This fall, I threw in the towel; or rung the bell, or tapped out. Or whichever other metaphor you like for taking a break1. I was out of go go juice, and had been for a while.
I have chronic stress, which has kept me from working since mid October. A lot of it is stemming from my (very stressful, admittedly) job and line of work; but gestures broadly isn’t helping either.
Me being me, I have been actively trying to minimize some of these external stressors, while staying informed enough. And not suddenly looking up and having lost a few hours to short form videos; as well as other attention stealers. One of my values is having purpose in my actions, which slipping in to a Reels coma isn’t very aligned with; disregarding any information overload I might incur.
My “cellphone” isn’t. It is a very capable personal computer, with access to all the worlds “content”. Not all of this content is actually sparking joy in my life, as it were.
I need to delete Threads. Again. I get snagged by Meta showing me a Meta thread, so I re-download it. And because interesting threads are full of drama, I have a feed full of asshole neighbors, asshole husbands or asshole presidents, none of which improve my mood. I have had interesting metal or fitness discussions, mind, but the signal-to-noise ratio is quite low.
And again, falling in to threads in the bathroom has no Purpose. Almost negative Purpose, in fact. I could try and curate my feed more, I guess, but that seems like Work.
My home screen is monochrome grey, with no social apps on the main screen. I at least need to swipe right to the app library to find time wasters.
I have banished notifications from Instagram. My that app is chatty. Reddit and Facebook are gated behind screen time limits - so I at least need to decide to spend more time there. Facebook has very little value beyond Marketplace, to be frank; which is why it has the same time limit as local classifieds apps and AliExpress. Altogether too much time has been spent window shopping computer parts.
Facebook could almost be removed, except it does have some value beyond classifieds. And the app is actually better than the desktop web view for some things now. The time limit for Reddit might as well not be; because many google searches go there. So then I need to unblock Reddit anyway; sometimes losing the link target on the way.
I have trained myself out of mindlessly opening these apps though. I get news over RSS; and go looking on classifieds if I need something specific. I would like an iPhone e-reader app with adorer sync support (or just straight KoReader, but that seems unlikely). I would much rather read a book while in a waiting room rather than refresh Reddit or (*shudder*) Threads.
I had also fallen into a trap of consuming too much dour content about the, well, everything* going on these days. This was mostly in podcast form. I want to stay informed as I keep living in historical times; but two daily podcasts2 was maybe a little extra. Two weeklies3 also got ditched, without me missing them at all. I now have three podcasts keeping me informed about the political and legal madness unfolding in the USA.
And I stopped refreshing the “News” feed on Reddit endlessly. That helped immensely; along with adding The Guardian to my RSS reader4.
My wife, for similar reasons, has gone over to a dumbphone as a daily carry. I am not yet quite ready to go that far. This was part of the impetus to gray out my home screen, to make it less attention-grabbing. I have a grayscale filter for the whole thing too, but keep forgetting to re-enable it.
I also 3D printed a keychain holder for my Apple Watch; with the intention of using it as a kinda-sorta dumbphone. There are a few deal breakers though:
Overcast handles podcasts well enough, and Prologue does it for audio books5.
And having the phone around while out and about is immensely practical, of course. But I can leave it behind, and still be available if emergency strikes. I can even tap-to-pay with it.
Yes, it has helped immensely. I have less decision fatigue, even if I “have” to make more decisions about how to spend my time. My time feels like my own again. I actually read, and write, and take photos with my (not very, but more than my iPhone) camera. And draw. And be more present socially. It also helps maintain my sleep hygiene – if I remember to leave my phone behind.
I also become very aware if I am invested in the book I am reading, by observing if I bring my book or my iPhone to bed. Or not, as it were (the current candidate is more than a little challenging for me).
And I still dissociate to short form vertical video. It is (mostly) a conscious decision though; where I can recognize what Is happening and decide to continue or not.
Window shopping online has been nearly eliminated. And it has been no great loss.
There are both free and paid versions of apps that utilize NFC tags or QR codes to make opening certain apps even more of a conscious act. This could be investigated further, if I say wanted to be even more deliberate in where certain apps are to be opened. Facebook is mostly a social glue kind of app, that I get very little value from otherwise. Having to scan something before opening it might not be that bad.
Or I could go full 2005 and get a dumbphone and a Zune again.