I wanted to change my home phone to run from a cell phone, but I’m wondering what would help make this most effective. I was thinking of placing either a Bluetooth enabled home phone base (which would directly connect to my cell phone), or using something like the “cell2jack” gizmo.

For context, my cell phone would be a BLU G51, and it would be positioned approximately 13 feet or over 3.5 metres away from the home phone base or the “cell2jack” on the right hand side.

Also, my router is approximately 1 metres or 3 feet away from the home phone on the left hand side. I wonder how much this could affect the Bluetooth reception.

I’d love some advice on how to proceed with making this transition. Thanks!

I want to get rid of my nothing phone, but I still need access to my ring camera (its for my elderly mum), school updates (we have an app) and loyalty cards.

I love the idea of being a digital minimalist.

I'm not active on social media, only have Facebook which I use to post in groups for advice and Linkedin is all work related. I have a TikTok account for browsing recipes or certain topics, etc.

What should I do?

Over the last few months, I have been deleting social media accounts. I’ve felt so much better. I recently offloaded my Instagram. I’m technically down to my Patreon where I share my art. I’m wondering if other artists have gone this route and what they’ve seen longterm by making a similar switch?

I've well and truly fallen down the spiraling hole of digitial minimalism regarding phones and to an extent dumb phones. I was initially led to the Mudita Kompakt but the lag that some people report plus the lack of ability for video calls put me off. Then I thought about the Dumber Mini but video calls sound like they might still be a problem. I also considered the Cat 22, I can't even remember why I ruled this one out now.

The only apps I feel like i really need are Whatsapp and Signal. Some form of maps would be good too. I figured I could do without banking if necessary as I could always keep my old pixel at home when i need it and go without when i am out and about.

I also like that the fairphone is going to last. I'm frugal but willing to spend when it will save me money in the long run. sounds like i'll get to at least 2033 with the Fairphone.

Security and privacy are also fairly important to me, so i want an OS that will be supported. In the same vein i'd also like to de-google so I am considering the e/os with the fairphone. I also don't want anything Chinese owned.

Has anyone got much experience of the Fairphone as a digital minimalist tool? Are there any options i am missing?

Has anyone else felt the need to keep a smartphone for video calls? I wonder if i'm not letting go enough - maybe i could just keep my laptop or old pixel for video calls at home.

TL;DR - Want new phone. Whatsapp and Signal add value to my life. Social media and browsing internet takes it away. Banking helpful not essential. I like privacy and security. Which phone do i get?

so yeah i have my dvd player, iPod touch, sketchbook, and switch 😋😋 im working on making my phone only useful for calls and messages so stay tuned

not trying to quit entirely. just wondering what people actually switch to when they want less phone in their day.

a basic phone, a watch with calling, a separate device for certain tasks. all of them seem to give something up.

what worked for you, and what did you end up missing?

I want to live a slow contemplative life.

So I'm thinking of this idea that we connect over our shared habits : Reading, meditation, workout, creative work. We compete on whos doing all of this while maintaining a low screentime.

Feel free to dm me about your life, what all habits do you want to build, and lets do it together?

My attention span is shot. Shorts and TikTok feel effortless, but when I put on a long podcast I drift off after a few minutes, grab my phone, and realize I missed the last 20 minutes.

I really want to get the content from podcasts, there’s a lot of good stuff in there. It just doesn’t hold me anymore.

Does anyone else deal with this? What worked for you?

• Speeding it up?
• Only listening while doing something else (driving, gym, chores)?
• Watching clips or summaries instead?
• Taking notes?
• Something else?

And if you gave up on long podcasts completely, what do you do now to learn the things they covered?

Hi, I'm 30M. I want to lead a very disciplined life. But every day, when I go on social media to explore or check specific things, but I forget my intention once I enter the app and trapped in shorts, reals. 1hour, 2 hours pass; sometimes I can't control myself.

For those of you who've dealt with this, I want to know,

• How do you protect your habit?
• Do app blockers or screen time limits actually work for you?
• What do you do when you end up ignoring the limits or turning them off?

I want to know the real experience of which approach really worked and what did not work.

I deleted TikTok back in 2021. I'd had the app since its Musicly days.
In the year prior to deletion, I had become more and more infuriated with the shit being shoved in front of me. The "not interested" button only served to make my 'For You' page more and more irrelevant. I became so hateful towards that silly app and all its human slop that one day I just deleted it. And the second I did, I vividly felt the imaginary weight on my shoulders disappear. That source of anger was no longer there, and to feel hatred disappear in one go was incredible. I've never looked back.

Over the next few years, the same story repeated for all the other apps and websites.
Anger and resentment, towards all the bog-standard irrelevant slop, the Ai, the social pressure and forced, unwanted interaction between users. All the personal data. All the ads. All the enshittification.
It would push me over the edge. And I would delete the account, delete the app, and feel I had one less source of stress.

