When I got a dumbphone/flipphone, I immediately started living a super cool super fulfilling life! I travelled a ton, ran a marathon, immediately got good at art, read 4 books in a day, and now have 22 close friends! Thats exactly how it works, i'm not lying AT ALL, trust me ;)
...ahhh okay you got me, thats not actually what happened.
Yes my life did change, and all for the better! I do have a cooler and more fulfilling life now, but not like that, I just started living a regular life? This little post is about what that looks like these days (for me)
First, a little bit of math. My screen time with a smartphone was 5.5 hours on a good day and almost 9 on a bad: about an average of 7.25 hours a day. Ive been smartphone-less for a little over about 5 months; just about 170 days.
Average 7.25/hrs a day x 170 days = 1232.5 hours total/24hrs
51 full 24-hour days I got back.
ALMOST TWO MONTHS OUT OF THE FIVE
- Alright, i've never done that math before, holy shiitake mushrooms thats insane. Back on topic, oh my god I would have spent 2 months out of the past 5 entirely on my phone
What do I do instead? What consumes the hours? Or the in-passing minutes?
I live normally, just without a phone honestly, it didn't make me suddenly want to run a marathon or just turn into Picasso day one. It just gave me back the opportunity to live.
I turned to my hobbies, like ceramics, reading, journalling to bring the simple joys back into my everyday!
I stopped being able to distract myself from how icky I felt when I didn't move my body, so I slowly started swimming again!
I started to blog a little! Thanks for reading :D
I got bored at home, so I started seeking out social spaces and hanging out in person with friends and prioritizing making them!
Those are huge things, really big, hour by hour things that take up my life now. I am still a student, in a demanding major, who tries to study 5 hours a day, and I work part-time. Is that the most prominent change? Absolutely, but in the minutes passing between tasks, before I leave somewhere, waiting for something there is also a little mojo added back into my day. I would have been spending those little snippets of time pacifying myself on a quick scroll, 20-30 reels on IG that I would never remember. Instead those morsels are spent...
Doing nothing! Sitting around is a forgotten joy, don't be afraid to be alone with yourself, its the only way you will get to know you.
Sudoku! If i've got 5-10 mins waiting somewhere and feel up for the task, a quick sudoku from the little book I carry around is great.
Tidying up/cleaning! I mentioned this in a past blog post, but it's easier to keep the space around you tidy when you reclaim those little minuets while your breakfast is cooking or your waiting for the water to boil. Bagel still in the toaster? Why not give the kitchen a quick sweep! Coffee is steeping? Wouldn't you know it, thats how long it takes for me to unload the dishwasher! (still a student living at home, that dishwasher is a FULL 4-person dishwasher man)
People watching, takin' a quick ol' gander at your surroundings. Make sure you haven't forgotten what life looks like, or what the general population is up to.
I still spend some time on Tumblr, Reddit, and Pinterest, its not like I went cold turkey or that I'll never see social media again. Its easier to live your life when you have the time, and its easier to have the time when you don't have a monster algorithm in your pocket built to addict you. You can do it! Do it at the pace that is good for you, but get those two months back!
This joy is not your own, quit living the borrowed life!!!
Social media and the algorithm is like sugar water for your soul instead of milk, you will not sustain on it, and you can not continue to neglect growing your own roots. You reap what you sow! Love is for those who love the work! Let others inspire you, let your community motivate you, but please God learn to love the work. Have days where you create without looking at Pinterest when you get lost, let it take hours, let it take days! What are you trying to be free of? The LIVING? The miraculous task of it?
- feeling very fired up by the poem "For the Student who used AI to write a Paper" by Joseph Fasano and a small line from Blue Period where Yatora says 'this joy is not my own' while watching TV. Its so easy to not do things when you can get the dopamine by watching other people do those things, but gosh does is slowly poison you and your soul. If you feel like you are not living your life, consider your choices, one of the being a flip-phone, please life can be so much better :3
Ask yourself what I did and still do:
When is the last time I felt joy of my own creation and accomplishment?
