Ask HN: Best feature phone to combat internet addiction?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40748614

by fdeage • 2 years ago

4 5 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have ADHD and I am addicted to the Internet. Web-browsing mindlessly for hours is messing big time with my dopamine levels, so I recently decided to keep my iPhone at home with the Wi-Fi on (so I can still check WhatsApp messages) and put my SIM card in a cheap dumb phone (Crosscall Spider X-5).

The issue is, the UX is shitty as hell, and SMS management sucks: there is no timeline of messages, and storage is limited to 500 messages (which is a massive PITA since I have to periodically delete my SMS to receive new ones). This is really infuriating because the 2GB SD card inside could probably store a lifetime of messages.

Any nice and cheap feature phone with unlimited storage for SMS and a UX that doesn't suck?

navjack27• 2 years ago

That isn't how dopamine works. If you have ADHD you require more stimulating activities in order to get a satisfying response basically. I don't think a feature phone will fix the problem. Possibly gamifying your ability to not go to those things on your smartphone might be a better plan. Figure out the situations in which you pull out your phone and try to be mindful of those situations and change The situation or your response to it.

You said you went to keep your iPhone at home and put your SIM card in a dumb phone. So does that mean you want to take your phone to work or when you go out? What were the situations in which you pulled out your iPhone and you mindlessly would browse the internet? Are you a coder and that was what you would do when you would wait for a compile or something? Any kind of downtime you would pull out your iPhone like a cigarette smoker would take a smoke break? Try to figure out those situations and come up with alternate activities to do. Once you figure out those alternate activities try to make those alternate activities have the lowest barrier to entry. Obviously pulling your iPhone out of your pocket or inches away from your desk is a whole lot easier than getting up and taking a break and taking a walk for 15 minutes or whatever.

fdeage2• 2 years ago

I get your point, but I figured it would be easier to just not have the temptation than try to escape it. I favor minimal solutions that work (even if they don't fix the root cause) over things that require constant willpower.

Yes, I take my dumb phone to work, which means my relatives can only phone or text if they want to join me.

alexmolas• 2 years ago

If you're addicted to your phone and you want to quit it maybe it's a good idea to use a dumbphone with a shitty UX. Otherwise you're going to get addicted to your dumbphone.

fdeage2• 2 years ago

There is nothing to do on my dumb phone, not even games, so hopefully I don't feel the need to check it every 5 min :)

k310• 2 years ago

Here's a thought. I got a new phone and transferred zero apps over to it from the backup. I only download an app as I need it.

Today's experiment: Hold down the safari app icon and see what happens. The icon has a minus sign at the top left corner, meaning that it can be deleted. In earlier versions of ios, you couldn't delete Apple preinstalled apps.

No, I didn't delete it. I surf in moderation, mainly because the screen and virtual keyboard are too small for me to use for more than a minute or two when away from the computer or ipad. (which have real keyboards)

Ask HN: Best feature phone to combat internet addiction?

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