Digital Detox/Dumbdown - The Bear and Badger

SpaceGazelle

poprock wrote:

I like having my phone. It’s genuinely useful and improves my life massively. I like always having maps and a satnav in my pocket. I like having instant translation anytime. I like having the web available whenever I want to find or ask something. The entertainment and time killing and email side of things are secondary really. And the actual telephone function is barely used.

Big tech has you by the balls sir!

afgavinstan

Right SG we fucking get it man, stop making the thread your latest soapbox

SpaceGazelle

You all remember when we didn't have phones right? It was back in the day when we got stuff done and everything actually worked properly.

SpaceGazelle

afgavinstan wrote:

Right SG we fucking get it man, stop making the thread your latest soapbox

It was really trying to do an experiment to see if people could still function without a phone.

LivDiv

AI will replace our eyes and it will be soon.

b0r1s

SpaceGazelle wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

Right SG we fucking get it man, stop making the thread your latest soapbox

It was really trying to do an experiment to see if people could still function without a phone.

I get it. It’s just not going to happen.

g.man

SpaceGazelle wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

Right SG we fucking get it man, stop making the thread your latest soapbox

It was really trying to do an experiment to see if people could still function without a phone.

Yeah. I’ll go back to using a pager and public phone boxes. Used to be so much fun driving to jobs using pages printed off from Multimaps the night before. I suppose I could do that at the local library.

poprock

Oh wait. What library? Thanks Tories.

MyNameIsKrisG

SpaceGazelle wrote:

The question, really, is does anyone feel anxious if they leave their phone at home? If they do they have a problem.

It's been a long time since I did, but I used to love it when I realised my phone had been left at home. I actually had a more relaxing day without it.

MyNameIsKrisG

I've been meaning to create a social detox thread for months, so I'm glad someone has.

davyK

A digital detox is an extremely good idea. However I think "digital" is too wide a scope. It's social media that needs kicking into touch.

A phone and its killer apps - messaging/comms, web search, camera and maps - is an amazingly useful gizmo for practical quality of life stuff.

In theory, social media is a great application but I'm afraid in practice it seems to make an awful lot of people unhappy. I keep Whatsapp and FB restricted to family and close friends. FB is very much on the wane now. YT is a superb resource for information, how tos etc. But it can also be an echo chamber of hate and the algorithms can induce a ever decreasing loop of bias reinforcement. Not healthy.

Limiting youtube, facebook,tiktok,X et al is where the effort really needs to go. I find YT incredibly addictive and I have to make a conscious effort not to just pick up the phone at a quite time. Look upon the phone as a tool to be used as and when.

I've stopped charging my phones by the bedside. It might be worth just getting a cheap alarm clock if you don't have one and charging the phone overnight outside the bedroom.

I restrict forum access to when I am at my PC. I'm lucky enough to have that luxury of course but an alternative is to have a time to do that if you only have a phone.

monkey

LivDiv wrote:

AI will replace our eyes and it will be soon.

A Eyes

Moot_Geeza

I've made a couple of social media accounts over the years but never really used them. I signed up to Twitter to follow Bugul years ago - I think I logged in about three times and it's tied to a defunct email account so I doubt I could log back in if I tried. I also had a Facebook account - with one friend - because my dad seemed better with that than emails for sending video links for some reason. Both under pseudonyms. With regards to Facebook, keeping in touch with people I don't really bother to keep in touch with never interested me. I aways thought it was a bit odd when people had 400 FB friends but barely knew most of them. Oh look, Martin the Christmas temp from Electronics Boutique in the early noughties has bought a new car. Anyway, I hear Facebook is for old people now. Instagram just seems to be the same thing though so idgi.

WhatsApp (previously texting) with actual mates (rather than passing acquaintances or long forgotten primary school pals or whatever) and this place are my digital addictions. Sometimes I'm gutted I haven't got access to X because I'll get sent something like 'Mick McCarthy but as you scroll he gets more sad' and I won't be able to look at all the pictures, but otherwise I don't suffer from X fomo.

MyNameIsKrisG

I just typed a massive thing and found it too waffly so here's the summary:

Reasons to get rid of my phone:
- ADHD. Bloody ADHD! It's way too easy to find myself on the phone instead of many other priorities, including actual employed work.
- Social Media is just depressing.
- Just too reliant on it, in too many ways.

