On April’s fools day, I called my mother. I told him that for a month, I was going to “pass the phone”, which means, abandoning my iPhone for one without access to social networks applications. And no, it was a joke.
My discontent with my screen time reached new peaks at the end of March after a period in physiotherapy and an almost constant series of rainy days.
But first, some context: I look at the screens all day to live, and I am not oblivious to the life fixed to a computer, the size of the palm or not. I grew up in the 2000s, playing Neopets and the Sims 2. Later I inherited my mother’s 3GS iPhone in 2011 as a eighth grade student, and said goodbye to my LG Lotus Flip phone. I have the leg on Instagram since a year of its launch.
For more than a decade, I lived with the idea of ”good screen” and “bad screen.” That is, the bad screen is related to work/school, and the good screen is only for vibrations, such as spending an hour or so in a wikipedia rabbit hole. The good screen felt as an advertisement of my own time.
It turns out that the good screen is actually a farce. We did not know at that time in the 2010, but the greatest use of smartphones and social networks was probably bad for my development brain. According to an October 2024 CDC report, the percentage of adolescents who had symptoms of anxiety or depression was higher among those with four hours or more or more or more screen time.
For me, the decision occurred because my phone was in the way to literally do anything else. How to go to a cafeteria with a friend. Or play night football and have a drink later. Or organize dinners. If there is one thing I have learned while I worked here in Allie Volpe even better, the key to a good life is to get some early sun in the day, make a regular movement and socialize Orte.
So “dumb” was everything.
The rules, said my boss, were simple. He had a $ 100 budget (he: “I mean, it is better that it is less than $ 100. He won” anyway “) and I had to go all the way. That Meant could not change between phones. The only exception was to use my iPhone for two factors authentication applications.
“I wonder if he has a friend in the end,” my boss, editorial director Bryan Walsh. “Or maybe more because you will call your phone. You may get new friends, better.”
Register here to explore the big and complicated problems facing the world and the most efficient ways to solve them. Sent twice a week.
The strict budget ruled out elegant dumb phones but still without the Internet as the light telephone that my colleague Adam Clark Estes tested last month. So I first turned to the oldest phones.
My partner’s parents had an old Motorola Razr relaxing in a Drower, and had always wanted one when he was a child (or a t-bile partner or LG chocolate). But after hours trying to find out if the phone was compatible with my operator, I learned that the infrastructure in the USA. For the 2G connection it closed this year. I could not use anything that was not at least 4G. I effectively had To get a new phone.
Naturally, I lurked the best Internet resource for financial decision making: Reddit. See tons of publications in R/Dumbphones, and finally I decided to go on the phone (at that time) of $ 90 HMD Barbie. I had maps, texts and a camera, but there is no application store. Technically it has the Internet, but it is so impossible to use that it might not be there.
When my friends learned about my little experiment, they were worried, excited, partially envious and wondered how we would plan our Formula 1 race watch holiday parties.
I did not establish any intentional objective of how often reach people or make plans. But in the absence of Skinlesly’s displacement on Instagram or Tiktok, it was motivated to reach people.
Even so, my texts were very strict due to the numerical keyboard. Some of my friends were upset about this in a week. One sent me a text message to ask about my thoughts about tariffs, and I replied: “HMM hard 2 di”. A few hours later, he sent me a text message with some personal news that justified a quick phone call. “I can feel restricting your thoughts in your text messages! But it is good to listen to your voice at this time,” he said in that call.
This friend lives in a differential city, so I don’t see her as minerals. But because we are keeping the other, the other was doing on Instagram, we called ourselves much more or than usual.
Speaking of Instagram … What a double -edged edge sword! It is a black hole of endless and useless displacement or is how it finds out about the last party, book launch event or opening of restaurants. I definitely missed a lot of potential, not because of the bee in IG, but at the same time, would it have the activity that went spontaneously to any of them? I’m not so sure.
I did a little trap, opting to send text messages to friends through my personal computer every time I had the opportunity to do it. This also allows me to participate in some group chats, since the Barbie phone is not that capacity.
And I call my mother more. That is to say something because I talk to my two parents essentially every two days with my normal phone. I turned to see my dad in Tennessee and visited my partner’s parents in Westchester for Easter. I just planned an intergenerational return with my grandparents to Puerto Rico for May.
In general, about duplicating the amount of savings in person, Malhegh my memory is a bit confusing. I am one who lives and dies from my Google calendar, and I was excellent in the control of versions between my physical planner and the G-Cal. And I don’t have many photo reminders of what I did.
However, I did not last a whole month.
I stayed two days, thanks to that sporadic trip to Puerto Rico. I had to ask for ubers, consultation sheets, discover access codes, find restaurants where everyone really wanted to eat and keep in touch with people we were coming out. If it is a caregiver or if your work requires that you are online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I am not super if a smartphone detoxification is suitable for you.
And honestly, there were some things that I lost my usual iPhone. Not having musical careers made me try to trot, so I didn’t run during a whole month. I could not scan the QR code menus in restaurants. If I had no written instructions somewhere, I was constantly anxious to receive Google Maps loans on the Barbie phone was not all that. I also took fewer photos. (I’m sorry, bad bunny, I know I should take more).
Even so, my life felt more full due to the explosion of spontaneity encouraging the deepest connections with my friends and family. My attention capacity did not seem to be the size of a small pea. And although I did not start this group experiment for my mental health, it helped me feel more socially connected, something that puts people less depression risks.
Now I am much more deliberate to assess the hangings of the hand. Last week, I arrive at a bar to see the Knicks game, and called a friend who house in a few months. And yes, I was on the Barbie phone.
A version of this story originally appeared in the future perfect bulletin. Register here!
]