In this compelling interview, guest writer Rob Marco sits down with the respected Catholic author and composer to explore the challenges of smartphone addiction and how to overcome it.
I have carried two smartphones (work and personal) for many years. Last year I gave up the personal smartphone and switched to a flip phone and found it to be very helpful in focusing on personal interactions and contemplative prayer. I now need to detach from my work phone while balancing the demands of my job. We are all so inundated with noise in our culture today that I think it will take radical changes for each of us to restore peace and harmony in our lives.
My personal balance has been getting a phone called the Cat S22 Flip. Basically, a phone made for construction workers, it runs Android, but it is a flip phone, so the screen and keyboard are small. I haven't even bothered tempting myself to download Twitter, etc, because it would be such a chore to use it for that.
One of the upsides in my life has been podcasts and audiobooks, so I like that I can still use those apps, but other than messaging, there is nothing for me to do on the phone. It can do the QR code thing because it has a camera, and I could open an email if I needed to for a boarding pass or something, but doing actual emails on it is a nuisance so I don't.
My screen time dropped by about two-thirds just by switching to it. Before, I would find myself looking up something for work, and then 20 minutes later, I would realize I had watched highlights from two NFL games...
It also runs Google Maps, which could be used in a pinch. But we still have a Garmin in the car, which does the trick. The best part is that the phone costs about $100, and because it is built for construction sites, my kids can't break it!
I tried the first model for a few months in 2021, but it didn't work well on Canadian carriers -- it has a hotspot, so you could use a small tablet for GPS if you wanted.
My wife got rid of her phone over a year ago -- cold turkey after Father gave a conference to the women, basically begging them to get rid of their phones -- and we got an iPad so she could do the apps for banking, some school resources, etc. The funny thing about the big iPad is you just don't want to use it like a phone because it is so cumbersome, so it is easy to ignore. There really is something LOTR-esque about smartphones, and they draw you in like other things don't.
Some good news out there, many parents are starting to resist the trend to "smartify" their kids with silly devices, and there is this really popular thing called a Yoto Player that we got for our home. It is a fancy version of a tape player/Walkman, and it uses cards that you load with books, and there are "radio stations" you can program into it so the kids can listen to music you approve of. My kids love them, and they sit around colouring or building things while listening to a book or some classical music, or some little children's songs. It is great because we can load up as many of the cards as we want, and they can pick from any ot them and we don't have to worry, much like when we had physical disks and tapes for music when I was growing up.
Recently watched a youtuber do a 30 day no-phone "test," so clearly there are people thinking about this issue. Great discussions and lots of good food for thought. Thanks Rob and Dr. K!
As was broached in the article, I face a certain "need this for my job" dynamic. One way I've sought to thread the needle is to have another, cheap flip phone (in my case a Nokia 2780) and a cheap Tracfone account. Then I installed an app on my smart phone called SMS forwarder that forwards texts to the flip and it's easy through Verizon service to forward phone calls as well. Smart phone can for the most part stay in my backpack while at work and in a charging cradle off in a corner somewhere while at home. It's not perfect, but it's better.
I enjoyed reading this. I got rid of my smartphone for 9 months recently, having only just gone back to it a few weeks ago with no small amount of guilt. Living modern life to the fullest is completely and totally doable without one, but the reason I came back to it after nine enjoyable months was the amount of unstated hostility I received for having one.
Rarely ever did people say it to my face, but I could tell that when people found out I had a flip phone, 80% of reactions were either laughing in my face, rolling their eyes, or even disgust. The other 20% were genuinely curious and I could tell respected me for it. But I think those 80%, like you said, get defensive when they're presented with an alternative to smartphone usage and think you're pretentious. I also got tired of being "the flip phone guy" and having people ask me about it/grab it from my hands to play with it whenever I arrived at a social outing.
In essence, I had to go back to the smartphone not because I couldn't live without the technical simplifications of it, but because it became detrimental to my social life.
I love how he said "what makes the smartphone different is that it is too powerful a too." As someone who has recently given up all the apps on my smartphone (moving to a minimal phone next month) that's been the biggest thing to me. The laptop isn't as addictive. I can come to my computer and intentionally work for a few hours and then check out for the day or the weekend. The phone is too powerful, too close, too addictive.
I recently returned to the workforce after a trial early retirement. My old company asked me back. I insisted that they supply me with an iPhone because I wasn't upgrading from my brick phone for anybody. If it's necessary for a job then the company should supply.
I still have my old smartphone sans sim, and it works like a home hub to control the stuff around home like air conditioning, blinds and shutters etc. My car has a built in navigation system.
My brick sim gives me unlimited text and calls for $60 a year.
I am reading this on a smartphone. The only social media app I have is substack. Gps, laudate, web browser, email apps, those are useful tools to have on hand. Self-mastery is what's required with smartphones. As a parent, you can test your kids' self-mastery. If you don't set up an account for social media, you can't use it. That said, the companies who push and profit from technology has no moral compass. You have to use your own when using technology. Think driving and road rage or those "self-driving" mechanisms. I drive a manual transmission. But I own a smartphone.
