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.
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.