Dumb phones do not work

The modern world assumes you have a smartphone. You hail taxis, navigate cities, pay for things, and even read restaraunt menus through it. In practice, it’s hard to function day to day without at least a browser in your pocket.

For all its attention traps, the smartphone is a genuinely useful tool. It is, by far, the best calendar, to-do list, map, navigation system, and always-available camera I’ve used—and that already covers a large part of modern life.

Modern “dumb phones” fail at the very thing they promise to fix. They remove social feeds, but they also make basic tasks harder or impossible. A lot of what we do on our phones that isn’t doomscrolling is actually necessary or useful.

I keep a separate set of tools, settings, and habits that let me use everything a smartphone offers while avoiding most of its attention traps.