Why a Dumb iPhone at all?

I never thought i would be the type of person who turns their iPhone into a dumb phone (there is a reason it is a smart phone, right?). But here we go, reading about digital minimalism and how to reduce screen time. If something hookes me up, i am all in. This can be great. But it can also be really annoying.

My addictions

I am an addict. I know this since my teenage years when i could not quit gaming for meals or bedtime. It also surfaced in nicotine: i first was an occasional smoker, then pretty fast a heavy smoker. I smoked ~1 package a day. When not going out. When goin out i smoked... more. I luckily changed to snus after 2 years of smoking. Because i actually liked doing sports and knew it would hurt my lung capacity. So i snused obsessivly for ~14 years. And by obsessively i mean i slept with the snus in it. And i dont start talking about alcohol (luckily this episode was shorter, still too long, but definitely shorter).

Obviously there are also positive aspects if you are an addictive person: The sports i picked up i did quite intense. This was the case with climbing, bouldering, mounaineering, and cycling. But this is another story.

First Smartphone

These negative experiences were among others a reason why i got my first smartphone just at 27 when i started my first office job. Since then my screen time consistently increased. In the beginning it was only browsing on the phone. Alraedy this let my toilet time explode. First i also had no social media on the phone (i deleted my fb account in 2003 for other reasons). Then i made linkedin in ~2019. Another surge in screen time. Then came corona and i tried tiktok, snapchat, twitter, and installed youtube. Another surge in screen time. I only was a consumer on all of these platforms. And just doomscrolling on these platforms without having any output just left me empty and unfullfilled. In January 2024 i then made the first posts in twitter and started to post irregularily.

From Consumer to "Creator"

Changing from the passive to the active part on twitter changed something for me. It felt better. I got interactions. I had a goal, a measure, something to work on. Still it does obviously not helpt to reduce screen time (at least the screen time had some meaning to me). And also i lost consistency of posting and fell back to only consumerism. And this mostly on my phone.

The Dumb Phone

I then got across the concept of dumb phones. The first time i read it was probably from Simon here. Crossed the topic some times again, found it interesting but never really gave it a thought that it could be for me. Too radical. But it kept popping up in my head. Then i just saw recently dhh's post about his dumb phone (although he compares it more to omarchy, in my view its the same concept). - Dhh is anyway conquering my timeline lately with omarchy and i am this close to give it a try as well, but this is also another story - So this motivated me to give it a try.

Setup

To setup the dumb iphone i then installed the dumb phone app. It is quite easy to, takes about 5 minutes though. But the experience is just awesome. I love it! And when i realised it is an indieproject fom Michael Tigas i loved it even more! Below you see the beatiful calm screens now created through dumb phone.

What next?

I will keep testing the next month and see what happens to my screen time and if my enthusiasm sticks (which i really hope). I really want to reduce screen time, and this definitely feels like a good step in the right direction.