Not long ago if you left your house you were unreachable. In fact, the only way someone was reachable was if they were home or at work and had a phone there. Imagine that, just not knowing where and how people were at all times.
I did it for some time back in like 2011 or so; I used a dumbphone as a daily driver and only took calls on it and a landline in the place I was staying at the time. Nothing about my life got noticeably worse and instead I just read books a lot more. I did miss map navigation a lot, though, which lead to me begrudgingly going back to smartphones and ‘relapsing’ in a way. I don’t think we need to be that intense but I think a lot of us can massively simplify our digital presence and not miss a whole lot.
edit to say that covid also honestly complicates this a ton for me personally and a lot of the more vulnerable population since I/we pretty much only exist digitally until society collectively gets our heads out of our asses about all that…but I do still think its worth thinking about what you really need and want out of it. Even in my case I can and do unplug frequently.
Not long ago if you left your house you were unreachable. In fact, the only way someone was reachable was if they were home or at work and had a phone there. Imagine that, just not knowing where and how people were at all times.
thinking of going back to that for myself, genuinely
I did it for some time back in like 2011 or so; I used a dumbphone as a daily driver and only took calls on it and a landline in the place I was staying at the time. Nothing about my life got noticeably worse and instead I just read books a lot more. I did miss map navigation a lot, though, which lead to me begrudgingly going back to smartphones and ‘relapsing’ in a way. I don’t think we need to be that intense but I think a lot of us can massively simplify our digital presence and not miss a whole lot.
edit to say that covid also honestly complicates this a ton for me personally and a lot of the more vulnerable population since I/we pretty much only exist digitally until society collectively gets our heads out of our asses about all that…but I do still think its worth thinking about what you really need and want out of it. Even in my case I can and do unplug frequently.
I was a kid in these times. Genuinely miss it!