I've been listening to Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. While I think calling myself a digital minimalist is a stretch, I was surprised to see how many of the recommendations that Cal makes I was already doing.
It was probably around 5 years ago that I decided to make a change. I decided that, for me, a cellular hotspot and a dumb phone was a better option than having a smart phone. You see, I had recently invested in a Chromebook and installed Linux on it making it a machine capable of doing all my computer tasks (besides gaming). But smart phones at the time often did not have the ability to be a wireless hotspot and, if they did, you had to pay your cell phone provider extra for that privileged. This meant that I would need to buy and expensive phone and pay my cell provider extra just to connect my Chromebook to the internet when I didn't have wifi. It was cheaper to get a dedicated hotspot device and a cheaper dumb phone than getting a smart phone.
Before doing this I honestly thought that I wouldn't miss the smart phone. Sure it was convenient to play games on it but I didn't really need that.
What I didn't expect was to suddenly realize how much time I was using that smart phone to scroll Facebook. I hadn't realized that I was using my smart phone to scroll my Facebook feed any time that I was even slightly board. But, without the ability to do that any more, and instead having to start up the hotspot, pull out a computer and turn it on, I just didn't use Facebook as much.
This lasted for about a year and a half. That time changed how I used social media. I now do it much more intentionally.
For Facebook, I almost don't use it at all. I have it around but I almost never just look at the feed. Instead I only use it when I have a specific person that I want to talk to and Facebook is the only way I have to reach them.
I do use Reddit now. But even that I do with a certain amount of intentionality. I skim it a couple times a day mostly when I need a boost of joy from cute animal pictures.
So, if you asked me if I would recommend going without a smart phone—probably not. But, would I recommend dropping it for 30 days like Cal recommends in his book. Yeah, I think most people would probably benefit from the insights that would provide.