How much do I spend in the fields of boredom, the birthplace of imagination?
Where does my artistic soul flow from when its not curated by other people’s work?
Low-tech academics and student life (what college is like w/ a flip-phone)
An itty bitty (I'm lying its long :p) blog post about how switching to a flip-phone impacted my academic life and routines as someone in (US) college with a demanding major! My first senior semester just ended, and it was also my first full semester after transitioning away from a smartphone and most social media. I am a week or two into summer so I thought it would be informational to speak on this, especially to anyone prepping to go to college in the Fall! Your digital minimalist big sister is here <3
It's a Tuesday afternoon, 4pm. You just got home from work or classes, crisp ice-cold 8.4oz Redbull in hand, you take a sip, you moan. Sat at the desk, you mutter the sacred words of every college student ever. "Oh my God, I HAVE to lock in today bro." Your to-do list stares at you with the glare of a cat that has gone ignored too long, your Canvas home page blinks at you threateningly, your Spotify day list is titled 'Distracted Melancholy Tuesday Afternoons' whatever the fuck that means, the first song is Riptide by Vance Joy, you pray the algorithm kills you first. In the corner of your eye, a notification ignites your phone, it is in your hand before you realize it. Suddenly, its 5:46pm and you have just watched 300 reels, none of which you can remember. You decide to watch YouTube until 6pm, to yk, even it out? Its 7pm before you open your first homework assignment, the exam you have tomorrow wishes it could personify itself, travel back in time, and smack you upside the head. Goodbye are your goals of going to bed at 10pm.
That used to be me. Everyday. For the past three years, not including high school. Obviously, with some determination and time, even with a smartphone I have developed much better study habits. Pomodoro 'study with me' videos, putting my phone in a drawer, classical music, they all help tremendously. Nothing; however, has changed my academic experience more than my journey transitioning to a flip phone.
⋆˚꩜｡ my studying experience without a smartphone
Much has changed! I obviously still use my trusty computer for homework, I'm an accounting major which means lots of Excel stuff.
How do I keep track of homework assignments, due dates, and plan my study days?
I used to use an application called TickTick, which is incredible, made a great sound when you finished a task, and synced from my laptop to my phone. I use a little notebook now, its easier to keep track of and pull out when I need to mark something down than pulling out and booting up my laptop. Once a week, usually Tuesday mornings during a boring class, I would hop onto my laptop and using my canvas calendar look through my upcoming assignments and mark down what I needed to do each day to keep myself on track, get things done with room for error, and block out days to just study (no actual assignments). As you get farther into your degree, just doing homework assignments may not cut it for studying for an exam! I use a mini notebook I got in a set of 3, its a little thing, 145mm x 90mm with only 64 pages, but it fits perfect in my backpack pocket <3
How do I keep myself productive? On track? Locked tf in?
Sheer motivation and proof of my hard work. The harder I study, the better my grades. Also, Redbull my beloved. I would do deranged things for a crisp 8.4oz original. I ain't perfect, I was having two-three a day during finals week.
One of the biggest points of this blog post is that really and truly, having a flip phone has changed the way my brain and soul function. Social media and the smartphone is a way of self-soothing/pacifying and yet rewarding your brain for little to no work. Academia has regained some of the magic that faded when I favored the unrewarding allure of the algorithm. The process of romanticizing work and joy of success needs less inspiration when i've got my hands in the dirt of it.
Of course, actualy studying still needs its own set of habits, I personally loveee: Pomodoro 'study with me' videos! These are great for taking up a tab, especially as YouTube is still a procrastinator as I can access it on my laptop, if I go on it, something is already playing. I love tani study, Merve, and gutsy study girl! If I can study for 6-hours straight, that's an incredible day.
Classical music is my favorite genre for combing my way through textbook chapters and smart books (fuck McGraw Hill).
How do I balance school, social life, and work?
