Website Article: christitus.com/switching-to-dumbphone/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Would you ever give up the smart phone that we are all addicted to?

Total respect for anyone who's willing to do some self-reflection; and for being willing to be bored now and then!

I agree. Before the iPhone came out in 07, everyone was much less distracted. The Blackberry wasn't nearly as fun, and the flip phone was just there. The irony, today people use the Headspace app to meditate using the phone.

Despite being a phoneless person for many years (just using google voice on my laptop), still manage to be pathetically non-productive.

Thanks Chris for highlighting this. I went on another route by removing all the social media apps and have a very basic setup for a smart phone. It is used mainly for making calls - Android Auto for navigation in my car. Screentime is roughly 5 - 6 minutes a day at best. I do all my online /internet new feeds on another device that way I do not need to touch my phone much. Productivity and focus and increased tenfold

I think its a great move for mental health and productivity. I will probably do the same in the future or something close to that, I don't really use like 99% of the features in my phone, I can just bring an old ipod, a notepad and physical copies of books and mangas with me in my backpack and I'll have basically all the features that I need from my phone except texting and calling(which I can do with dumb phone) and social media(which i want to minimise).

I haven't touched FB or Twitter for over four years now, and my life got so much better again... I do have a new-ish Android to have android car maps and electronic ID (practically a must in Sweden in the cash-free society) available. Thank you for bringing a positive alternative to semi-automated stimulus addiction up in a way that doesn't scare people away. This needs to be done more, and highlighted more - especially to people that really ARE feeling serious fatigue or even depression without even knowing why.

Glad to hear you liked the experience! The MP02 is an excellent device and it should serve you for a long time. Using a dumbphone changes lives!

I've never owned a smartphone. I've used a flip-phone since subscribing to our cell service. No anxiety for me and I don't take it to the bathroom either -- ha ha.

Never had one, never will have one. People are so envious every time I mention it, how I can just live without one. They won't even argue with me and instead just do some inner self-reflecting. I've _never_ had anyone try and convince me otherwise. I think this is really telling of the times.

Ive been threatening to do this for years, especially when I used to work at a desk. But now I'm on the road 3 weeks out of a month. While the phone gets ignored while driving, when I'm stopped its a major link to home. Pictures, videos, and facetime with wife and daughter are a soul saver.

You know which generation seems more addicted to the Internet? Boomers. My parents are constantly on it especially my mom. Many women in their 60s and 70s are constantly online. Nothing else to do. My mom did not get a smartphone until 2011. Didn't even know how to email over 10 years ago and she worked in real estate offices for years. She was really one of the last people I know who got into Internet usage and smartphones. Now she's constantly on UKposts and Facebook just like her peers. It's the Millennials who are trying to get off the Internet more. They're the ones buying dumb phones. But their parents? Constantly online. Acting like Karens on Twitter. Trying to cancel everybody.

This is great to hear - even though I'd bet a lot us would feel uncomfortable hearing it. Now that a lot of people aren't having to travel as much for work, this could be an opportunity for them to try this as well. As long as I have my computer for work, I can do my job and don't rely on my Smartphone all day. Chris, you're a tech badass/leader. Thumbs up this video so that more people see it!

Thank you for that video. Your take on the topic and the things Cal Newport wrote plus a little bit of self reflection, I was able to use my phone just for taking pictures, Texting&Calling, Navigation and listening to Music and Podcast. It rly makes my phone less stressful

Thoughtful points to consider! Always good to catch you on UKposts!

Thank you for your insight I’m on day two of dumb phone still working out the kinks. My average per day was 6 1/2 hours a day worst was 12 this has been very encouraging to me to go down this route.

Good for you and point taken on decision fatigue. Respect! However I think efficacy of the dumb phone method will vary greatly from person to person. For example I never really used social media and when on a toilet I am too focused on my mission there to even think about being bored. Considering that I almost never use voice calling my version of this challenge would be "no phone" not "dumb phone". And... nothing would really change. I would be more tied to my desks (which can be bad) but I will still be doing the same things the same amount of time each day. I'd just be using bigger screens to do them.