Reasons to keep it:
- Music. I've long since joined the streaming and casting brigade and have 10k tunes on my phone.
- The camera. Duh.
- Eufy Security at two premises.
- Family WhatsApp group.

So, what I've done:
- I've got rid of social media from the phone.
- Got rid of Google / Samsung Wallet, along with all my banking apps
- Got rid of apps such as Amazon/eBay/Very, to cut down on impulse purchases.
- Implemented "Digital Wellbeing", limiting myself to 1-hour Internet time and 2 hours of screen time.

It's 22:49 as I'm typing this (on my laptop, naturally), and I've used the phone for 1 hour and 13 minutes. I'm mega happy with that!

lastant

Funnily enough I listened to a podcast about this last week…

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/podcast-979-how-to-create-a-distraction-free-phone/

Kow

I think I'll give up wearing shoes. I won't be a slave to those fucking shoe multinationals anymore. Remember when we all had no shoes and it was great?

Kow

I made a fake Facebook account specially for that time when we trolled that stupid game about the mass shooter. What was it called? Anyway, I still get emails telling me about all the exciting things I'm missing by not ever having logged in again.

Diluted Dante

Kow wrote:

I made a fake Facebook account specially for that time when we trolled that stupid game about the mass shooter. What was it called? Anyway, I still get emails telling me about all the exciting things I'm missing by not ever having logged in again.

The Curious Tale of the Depressed Losers Lamp.

davyK

lastant wrote:

Funnily enough I listened to a podcast about this last week… https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/podcast-979-how-to-create-a-distraction-free-phone/

on your phone I presume?

davyK

I got a smart watch a few weeks ago - impulse purchase - on the plane to Lanzarote and discovered my watch strap needed repair. Hate being without a watch and I had drank a few Johnny Walker Black Labels. Reduced to £50 - a Sekonda.

Nice having steps counted but not sure about the buzzing for emails etc. Doesn't bother me - reckon I can switch it off but no-one writes manuals any more for gizmos. Lazy bastards. Installed the app on my phone and I suppose that's how to do it. Would be useful for SMS notifications.

The greatest thing a mobile phone is for is making people meeting up physically easier. Hard to think back to the days when if you didn't meet at the agreed place at the agreed time you were knackered.

drumbeg

davyK wrote:

A digital detox is an extremely good idea. However I think "digital" is too wide a scope. It's social media that needs kicking into touch. A phone and its killer apps - messaging/comms, web search, camera and maps - is an amazingly useful gizmo for practical quality of life stuff. In theory, social media is a great application but I'm afraid in practice it seems to make an awful lot of people unhappy. I keep Whatsapp and FB restricted to family and close friends. FB is very much on the wane now. YT is a superb resource for information, how tos etc. But it can also be an echo chamber of hate and the algorithms can induce an ever decreasing loop of bias reinforcement. Not healthy. Limiting youtube, facebook,tiktok,X et al is where the effort really needs to go. I find YT incredibly addictive and I have to make a conscious effort not to just pick up the phone at a quite time. Look upon the phone as a tool to be used as and when. I've stopped charging my phones by the bedside. It might be worth just getting a cheap alarm clock if you don't have one and charging the phone overnight outside the bedroom. I restrict forum access to when I am at my PC. I'm lucky enough to have that luxury of course but an alternative is to have a time to do that if you only have a phone.

This is all pretty close to where I am at, but I'm taking it just a little further. I am dispensing with web search on mobile too. This may seem extreme to some, but what I have found is that I have this habit of thinking about stuff in a completely normal way when going about my day and then when I stumble across a question or curiosity in my head, I reach for my phone instinctively. I am trying to break this habit. It's one of the triggers that leads me to take my phone everywhere with me. It's what I consider to be an unhealthy relationship with my phone.

Not charging a phone by the bedside is absolutely key I think. This links to using a phone as a clock (with alarm). Using a phone as a clock is another one of those triggers which means you take it everywhere with you. Have enough of those triggers and you even end up carrying the thing from room to room in the house.

So yeah, for me it's more of a "smartphone" detox, but everyone is different and has their own triggers, uses and needs.

davyK wrote:

Hard to think back to the days when if you didn't meet at the agreed place at the agreed time you were knackered.