If you have read any of my previous posts (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) you know that the lack of smartphone has greatly increased my free time. Trust me. Trust me when I say that it is that damn phone. The seconds between tasks count, it's easier to do the dishes when you don't have the option of 20 reels. It's easier to go to bed on time when you don't have the option of YouTube. It's easier to be productive when you don't have something designed to pacify and distract you.
I work about 20 hours a week, less during finals week, and always in the morning (7am), so usually 5hrs a day, four days a week (I have classes two days a week, and don't work on Sundays 𓆩♱𓆪). This most recent semester, I aimed to study 6 hours a day, four days a week. Any time outside of that combined 44 hours of work and school, was allocated to swimming, friends, food, and family. Find a balance that prioritizes your goals, and let everything else fill the remaining space!
⋆˚꩜｡ Big Sister Tip ˖ ࣪⭑ If you have trouble with sleeping too far into the day like I have (I will stay in bed till 1pm if possible), and are employed, ask to be scheduled in the mornings! It will give you more time in the day and help you sleep schedule (hopefully...)
How do I recharge when my go-to escape used to be my phone?
This comes in two sections: life is less stressful with a flip phone; therefore, I have to recharge less, and my new escapes came easily! Time with my family and friends is my go-to, but any hobby that you are even mildly interested can and will recharge you 20x more than an hour on that damn algorithm ever could. Cause and effect of course, I get more done now, even little chores are non-problems in my day-to-day which means things that used to be stressful or require planning have lost their power AND I have more time to do the things that DO stress me out.
₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ₊˚⊹♡
Thank you for reading! My asks are always open, and I love to chat if you need advice or motivation on your own journey with digital minimalism ᯓ★
aka: how I kept myself busy without school or an algorithm to take up my extensive free time! + a continued reflection on my 8+ months with a flip-phone.
School has begun again, and summer has finally come to its humid close so I thought now would be a good time to reflect with y'all. A small math update for those who might be moved by some concrete numbers.
Average of 7.25hrs of screen time with a smartphone * 274 days without a smartphone = 1834.25 hours total/24hrs
EIGHTY THREE!!! FULL DAYS I GOT BACK
ALMOST 12 FULL WEEKS OF LIFE I WOULD HAVE MISSED IF I HAD A SMARTPHONE
The math always sort of scares me, can you imagine being on your phone for twelve full weeks straight? Is it not insane that the algorithm and our society has normalized functioning like this?
𓆌 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆌
So! Summer with a flip phone...
This was my first summer with no smartphone since I first got one at 13-14. It's been years since I've had a summer where I didn't pass the days away with social media and scrolling. It has been magically normal and so fulfilling to return to a state of continuous living and engagement with the real world. Summer really cemented the ease of having a flip-phone; I was able to travel and fly safely, navigate a foreign city, and engage with my every day with only a few problems! If I ran into a situation that required a smartphone, I was able to ask for help from strangers, and GOD does that remind you of the good of humanity and how dramatized social media can be about the everyday person/society.
𓆌 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆌
A recovering attention span has re-introduced my old reading habits and preferences, in my adolescence I always preferred reading a book in one fell swoop of a day. I lost that ability to lay in bed and read all day when I lost my attention span. It feels so good to be back. I read the first and second books of the empyrean series in two separate days: 10am to 8pm fueled by black tea and ripe summer peaches.
Traveling and flying (domestically at least) was easier than I expected, printing out boarding passes and asking receptionists takes up so little time I don't even realize to miss the convenience of a smartphone. The only issue I ran into was parking in Seattle, I was visiting my sister so she was able to handle it, but I imagine navigating parking garages in a big city would need a lot of pre-planning without one.
Staying motivated and productive without school to take up my days has always been a hurdle for me, I really enjoy being busy but struggle giving myself personal tasks like cleaning and exercising. With nothing else to do but socialize or enjoy my hobbies, it brought me a lot of joy to realize that personal care became a consistent and enjoyable routine because it wasn't subconsciously taking away my time to scroll. Moving my body really helps my mood, sleep, and menstrual cycle.