"The reason why you have decision fatigue is because the smartphone does everything, and I do mean everything, it will do anything and everything you want to fill in every single bored second of your day" -Chris Titus I will print this on a poster! So on spot! Thank you man

I’m loving how much content there is about dumb phones, hours and hours, I’m learning so much about them. A valuable use of my time.

I don't understand. A while ago, you did a video about how you were stopping using GrapheneOS because it was too inconvenient (you needed your Google stuff). Yet, here you are clear out the other end using a dumb phone.

Lol, i needed this video man, i too started a new journey with Social media Detox, and it was really REALLY! a big game changer, i too am now way more productive and my mental health is much better as compared to what it was before the detox, i have uninstalled all the social media apps, disabled yt app as well, i only have messenger apps installed for now and i don't keep the internet active 24/7 now, i only turn on mobile data or wifi to see if i have an pending messages 3-4 times a day, before i used to spend hours rolling through yt shorts and killing my time, it also helps with your focus and attention span, i took a hobby of reading books, the first day i started reading a book (that was my 3 day of social media detox) i could barely read 10 pages, but after 17 days i can read for hours without even realizing that i am that much zoned into it. People should try to get rid of these addicted things from their lives, especially for students, your ability to focus and have less fatigue and less mental anxiety is what is gonna help students get through their education, so it is necessary that they don't get so addicted to these things in the beginning.

Wow, this video just resonates with me. I also left using smartphone and gave it to my sister. And for using internet, I bought a 4G Wireless dongle. My mom, and other family members also, kind of challenged me that I won't be able to do this, maybe because they saw how avid user I was of smartphone. What they didn't know was what clicked me to do this, and I'm not doing this for showoff or any luddite thinking(that companies are evil, they are controlling etc). I also felt the same level of euphoria, just after the week after erasing my phone and finding workarounds for the things like mobile hotspot. I regret that I didn't write my experiences and all the arguments going around in my head in that week. And I also, doubt that I'm going back, and currently I'm also finding some things challenging like navigation, but slowly I'll surely find workarounds.

Man, I've been doing this for a year and I'm loving it.... My fiancé and I are moving to a new city soon and I got kinda scared because of the lack of a GPS on my phone and I was pondering the idea of buying an iphone because of the need for one but honestly I'm just gonna try to explore and get to know the city without one. I felt so dirty when I almost bought one just because of that, i'm not gonna be pushed into the purchase just because of that one thing. Life's so much better without one!

More power to you, Chris. I'd consider doing the same if I wouldn't demand on Signal for communication and if there were more mobile phones (that's what I like to call dumbphones) that could actually act as 4G modem via USB. My old Sony Ericsson Cedar J108i was amazing in that regard and it performed great as mp3 player as well! Too bad 3G/UMTS is no more in Germany, so it's useless now.

I did this as well and felt the same way. Now glad that I've stumbled upon your experience as well

Great video! Brings back the good ole days where technology was simple and a lot of people didn't really care too much about it. For kids, dumb phones are great, they will learn to remember phones numbers and learn what's it like to not have everything at your finger tips so soon. Overall smartphones are terrible. There is no privacy with them especially with constant location tracking like taking photos for example. Just use a normal camera and put the photos on a big hard drive. In fact use your computer more than your phone like using desktop apps more then mobile apps. Also delete your Facebook Accounts if your not planning on setting up business advertising.

"Come on, Marty! We are traveling back to 2007, before this fruit and robot based hell took over!"

:) WELL DONE! Kudos for doing this and sharing! ? Curious what phone you are using that has wifi tethering for your car deck? ALL THE BEST! Cheers!

