The Dumb Phone II
Creating a Phone You Hate Spending Time On
In my first quarter of college, I was in a difficult class on Postmodernism. For those of you who don’t know what that is- it’s basically… well, I still have no clue what it is.
What made the class so difficult was that the professor had us read plenty of long, boring, & confusing books that had numerous interpretations, and then had us write papers defending those often unclear interpretations.
I was able to get away with not reading the material by paying attention in class and actually did decent in the assignments. Instead of having a formal end of the year exam, we were instructed to write a 10 page paper on one of the topics we covered in class. I didn’t know any of the topics particularly well, so I picked a random one.
He had given us a few weeks to write this paper, but due to my lack of good study habits, I procrastinated until the last day to start my paper. Writing 10 pages about a topic you don’t understand that’s based off books you haven’t read isn’t fun. I don’t normally stress about school, but this time I was starting to sweat. I hadn’t reviewed the syllabus well enough to see that this paper made up a large part of our grade, so I was at risk of failing the class if I didn’t get a good grade on this paper.
I spent most of the day writing the paper, but got caught up in making it perfect and I forgot to focus on my word count. I looked at the time and I only had 4 hours left before the paper was due and still had 4 pages to write. I had exhausted all of my Sparknotes’ understanding of the texts, and convinced myself that I didn’t have enough time to actually read through the books and draw out supporting quotes for my argument. To cope with this stress and pressure, I did what plenty of young adults do in high stress situations.
I went on my phone and finished the episode of Breaking Bad I was on, scrolled through Facebook, and spent some time on the Instagram discover page.
I was able to somehow finish the paper with a few minutes left, but I was perplexed at my actions. There was a lot of money on the line and a large risk that I would get disowned from my family if I did poorly on this paper and failed the class, yet I was still unable to put aside the short-term gratification of my phone.
After I submitted that paper (I ended up passing the class), I knew that something had to be done about my excessive phone usage. A few days later, I got rid of my iPhone, deleted my Facebook & Instagram accounts, downgraded to a $20 dumb phone, and lived like this for 4 months.
Here are the results from my 4 month dumb phone experiment:
- Experienced breakthroughs in my struggles with porn addiction
- Had a lot more time to do the things I wanted to do
- Enhanced the depth and width in my relationships
- Reduced my general feelings of worry and anxiety
- Became more present and content in my day-to-day
During my 4 month dumb phone experiment, my friend told me about a phone called The Light Phone II that only has the essential apps like texting, calling, alarm, maps, etc. and costs around $350. I was heavily considering purchasing one, but decided against it because I didn’t have that kind of money on me.
But I didn’t want to keep the $20 dumb phone because I was tired of getting roasted by my friends for having green text messages.
And I didn’t want to go back to my iPhone out of a fear of spending too much time on it.
So I decided to create my own phone.
I call it The Dumb Phone II. It highly resembles an iPhone, but is just a lot dumber.
Some of the features of The Dumb Phone II include:
- No color
- No notifications
- No thumb print or face recognition
- No internet browser
- No email, entertainment, or rarely used apps
- No way to download new apps
At first glance (and probably at all glances), these features may not seem super appealing, but consider this:
The average American spends 4 hours in front of a screen every day, or 28 hours a week, or 1,456 hours a year.
The Dumb Phone II will help you to cut that time down drastically, so that you can spend it on activities & people you love, experience greater mental peace, and live a more fulfilling life.
Here’s an explanation of each of The Dumb Phone II’s features as well as how you can get these features on your phone (if you have an iPhone). If you adopt any one of these features into your iPhone, I’ll consider that a win.
No Color
If you look at the most popular apps (Instagram, Youtube, Reddit, etc.), a lot of them are bright in color. This is because the app developers’ main goal when creating these apps was to grab our attention. Humans have a natural attraction to bright colors and these developers have exposed that for their benefit. The color of the app is just the tip of the iceberg- it’s the actual content that does great harm to our mental well-being.
The photos, videos, movies, etc. that are available on our phones resemble real life and so the bright colored apps get us hooked, and the real-life-looking content keep us on.
That’s why we don’t feel bad watching an entire season of Breaking Bad in one sitting, because the way the content has been filmed and edited was done in a way that resembles real life and makes us feel as if we’re somehow a part of the show.
Taking the color out of your phone (and having the discipline to keep it there at all times) rewires your brain to start viewing this “real life content” as fake, making it easier for you to refrain from spending excessive amounts of time on those apps. Greyscale makes the attractive less attractive. Which in this case, is a good thing.
Here’s how to get greyscale on your iPhone:
Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > On
No notifications
Some scientists say that the average young person’s attention span has devolved to be slightly longer than that of a goldfish.
I have no idea if that is actually true or not, but I have noticed that notifications rob me from the joy of the present moment. When I’m in a conversation with a friend and I get a notification, I disengage from the conversation by either impulsively checking the notification or by wondering what the notification could be.
When you check your phone mid-conversation, it subconsciously communicates to the other person that they aren’t worth your full, undivided attention. Which kinda hurts.