I also have a job (blegh) but its a nice part-time job that I've had for a few years now (even grandfathered into a retirement account like a true adult) so during the summer when I up my availability I am working about 20 hours a week. I also took two summer classes which helped my mind stay sharp and take up some evenings. Being employed gives me the means to pursue my hobbies (ceramics aint cheap) and help me plan for the future. Another pro of having a flip-phone is that my employer can't force me to download unnecessary apps, and if they need to contact me, they have to put in the effort to text me.
More time for my hobbies! I finished my first journal!! After years of starting a journal only to abandon it a few days later it is one of my proudest accomplishments to have a full journal. I dont have a reliable photo album or 'snapchat memories' so it was important to me to have something physical to look back on. I'm obsessed with keeping memory boxes and photo albums knowing in a few years or even in decades I will have things to look back on. Having time for my ceramics and sculpting has been rewarding as well, although I wish I had done more this summer.
𓆌 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆌
𓆌 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆌
Do not lead a toothless life! Bite down on your reality and do not anything shake you from it! The best time to plant a fruit tree was 10 years ago, the second-best time is right now!
Yippie ki-yay y'all! Get a flip-phone. My first blogpost about this journey in my life was very technical, pros and cons about the transition to daily life with a flip phone, this blog-post is more vague about how it has affected me mentally. There haven't been many changes to my actual daily carry, but I'm attaching my EDC! I still use the Sunbeam Bluebird, but for those more interested in a review I will make a separate post, if you are deciding on which dumb phone to get I suggest you read it. Lets get into the actual updates!
What are the most prominent changes I have noticed?
Attention span/tolerance has gone up
The norm of physical attractiveness is much different now
Tasks and chores are manageable and commonplace
I have higher standards about the content I consume
Social life hasn't changed much, but if anything it got better
Depression? Disassociation? Not gone, but significantly decreased by at least 70%
Lets start with the first one, attention span. Good God. I used to feel antsy in every situation, even if I wanted to be somewhere I was always absentmindedly thinking about when it would end and I could retreat back into the comfort of my smartphone. That sort reaction is so mentally draining and one of the small things I hadn't noticed until retreating wasn't an option anymore. With a flip-phone? Im eager to be everywhere for as long as possible! Events and little socials have regained their magic and joy! I am more tolerant towards things that would have felt like a waste of energy compared to being at home and find myself actively seeking to be in social spaces. They still exist!
The norm of physical attractiveness is totally different now. This is a huge one, social media does such a good job only showing attractive people. Its the largest requirement to get your content featured, you have to be attractive in some way. Instead of being tucked away into my phone while i'm waiting between classes, eating out, just being in public, I do a LOT of people watching. Its very fun. A result of this new found hobby is that I am looking at so many more faces that haven't been sorted into attractive vs not attractive by social media. Isn't that crazy? That not only do we get our brains absolutely rotted, but that it changes the way we rate other people? Regular average people online vs in real life is so different. My 'standards' for attractiveness are now based on the standard of the public, not the hand picked ecosystem of social media.
Tasks that used to be burdensome and inconvenient and chores that I used to have to plan for and make myself do have lost their difficulty and need for preparation. Dishes? Well i've got five minutes before I have to leave so ill just wash a few. Tidying up? Mm my breakfast is in the toaster, might as well wipe down the counters and sweep. Laundry? ... ok well don't get me started on laundry, I still cant make myself put that shit away...
The standards of the content I consume have gone up, if i'm going to sit down and watch something, I actually want to consume it rather than use it to pass the time. I obviously still have some social media on my laptop, but I really only post on Tumblr, use Pinterest for art references, and Reddit on the occasional. Instagram and Youtube are pretty much obsolete unless I need it for something specific. I play a lot of sudoku while waiting around, and if I remember to carry my book with me I read. One of my goals this year was to read 12 books, last year was 10. Truth be told the majority of my reading happens in the summer cause oh boy senior year of college is no joke. I cant wait to be able to put away my laptop for the summer. As mentioned on my first post, I still have an iphone without a sim card, it serves as alarm clock (I need 30), a menstrual tracker, banking apps, REM calculator, photo editor for when I need to print things for my journal, and my works database app for my schedule, and AO3. Oh my blessed AO3, my love for fan fiction was never expected to be dulled by the flip-phone. I still love to read a bedtime story every once in a while and support my fav authors!! One day I am going to be a rich woman who sponsors authors with money from my big girl job hehehe.