You pretty much hit on what I was starting to think about doing, there are times I do have a legitimate need for a smartphone, but it's very limited, and for the most part there's work arounds ala VMs for example. But that may be the approach I end up taking is dumb phone with tethering and have a glorified ipod touch/android MP3 player for the small handful of things I do need when it comes up and maybe see if I can find a solid point and shoot style camera again. I already go and hide my phone behind my monitor to charge it, it was initially meant to be there so I could still see it since I hate ringers so I kept it on silent so I could just see the flash/screen light up and I have times I leave my phone on the other side of my place, sometimes physically chucking it. I mostly rely on self control, which is great until it breaks, so I'll have to figure out a good system for it but I'll probably move into this vein in the future once I get some things lined up.

I've only had an old school flip phone up until a couple years ago, then I finally got a smartphone - ONLY because my brother in law had an extra line on his plan. So it only costs the price of the phone. I've always acknowledged the cool things you can do with them, but two years later and I still keep in in the glove box, or use it occasionally for 2-step verification, and once in a while a....a.....a phone call! I resist for the same reasons you have abandoned yours - I have just seen too many people going through life staring at their phone.

The best video ever, we all need to do this. Less smart phones, less tracking..

I am really impressed that you are staying with the dumb phone. I am addicted to the phone and have been using it even for things that are better done on my pc. I bought a Doro 5516 with sdcard storage for £26 and immediately ran into a problem. The iPhone doesn't save contacts to sim card, so I had to refer to the iPhone for current business. That discouraged me, and I put the sim card back in the iPhone. But I agree, smartphones are exhausting; so useful so bad for my poor brain. I will try again

I use my smartphone to listen to downloaded podcasts on my commute (no radio or cell signal where I live), and I use it to listen to music/podcasts while I workout. I use it for banking, paying bills, email, phone calls, texting, etc. It's also nice to have when I'm stuck waiting somewhere for a while with nothing to do. It's really really useful. I would need a large variety of different things in order to replace that one tool.

Literally done this 3 times, within the last 3 years. Last month I got one because I started working again and needed one (really the only reason I end up having to get one). Now I've fallen back into old habits spending more than 6 hours a day on the phone.

Really curious about this personal project. Thanks for sharing, hope you can deal with the smartphone-detox.

Watching this on my tablet. What I did to get the "dumb" phone experience was use ADB to uninstall UKposts, Chrome, etc... I don't have Facebook or Twitter so didn't need them anyway. After I got everything I wanted off and had my phone setup with maps and such still working, I removed Play Store also. So now I've got a device that works for me.

Maybe to some degree it depends on what being productive involves in the person's own life? For some people their productive activities are such that a phone can do many of them. Sometimes I've been shocked at how much I've got done in a day without even getting out of bed, because of my smartphone! A lot of it depends on context though and where you are at the time. I always turn off notifications and so on and sometimes I just NEED to put my phone in my pocket when I'm out and about and not let it dominate my thoughts! As I like to just... take some time to think! So I do kind of get it. It's definitely good to be wary of how addictive they can be and keep an eye on how you're using it to make sure you don't get too carried away.

I ended installing shelter on my pixel 6 for the work profile. Installed all my social apps into that. So I have a hard turn off button. Since I don't carry cards anymore I require some digital apps for my license and so on. Good work :) to you

Congrats on giving it up!

I think a good middle ground could also be to limit your usage, It would take massive self control but it could help.

i tried a dumb-phone too and i loved it as you do - but just for a while. now i'm doing the same thing, but with a smartphone (i need maps, music, a cam and sometimes the knowledge (mostly wikipedia lol)) ... i stopped using it in those "waiting"- or "bored"-times and at home it got a fixed place where i do not touch it but hear calls. i keep my phone clean from sozial-media and stuff, just installed those much needed apps like maps, spotify and duckduckgo-browser. (no store-services are activated unless i need to update something, so it's more struggle to just quickly try a game or something). my bedroom and toilette are general electronic-free zones (always.) it's quite a dangerous and tempting road to drive, but it works for me. i just love the dumb-phone-mentality

Welcome to the club. I went old school several years ago, and never looked back.

I haven't really had a proper smartphone and haven't really had a reason to get one yet. The reason that's had me closest to getting one though is the mere ease of meeting new people and making friends, especially if you're entering a new school or something like that.