I have carried two smartphones (work and personal) for many years. Last year I gave up the personal smartphone and switched to a flip phone and found it to be very helpful in focusing on personal interactions and contemplative prayer. I now need to detach from my work phone while balancing the demands of my job. We are all so inundated with noise in our culture today that I think it will take radical changes for each of us to restore peace and harmony in our lives.
My personal balance has been getting a phone called the Cat S22 Flip. Basically, a phone made for construction workers, it runs Android, but it is a flip phone, so the screen and keyboard are small. I haven't even bothered tempting myself to download Twitter, etc, because it would be such a chore to use it for that.
One of the upsides in my life has been podcasts and audiobooks, so I like that I can still use those apps, but other than messaging, there is nothing for me to do on the phone. It can do the QR code thing because it has a camera, and I could open an email if I needed to for a boarding pass or something, but doing actual emails on it is a nuisance so I don't.
My screen time dropped by about two-thirds just by switching to it. Before, I would find myself looking up something for work, and then 20 minutes later, I would realize I had watched highlights from two NFL games...
It also runs Google Maps, which could be used in a pinch. But we still have a Garmin in the car, which does the trick. The best part is that the phone costs about $100, and because it is built for construction sites, my kids can't break it!
I tried the first model for a few months in 2021, but it didn't work well on Canadian carriers -- it has a hotspot, so you could use a small tablet for GPS if you wanted.
My wife got rid of her phone over a year ago -- cold turkey after Father gave a conference to the women, basically begging them to get rid of their phones -- and we got an iPad so she could do the apps for banking, some school resources, etc. The funny thing about the big iPad is you just don't want to use it like a phone because it is so cumbersome, so it is easy to ignore. There really is something LOTR-esque about smartphones, and they draw you in like other things don't.
Some good news out there, many parents are starting to resist the trend to "smartify" their kids with silly devices, and there is this really popular thing called a Yoto Player that we got for our home. It is a fancy version of a tape player/Walkman, and it uses cards that you load with books, and there are "radio stations" you can program into it so the kids can listen to music you approve of. My kids love them, and they sit around colouring or building things while listening to a book or some classical music, or some little children's songs. It is great because we can load up as many of the cards as we want, and they can pick from any ot them and we don't have to worry, much like when we had physical disks and tapes for music when I was growing up.
Recently watched a youtuber do a 30 day no-phone "test," so clearly there are people thinking about this issue. Great discussions and lots of good food for thought. Thanks Rob and Dr. K!
As was broached in the article, I face a certain "need this for my job" dynamic. One way I've sought to thread the needle is to have another, cheap flip phone (in my case a Nokia 2780) and a cheap Tracfone account. Then I installed an app on my smart phone called SMS forwarder that forwards texts to the flip and it's easy through Verizon service to forward phone calls as well. Smart phone can for the most part stay in my backpack while at work and in a charging cradle off in a corner somewhere while at home. It's not perfect, but it's better.
https://open.substack.com/pub/sacrasapientia/p/one-screen-to-rule-them-all?r=15hom4&utm_medium=ios
I enjoyed reading this. I got rid of my smartphone for 9 months recently, having only just gone back to it a few weeks ago with no small amount of guilt. Living modern life to the fullest is completely and totally doable without one, but the reason I came back to it after nine enjoyable months was the amount of unstated hostility I received for having one.
Rarely ever did people say it to my face, but I could tell that when people found out I had a flip phone, 80% of reactions were either laughing in my face, rolling their eyes, or even disgust. The other 20% were genuinely curious and I could tell respected me for it. But I think those 80%, like you said, get defensive when they're presented with an alternative to smartphone usage and think you're pretentious. I also got tired of being "the flip phone guy" and having people ask me about it/grab it from my hands to play with it whenever I arrived at a social outing.
In essence, I had to go back to the smartphone not because I couldn't live without the technical simplifications of it, but because it became detrimental to my social life.
I love how he said "what makes the smartphone different is that it is too powerful a too." As someone who has recently given up all the apps on my smartphone (moving to a minimal phone next month) that's been the biggest thing to me. The laptop isn't as addictive. I can come to my computer and intentionally work for a few hours and then check out for the day or the weekend. The phone is too powerful, too close, too addictive.
I recently returned to the workforce after a trial early retirement. My old company asked me back. I insisted that they supply me with an iPhone because I wasn't upgrading from my brick phone for anybody. If it's necessary for a job then the company should supply.
I still have my old smartphone sans sim, and it works like a home hub to control the stuff around home like air conditioning, blinds and shutters etc. My car has a built in navigation system.
My brick sim gives me unlimited text and calls for $60 a year.
I am reading this on a smartphone. The only social media app I have is substack. Gps, laudate, web browser, email apps, those are useful tools to have on hand. Self-mastery is what's required with smartphones. As a parent, you can test your kids' self-mastery. If you don't set up an account for social media, you can't use it. That said, the companies who push and profit from technology has no moral compass. You have to use your own when using technology. Think driving and road rage or those "self-driving" mechanisms. I drive a manual transmission. But I own a smartphone.