My social life was already a bit lackluster, I tend to get really sucked into school and keeping my head on my shoulders, but i've got two really good friends. Talking to people in my classes is easier because I don't have anything else to do and the flip-phone tends to be a good conversation starter. Ive def been much more participative in my colleges' social scene and clubs!
Oooo now onto the emotional stuff, depression and disassociation. For most of my teenage life 13-18 I have struggled with disassociation and anxiety, not much of it, I am blessed to be quite mentally well, but it was still present. The occasional bout of teenage depression slowly increased in frequency and strength as I got older and was allowed to have a phone (I didn't get one until 14). Disassociation became an ever present struggled that ebbed in and out of my mind constantly, creating a pattern of anxiety towards 'am I going to have a good month or a disassociated month' or 'what if it gets bad right before the semester starts and I don't get good grades' and 'i've been too good for too long, its inevitably going to get really bad soon'. The months preceding my switch to a flip-phone were particularly revealing, social media made be nauseated, being even near my phone made me anxious, I knew I had a problem with it (9 hours average of screen time), and my body started to react. Every time I would scroll on instagram reels for an hour or two, I would come out of it mindless and disassociated. A flip-phone has made my days GOOD CONSISTENTLY!!!!! I almost always have a good or neutral day!! In an effort to be more grateful and mindful I track my days in my journal, and the change in 'average day color' between when I had a smartphone vs flip-phone is obvious. Little squares filled in with red or orange highlighter suddenly stop, and little squares filled in with blues and yellows start. Obviously a flip-phone wont fix your life completely, but it has drastically improved mine. If you are considering getting a flip-phone, listen to me now when I say that its not a big decision with small rewards. Its one object of your life (a smartphone) traded in for something better for you (a flip-phone). That is all a phone is, it is an OBJECT, and an ACCESSORY, to your daily life. Its like deciding which water bottle or backpack to use for daily life, which shoes are your favorite, what book your going to read next. If you feel like you are succumbing to your smartphone and its controlling your life in any way, I encourage you to make the swap.
All done! Thanks for reading! Ill probably be back in a few months with another update, but if there are any questions I will answer them :)
My blog (always SFW) is mostly aimed to encourage others to consider the switch to a flip-phone, and what life looks like with one. I love answering asks and am always willing to give advice on how to make the switch!!
Sideblog for reblogs/personal interests to keep this one a bit more cohesive (that one is NOT sfw)
Interests 𓆊
digital minimalism in general :]
school/studying/academia- grades have been my life for years, accounting major (recent grad!) my favorite toy as a kid was an abacus sooo
AO3, not an author but an avid reader with strong opinions and admiration for community and the Organization of Transformative Works!
anime (the apothecary diaries is my current fav)
Yes I am under Heated Rivalry Psychosis.
ceramics is my primary hobby/artistic outlet
books! fav author is Haruki Murakami
backpacking/journalling/ancient china/alligator spirit animal/4 is my lucky number/weather under 70f/art nouveau/sewing/i hate capitalism and buying things/it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God/classical music and NPR
As my semester started winding down, and finals started ranking up I found myself going back to the ever-present though of transitioning to a flip phone. I finally did it! Here is how it is going.