For tools, I need GPS, the voice recorder, alarms, and a scheduler. It’s nice to have youtube to bluetooth to stereo and TV but otherwise not needed on the go. I did not have any of this before my mid 20s. As a result, I sometimes got lost on the highway.

Phone usage has been a huge distraction for me and seeing other people on their phones more than talking to the person next to them makes me wonder what would happen if everyone got off their phones. Definitely going to only use apps just for business. Wish me luck 🍀

Unfortunately at present I'm not able to give up a smart phone as I need to use certain apps for work. What I do though is setup notifications for twice a day - once in the morning before work and again at about 6pm. That way I'm not distracted by random app's sending messages. And when I get home, it goes on charge and I generally don't touch it again until morning. It's a lovely thought though.

Camera and personal digital assistant features are my #1 reason for owning a smartphone. Before the smartphone I had several PDAs and several really nice cameras. I didn't even carry a phone till 2001.

Great perspective. It made me check my screen on time for today. I am not bad, but I could improve.

I'm wondering whether a KaiOS flip phone would work as well for this purpose.

0:07. I just stumbled onto a CNBC feature "How the Cellphone Market is Transforming" and was surprised to see you in that intro (you should be able to search for it on UKposts, if you haven't seen it yet). With privacy and hacking becoming increasingly problematic on smartphones, I'm thinking this might be the only way forward. I might have to revive an old iPod Classic to start playing music in the car again. 😉

I have an old flip phone, a tablet, and a Garmin watch (which can sync to my PC). Smart phones are a plague and attention vampires. Plus they are really more of an albatross if you live an active lifestyle. If you go to a gym or out for a brisk walk or jog, where do you put the thing so it's not dragging your shorts down?

I am using nokia 105 in 2023, I am grad student, it helps me focus and enjoy the little things. thanks for the idea of using android in VM.

I haven't cut the Android phone out completely, but I almost never touch it only for calls(app) and photo taking(with synology backup), 2auth, speed test(almost never). Its all about controlling your self(if you can).

Great video! I removed all social media from my smartphone which that alone helps out. Only use them on my pc.

It is a bold move, I remember the days of pagers. No texting, no SMS or MMS in those days. If you wanted me to act on a system outage you actually had to call me and... well... coverage was not so good in those days. Today I am on-call, have been on slack and zoom most of my day "working". Meetings that could just be an email. I long for calmer seas.

I just bought the new light grey Punkt, excited to have this phone again, missed using it as my daily driver

Although I still have a smartphone, I cut my usage time to about 10-15 minutes a day for the past 4 years or so. In fact, my phone is on do not disturb ALL of the time and I use Google voice instead of a phone plan and I love it! No more unwanted intrusion on my time or attention.

i think this is great and id love to do it. however what worries me is not having a decent camera to capture unexpect moments(eg captureing a crime on camera , needing to take a pic of somehting important ) no google maps so would have to buy an A to Z and i require a phone for income. it would be more suitable around the house though although im basically on pc all day which defeates the point

I love this video. I’m in different situation, but it’s similar my phone is disconnected. My dad took me off his phone line, its going on five months without a phone. No lie dude it does feel better. But man it’s sad 😢 at some times. The phone is basically a mini computer that does everything I don’t think people realize that till they lose something.

I have a company phone for work, I turn my personal phone on silent during my working days, Most of the times if I do not see a call on the screen I do not know someone is calling or texting. I have went days during my work days not even looking at my phone. I have moved all of my company related work stuff like email, MFA apps for remote access, server and network access to my work phone. So I am highly thinking about switching back to a simple flip phone and using a prepaid service for voice. I can use my computer for 'chatting', I don't really upload anything to any social media sites, I don't watch youtube or hardly any video streaming service on my phone, screen to small and to many ADs. I do not have a paid tv service as I use an over the air antenna with a tv tuner box that is connected to my network.

