otolock

Your phone is not the problem

Your phone is not the problem

Jeff says that he is a better person without his phone.

Widdershins says they’re the same with or without their phone.

I think they’re both right because when Jeff gets on his phone, he doomscrolls. When Widdershins uses his phone, he contacts his family, uses it as a digital planner, music and taking photos.

Jeff is a better person without his phone because Doomscrolling on X (formerly called Twitter) has no benefits. News outlets and social media make more money the more time we spend on them. Good news don’t catch our attention. Negative news keep us worried. They concern us so we want to be updated as much as possible on them.^1

But as Widdershins’ example shows: your phone is not the problem, its how you use it. You can use your phone to learn a new language, read books, identify birds in your backyard, identify plants and other animals that aren’t birds and to call or text your friends, to name a few things.

Some people like to advocate for dumb phones or replacing your phone with analog tools. Those work for them, and maybe that’s what you need to break the cycle. But for me, buying a small e-ink reader is unnecessary (against the better judgement of the tech-junkie in me) when you can read books just fine in your phone.

If putting your phone in another room is what you need to do, do it. But instead, consider what you do when you use your phone, and what cues you can alter to build better habits.

Delete the apps that don’t add to your mental health, or at least remove them from your Home Screen. You can also set limits with screen time settings and this is not an endorsement but there’s apps like Brick, which require a physical key to unblock certain apps, which I’ve been meaning to try out.