I had done tons of research about transitioning to a flip phone months before hand, I didn't have many requirements like needing WhatsApp or any particular apps as I had access to my computer for specific things such as banking and schoolwork. I ended up going with the Sunbeam Bluebird for a couple reasons, despite its price. (also I just wrote it off as a reward for completing my semester lol)
Accessibility: I knew I wanted a T9 flip phone, a QRTY keyboard would have never worked for me at a flip phone size, woe to my fine motor skills. Voice-to-text is an option if you pay for the subscription (I do) and so although I try to exclusively type as a way to get proficient, longer more urgent texts can be sent quickly. Its very accurate as well!
Restrictions: No social media! No googling! No videos! Nothing! Its all I have ever wanted from a flip phone, restriction wise. Instagram reels is/was such an addiction for me, and even with time-limits, greyscale, and just un-downloading it, I always came back to scroll. I was debating on whether or not I wanted a search engine, because although I love to google all the random questions I have, I also will absolutely read on AO3 for as much time as I can possibly allocate to that. Although I am not a huge fan of reading FF on the laptop, its a small workaround for the benefits im seeing. On the case of music: Spotify, I REALLY wanted to keep this as an app, but knew that with what I was looking for I would need to take that loss. I can download music onto the phone through an SD card, and it still has bluetooth which means I am still able to use my noise-cancelling headphones. Additionally, I mainly listen to music while im studying, which means I can just listen through my laptop; and I dont mind driving in silence.
Basic Qualifications: Number one, navigation, Im in an area where the construction is crazy and I cant always rely on road signs. I live out in the country, so I havent needed or had the chance to memorize anything other than my usual routes and highways. Luckily, the Bluebird has Waze (which I had never used before) but it works really well! I will need to find a way to attach it to my dash so I'm not looking down at my lap though... I mentioned bluetooth in restrictions, but it was important to me that I could connect my QuiteComfort Bose headphones, especially being on a loud college campus and needing some peace and quiet to study properly.
The transitionary phase was incredibly easy, I have an AT&T phone plan and I just switched my SIM card from my iPhone to my Bluebird. Boom. Done. I imported my contacts with a MicroSD card which was equally as efficient. I can still access and use Messages on my MacBook, but they don't sync to my flip phone. All messages go through to the device I last messaged on. I did have to manually set up my voicemail, but that didnt take much effort.
The only difficulties I have had to deal with is that both my job and my school require apps for two-factor authentication. I believe I can work around that for my school, and get authentication codes by text message, but for my work I don't have that option. This is a big reason why I am considering keeping my iPhone useable, just without a SIM.
On the note of what I am going to do with my iPhone, for right now it is being kept charged and usable, because I'm still transitioning some of the information (like menstrual trackers) and the mentioned need for TFA. Another PRO about the Bluebird is that it does have hotspot capabilities, so Im assuming I would be able to connect my iPhone if I was ever out in the wild and needed to use it, assuming of course that I had taken my iPhone with me.
Day 3 Final Overview:
I have gotten quicker at typing on the T9 predictive keyboard and feel confident responding to messages without using text-to-speech. I also figured out how to attach media to my messages, which means everybody is receiving grainy low-quality pictures of my cats. Im finding that I have so much extra time to do things during the day. Where keeping up with household chores sometimes gets overwhelming by becoming a huge task to schedule into my day, I can do smaller things during downtime. Reheating some food for lunch? Five minuets in the toaster? Boom, I can clean off the counters, sweep the floor, and pick up a little as I wait. That makes such a huge impact on my day-to-day especially compared to the 40 reels I could have seen and than totally forgotten. I learned how to change the ring-tones for my contacts and notifications. There is a 'wolf howling' option that has been dedicated to my friends, of course. The little jingle of my phone can only mean that someone has texted me, so I'm less paranoid about notifications and the urge to pick up my phone whenever I see the screen light up. That was such a huge distraction in my day, picking up my iPhone to check my notifications quickly turned into a 'quick scroll' through Pinterest (my beloved) or Instagram, which was constantly detrimental to my studies. In overview, I'm having a good time and I'm excited to stick with it, especially as winter break approaches (TWO MORE FINALS LEFT LETS GO) and I have a ton of free time I would have spent on my phone. I'm excited to start reading more!