I think DT also ditched using Smartphones ages ago. Can't imagine doing this myself honestly, I save a lot of time doing basic things without having to switch on my PC. I use an S10+ with Custom Firmware.

I was the first to get a HTC Diamond Touch in Denmark in 2008, and it stressed me so much, that I went back to the real thing. Now I'm on a CAT, but there's a company paid and owned smartphone at my work place. I never use it, it's resting on the dashboard and get cleaned once a week.

It’s something I also wanted to do but here in Denmark authentication to government, banks and more is almost impossible without a smartphone, sadly.

Honestly I have had many issues with phones during the covid-19 lockdowns (By the way Taiwan and China where many chips are made are still in covid-19 lockdown). My rog phone 5 had a bad build design for rigidity that it made the red magic 3s from 2019 look amazing. Since then, the wifi or networking chips or part of the motherboards that do those functions have stopped working on both phones and am left with using phones from 2017 or older. Hopefully the smartphone designs and android will improve vastly when these covid-19 lockdowns end. I just see the current smartphone prices increasing and the batteries either shrinking or staying the same 6,000 mAh battery sizes in 2019 like with rog phone 5, 6 but with structural issues.

Almost a year later; curious if you're still on a 'dumb' phone or if you went back to a smart phone.

BTW, tethering over bluetooth (for internet access) is very effective and uses much much less battery charge than a wifi hotspot.

Next level: permanent internet connection (from a workstation and home PC) is also consuming a lot of energy. Most of my most productive pieces of work done without connectivity. Just a machine with pre-installed environment.

Humans are really social creatures and we want our opinions written down and known even if we are introverts in real life. We could be the quietest nerd in a public setting but a keyboard gangsta when we are online. We want shared experiences with other people. We enjoy listening to opinions. We want to watch how another person reacts to a trailer or scene. Internet provides all this. A utopia for even the insecure, shy, loners.

Or even higher than giving up a smartphone. You could go the ascendant route and just resist the urge to look at it except at specified times of day and set your phone to only ring for your contacts

This makes me realize how addicted people are to their phones nowadays, and how lucky I am not to be one of those people. I am certainly staying with my smartphone thought, I see it as a tool rather as an everyday thing, it lets be browse the internet if I don't have access to a computer, serves calls and messaging, and has alarms. It can ocassionally be useful for some photos and other stuff, and if I think about it; yes it does everything, the problem I think lies in people getting absorbed by it (because of social media mostly) and making it part of their life instead of using it as a tool, which is what they should use it for, it's certainly not pleasant to meet with someone and then that someone spends more time on the phone than with you..

So excited to get mine!

I'm 55 years old and even sold phones and service with Cellular One in the early 90s. I have never owned anything but a landline phone, and 75% of those calls get blocked. Being unimportant is very relaxing.

Well I only use my smart phone to watch your videos 😂

My habbit is so bad it around 5h a day mostly on youtube and Netflix time wasted really adds up like crazy but never regretted the thing i did in pass learning from mistakes help us avoid it latter🙂

Unfortunately using smart phone internet in my country is the only way to avoid bureaucratic corruption, it’s just unliveable without smart phone and I lived before smart phone age and it was horrible dealing with public services

I've felt rather liberated since I decided to move away from Facebook. Now I only look at it maybe once or twice a week for a few mins each time.

Totally agree with you! I stopped watching TV and read Newspaper 10 years ago. Left FB 3 years ago, the only thing I use my (S Xcover 4) is take phone calls, make phone calls, receive messages, send messages, bank app. Thats all. It Changes Your Lifestyle to the better 100%.

I have been considering doing the same. KaiOS phones seem interesting and with a bit more function.

There is a part of me that would like to revert to a dumb phone with a keyboard, the main problem is that I drive a semitruck and the Navigation app on my phone works better than the truck specific gps systems you can buy. Getting lost in a semitruck is quite terrifying and so is hearing a 300$ truck gps tell you to make a U turn.