Disabling notifications has improved my concentration (I’m still competing with the goldfish), but an even greater benefit I’ve gotten from disabling my notifications is the ability to be more present with those around me and of God’s presence in my everyday life. If you’re concerned about emergencies, keep your phone call notification on.
Here’s how to disable notifications on your iPhone:
Settings > Notifications > Select each app and press the toggle button to turn off notifications
No thumbprint or face recognition
Phone companies want to make it easier for us to access our phones. Instead of typing in a simple passcode (which didn’t take much time anyways), they made it even easier for us to access our phones through thumbprint and face recognition. Thumbprint & Face ID makes it easier for us to waste time on our phones.
We need to find ways to stop playing into their games and actually make it tougher to access our phones. A simple way we can do this is to turn off thumbprint and face recognition and replace our passcode with something long so that we think twice about opening our phones.
If you ever steal my iPhone, my passcode is 12345678910. The long passcode might dissuade you from stealing it.
Here’s how to turn off thumbprint & face recognition, and set a long passcode for iPhone:
Face ID
Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Select toggle button for “iPhone Unlock”
Thumbprint
Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Select toggle button for “iPhone Unlock”
Long Passcode
Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Custom Alphanumeric Code
No internet browser
The least appealing but most beneficial feature of the Dumb Phone II is no internet browser. You sacrifice plenty of convenience and you might miss out on a few things like googling a quick answer or showing your friends a funny viral video, but the mental peace that’s preserved because of it makes it well worth it.
It makes us better at socializing and speaking as well. To make up for the lack of a funny viral funny video, I’ve needed to be able to make my ability to entertain my friends more engaging. To make up for the lack of google, I’ve needed to ask people for answers to questions I don’t understand. Turning my lack of knowledge into an opportunity to converse with others about certain topics has produced many good conversations and friendships.
Here’s how to get rid of your internet browser for iPhone:
Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps > Select toggle button for Safari
No email, entertainment, or rarely used apps
You can easily check your email on a laptop or computer, so by deleting it from your phone, you save yourself a little head space.
How to disable the mail app on your phone:
Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Select Account > Select Accounts > Select Sign Out
Entertainment
Entertainment apps are the biggest time suck in our lives. The night before my paper was due, I knew that it wasn’t good for me, but I wasn’t able to get rid of it. Bite the bullet and delete entertainment apps like Netflix, YouTube, & Hulu. Your productivity and mental health will thank you. I’m not saying that we should give them up altogether, but we should delete them from our phones. Entertainment is supposed to be a shared experience, but using it on our phones makes it near impossible to share that experience with others. If you do watch Netlflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc. make sure you do it with other people on a larger screen than an iPhone.
Rarely Used Apps
If you’re able to get rid of the big time wasting apps, it’s not uncommon for you to try and fill that time on rarely used apps. When I deleted the big distracters, I started to spend more time on apps I rarely used before like the weather app, health app, and garage band. Whatever your rarely used apps are, increase the storage in your phone & decrease the possibility of getting distracted even further by deleting rarely used apps.
Side note on social media
Deleting all social media from your phone (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tik Tok, etc.) is a little extreme, but you definitely can survive with deleting most of them. I allow myself to have Instagram, but have deleted all other social media from my phone.
No way to download new apps
When I deleted a majority of the apps on my iPhone, it was a big change for sure. Some of the above apps took up large amounts of my time, so it was uncomfortable not having them. When I missed a particular app too much, I would cave in and re download it. I needed to find a way to prevent me from re downloading those apps, and thankfully, your iPhone has that feature.
There will always be a new, popular app that makes your life easier and you may feel left out if you don’t have it, but realize that you are protecting your mental peace which is a lot more valuable than any app.
Here’s how to disable downloading new apps:
Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > iTunes & App Store Purchases > Select Installing Apps > Select Don’t Allow
Pro tip: Ask a trusted friend to set the restrictions code on your phone and ask them to keep the passcode away from you.
So what do I do with my free time?
Drastically reducing the amount of time you spend on your phone is scary and can create anxiety at first. It did for me. All of a sudden, I had a few extra free hours a day that I didn’t have before and I didn’t know what to do with it. On a particularly anxious night, I sat down with a journal and I wrote out all of the activities that I had always wanted to do & get better at but convinced myself I never had the time for.
These activities included: reading, writing, guitar, and more quiet time.
I then started to budget my time and spend some of the time I spent on my phone on those activities and I noticed a few things.
I noticed that I actually had more than enough time to partake in those activities, I noticed that I was overall happier because I was able to do the things that brought me joy and I noticed that it’s impossible to truly experience life to the fullest when I’m in front of a screen.
One of the biggest reasons that people spend so much time on their phones is because phones numb confrontation with the internal void that we all have. God has given us all certain gifts, skills, and talents, but often times they aren’t super obvious to us. Discovering those gifts, skills, and talents takes work. A lot of hard work and intentional exploration. But when you are able to uncover them and lean into them on a regular basis, you begin to get in touch with your purpose in your life.
I’d be lying if I said I’ve discovered my truest purpose in life, but I know for a fact that my phone distracts me from the path to discovery.
Maybe this Dumb Phone II isn’t so dumb after all.
