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Comment by rich_ard | Hacker News Reader

I recently downgraded to a flip phone and it has been wonderful. I missed Google Maps for transit during a trip to NYC, but otherwise it's been great - not being leashed to the internet by my own lack of self-control is wonderful.

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I'm still on a smartphone, but I took away notification permissions from anything that doesn't need it. It's helped a lot with not looking at my phone more than I want to. If anybody wants an intermediate step before you switch back to a flip phone, give this a shot.

Looking at you, Facebook, with your "Somebody you don't actually care about posted for the first time in a while."

Fully seconded. Directly removing smartphones is extreme. I can tame my smartphone quite stringently and it is doing exactly what I want it to do.

Any app I feel is a source of anxiety I can either cripple notifications and permissions from, or uninstall.

I did the same for Facebook - no more notifications. Unfortunately, that also stops notifications from Messenger which I'd prefer to get, but oh well.

I uninstalled the Facebook app, and use the website. It's 90% as good in functionality, and 1000% better in what it can and cannot do with data on my phone.

(If you post and comment regularly, you may prefer the app. I mostly use the site for casual browsing, and checking the address of events I'm on my way to.)

They're separate apps, not sure why you don't get them from messenger.

I've left that one's notification access open because at least for now it only uses them for someone sending me a message. Fingers cross they don't move the "SOMEBODY JUST WENT LIVE WITH VIDEO!!!!" over to that.

Thank you for being open about your own lack of control with the internet.

You're not alone.

I've downgraded to a flip phone for about a year, and recently re-upgraded for Uber + Google Maps + Spotify. I've pushed the self control thing back to "what apps do I have installed".

Basically what will notify me is direct messages from Slack and text messages. That's about it. It's fantastic. I have no idea why people put up with getting poked so goddamn often.

They have boring lives and like to feel important. I am not even joking. Some people even openly admitted that to me when half-drunk.

what I find just as useful is installing Replicant, the completely open-source version of android phone. By not using Google Play and relying entirely on F-DROID, the app selection is much smaller, although I find I'm able to install just the essential apps, without the distracting ones.

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