Interesting that someone who works in tech like you uses a dumb phone. I use a dumb phone too, but I don't work in tech, and I use it because the internet is just too addictive, and with a dumbphone I have to deal with the addiction only on my computer.

You already had only 30 minutes and no notifications. I already see that as a win

I work at a hospital in nursing. I am sure I am the only employee who does NOT bring in my phone. I leave it in the car. I check it on my 15 minute and 30 minute lunch, and that is it. I go inside, it stays in my car. I do have my watch with service so if someone is trying to get ahold, which is pretty much almost never, I will see it, then dismiss and continue with work.

I've always wanted to do this but I inevitably never do because of three things. 1. Two factor apps, I dislike the idea of relying on sms for it (for security reasons) 2. Podcasts, other than UKposts this is my primary source for entertainment. 3. Mobile / Remote SSH, easier than trying to find or open a laptop when I need to resolve things on the go I wish a dumb phone was for me but I feel locked into it for the things above.

I think it's related to FOMO, with everything happening and so much exposure thanks to the internet in our pocket.

I'm not sure you understand how important this video is even that you have created it :D You are using your power as a popular creator to pass a massage that most Big tech will never allow or automatically remove from social media because you are risking their power grip on us.

Hey chris. sry off topic from the video. But do you know how you can check gpu power draw in linux? in windows you can check this with hwinfo -> gpu power -> gpu pcie +12 input power.

My family and I stick to our flip phone, that's all I need for on being on the road. All of the internet remains at home with my desktop pc and Linux Mint operating system. Now we can only hope 2G will remain available or it will be over anyway.

I will definitely try this, for now I'm using a minimal amoled launcher with greyscale, works pretty good and my smartphone screen time is 30 mins/day. The only problem I have with dumb phone is I need banking apps.

I don't have and I never had smart phone. My last G3 Nokia had it for 21 years an now I have a G2 (no internet) Alcatel 2019G. It only needs charging once a week.

Some folks will say, just delete all your social media apps on your smartphone. Have more self-control. Easier said than done. Some of us will be back in that rabbit hole once we click on Safari. Having a dumb phone guarantees that cheating with app time limits on an iPhone or Android doesn't happen. I wish OEMs revive old dumb phones like the Razr V3. Just add 4G since 2G and 3G are shutdown in my country.

I’m thinking about taking plunge. An alcoholic doesn’t keep booze in their home so this makes sense for my struggles

Hey Chris, did you use MFA apps on the smartphone that you had to port to a pc? Or should I just wait for the follow up video: "Why I went back to using a smartphone."? 😉

Idk I probably could do it. When I wasn't working I kind of forgot my phone existed. My phone serves a critical role in work thus I have a high usage. But I still have noticed that in my free time I'm not always scrolling away. It's been interesting to observe others always reaching for their phone. Though for my age I'm way more anti smartphone as they are known than most of my peers or at least people my age. I always feel a hesitancy to use it because I don't trust it.

I would love to try this, specially since I disable most of my phone's notifications. But at $379, it's way too expensive. Maybe a good ol' Nokia

You're a legend. Going to do it myself

Where I live you almost cannot avoid having a smart phone and I am an old guy who grew up with phone booths. I don't use my smart phone for entertainment, at all.

I have debloated all my google service through a tool called "Universal android debloater". Right I just run a few basic apps for productivity. I don't think I can reach the Chris Titus stage yet (or perhaps ever) but keep away from phone as much as possible these days.

Think I would miss my Podcasts and Audio Books too much. Aside from these and a bit of news, I have no social media apps on my phone, so I'm part way there I guess...

Using a tablet and and a dumb phone which doesn't even have a camera or an internet browser. The tab's switched off most of the time, I turn it on for maps, and for times when i desperately need the internet (like i need to send an important email that cannot wait till i reach my computer). It's fun. People keep staring when i take out the tiny HMD Nokia to answer a call :)

since the start of twitters 280 letter update ive been slowly deleting social media from my life and i can say the feeling of "wow this stressed me out and waisted this much of my time and rented this much space in my mind" is real!