Michael@mischeiwiller
I turned my iPhone into a dumb phone
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 @sspaeti (x.com/sspaeti/status…). Crossed the topic again and again, found it interesting but never really gave it a thought that it could be for me. Too radical. But it kept popping up. Then i just saw recently the @dhh post about his dumb phone (x.com/dhh/status/196…; although he compares it more to omarchy, in my view its the same concept). - omarchy is conquering my timeline lately anyway 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 @DumbPhoneApp. 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!
## 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.
[Original text: michaelscheiwiller.com/blog/dumb-ipho…]