Explained this to my kids and it blew their minds.

lastant wrote:

Funnily enough I listened to a podcast about this last week… https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/podcast-979-how-to-create-a-distraction-free-phone/

On it.

The iPhone Assistive Access mode seems like a winner so far. It's turned my iPhone into a dumb phone pretty much, with some caveats, like I can no longer use Apple Music (might be how I've set it up) and Airplay / Bluetooth functionality is botched (Bluetooth connects to stuff but I can no longer manage connections).

tigersgogrrr

MyNameIsKrisG wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

The question, really, is does anyone feel anxious if they leave their phone at home? If they do they have a problem.

It's been a long time since I did, but I used to love it when I realised my phone had been left at home. I actually had a more relaxing day without it.

I lost mine for 3 weeks and felt a lot lighter for it.

Totes addicted.

Unlikely

Kow wrote:

I made a fake Facebook account specially for that time when we trolled that stupid game about the mass shooter. What was it called?

Hatred?

LivDiv

I'm fine with my phone although the thought of eventually having to buy another paralyses me with boredom.

I'm not interested in most other consumer electronics and the direction they are going though. As mentioned in the car thread I hate how overly complicated cars are now. Cannot be fucked with any form of setup for anything.

"The internet of everything" is shite. I don't need any white goods connected to the internet thanks.
Not interested in a door bell with a camera or a thermostat I can change from the other side of the world. It's all just shit that causes problems I didn't have before.

My line of work in home cinemas has some mental tech involved but it's very much about doing one thing increasingly well. Still creates rich people problems mind. Having to organise someone to service your projector every 6 months is not something I need in my life.
The industry runs parallel with the smart home/home security industry given the clientele. These people have money for the top stuff and someone to install it all for them. It adds months to the job though, multiple specialists having to come in to set up mirrors that turn into CCTV monitors, light switches that'll wipe your arse for you or whatever else. These people have the expertise to dial in how much the client can control that which helps. It's still a nonsense that worries people more the more money they have to throw about though.

I'm pulling back a bit on tech. I have to keep up to date to an extent for my job and my industry but in my personal life I'm incredibly jaded by it all. I've heard too many things be "the next internet" or that will change our lives forever. Ends up being overpriced dust collectors most of the time. The thrill wears off fast and the general usage experience becomes one of hassle, upgrade cycles and big tech snooping.

The tech industry is absolutely full of bullshit merchants. They follow the money of course and that is tech now, it's not actual geeks like the 80s and 90s. It's full of narcissists and arse lickers.

Kow

Unlikely wrote:

Kow wrote:

I made a fake Facebook account specially for that time when we trolled that stupid game about the mass shooter. What was it called?

Hatred?

That was it!

afgavinstan

Put me in the "Got a smartwatch and it's a bit meh" pile. Granted, it was a freebie and it's much easier when in work to just check my watch instead of pulling a phone out my pocket. But yeah, just another thing to charge. Had it less than a month and I've already forgotten to a few times.

Diluted Dante

Before I lost my Fitbit I found it useful for being able to read text messages to see if it was something I needed to actually get my phone out for. Hardly essential though.

LivDiv

It's such a tiny effort save though.
My phone is normally in my side pocket, my hand is generally at my side at the exact height of my side pocket where the watch would be.

Imagine it works well if you are public facing at work and getting your phone out looks bad to the "time to lean time to clean" management types.

Decent for fitness tracking but you only really need that of serious about fitness. Most of us fat fucks just need to do the stuff we know we should be doing and don't need a watch to analyse that.

Smart scales was another pile of shit tech advancement I wasted money on. Can physically see my muscles are bigger after 4 months of routined training, can lift heavier stuff for more reps, but the stupid scales don't register a change. Tat.

Diluted Dante

The useful thing about Fitbits is the step counter, it pushes you to do the stuff we know we should be doing, but aren't because we don't want to.

I found the sleep analysis stuff interesting though.

poprock

I find it interesting that SG, as our little forum’s biggest cheerleader for machine learning and data crunching, is also the person speaking out against devices that do that for us in our personal lives.

Is that partly ‘I’ve seen behind the curtain and it’s scary’? Or is it just difficult to reconcile the societal with the personal?

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