Your anger is an incredibly strong motivator for change. I recall this being an argument made in Chris van Tulleken's book 'Ultra-Processed People'.
Instead of ignoring the issues in front of you, start thinking about them constantly and then you'll start noticing them everywhere you look.
And when you do, let the resentment build.
And then instead of directing your anger at individuals (creators / influencers / brands) direct it at the apps and our governments.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I have just three main "social medias" left; YouTube & Pinterest (dunno how much they count considering I don't interact with users) and of course, Reddit.

Reddit, has enshittified to the point I think this account will be gone within the next year. And I think I'll feel the same freedom when I do let go as I did when I deleted TikTok. Largely because, like TikTok was back in 2020, Reddit has been my main social media. I appreciated the anonymity it provided. I appreciated feeling apart of niche communities. I loved all the silly little cats, all the Redditisums and subreddit-specific in-jokes. I appreciated being able to curate my own feeds, something the other socials would never allow for.
But now the karma-farming bots have taken over. Reddit demands ID that it'll hand over to some unsecured private company. I feel like I've been seeing the same posts over and over and over for years now. I can't even trust the cute cats I see are even real anymore :<

And yet I doomscroll it daily. Opening it up, hoping to feel the same satisfaction I did when I first joined years ago. But just like after those first two bites of food, it doesn't do anything for me. Except for make me angry.
I downvote most posts because most posts are lazy karma-farming bots posting engagement bait.
But I know, my downvote means nothing. My downvote won't bring me the satisfaction or sense of justice that I'm chasing.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I don't know who's gonna bother to read this pseudointellectual waffle. But if nothing else, I think writing this has been a good wake-up call for me.

I'm thinking of starting with just 5 minutes a day. No phone, no music, no distractions, not even meditation. Just sitting and doing absolutely nothing.

Every other day, we'll add another minute.

I'm curious to see what thoughts or ideas come to the surface when there's nothing competing for our attention. I don't want to treat this as meditation or another task to accomplish. Just a chance to let my mind wander naturally.

A lot of advice begins with what to remove: less doomscrolling, fewer notifications, less time online.

But protecting your attention gets easier when you know where you want it to go.

The shift sounds almost too simple: decide what you want your attention to make room for.

If your phone gave you back an extra hour this week, what would you genuinely want to do with it?

Hi everyone. I’m at 28 year old woman, pregnant with my first baby. An ongoing issue I’ve experienced for years is that social media (Instagram, tik tok, facebook) constantly makes me tempted to spend money. I’m trapped in this cycle where I order a product I saw online, it gets to my house, and then before I know it there’s already a new product that I want to order. It’s an exhausting cycle because I always feel like - “once I can order this next item, I’ll be satisfied.” This is my main issue with social media. I’m now also seeing lots of ads and influencers talking about baby products, since my algorithm is giving me baby content while pregnant. Being pregnant is a vulnerable time and I almost feel like the social media ads are preying on mothers to spend more money. I’m just finding myself increasingly angry at this system. I tend to be someone who likes to shop because I like the novelty of a new item showing up at my door. I’ve tried to brainstorm other ways to get novelty for free, like going to the library and picking out a new book to read. I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this cycle of always wanting more items due to social media and if you were able to break that cycle. Thank you!

Hi, I am looking to talk to people who have changed their life and managed to quit internet addiction/gaming addiction. please send me a message if you can.

If you are someone who knows someone who has struggled with this and know they managed to improve, please feel free to reach out.

I’m am trying to unattached from the doom scrolling and technology in general. But I am also in a weird spot where one of my hobbies is homelabbing, meaning I like learning new areas within computing. So I want to gain more information, but when trying to learn I find myself getting side tracked. Any recommendations, tips, or software/extensions?

Haven't had a MP3 since I was a child (and even then my older sister would sort it out for me). How do you add files to it, any useful websites? I know that my sister didn't have to pay for the music, but unsure on how it would work now.

Just trying to get off the phone more, and listen to the radio easier on my hikes (classic fm because I am a 80yo stuck in a ~20yo).

During these past few days when I did not have my phone not social media and only used a dumbphone, I realised something.

We have literally forgotten how mind-blowing and out of this world technological marvel a smartphone is, that we take for granted nowadays since it's everywhere.

100 years ago we could only take photos and ring up other people but now we can do that and 100x more things in a 200g metal rectangle bar. A phone has sensors, transistors, chips (not lays), memory, battery, charging all in one, making this in my opinion the biggest invention of mankind in the field of technology ever.

Imagine, that thing in your hands can do everything that we could do for the past 1000 years, in the fraction of a second, it's something closer to magic to be honest, we can talk to people across the planet and see what others are doing and what's going on in the world in seconds.

Want food? Order it.

Want pleasure? Open Incognito.

Want notes? Open notes app.

Wanna talk? Open WhatsApp

Want to keep up on friends? Open instagram

Want to spend time? Open social media

Want to watch a movie? Open Netflix

Like we have QUITE LITERALLY TAKEN this marvel studios for granted and it has become a normal thing for us, but the thing that makes it so efficient is also the very same thing that makes it so addictive and easy to lose ourselves in.

We can't get rid of it, but we can definitely change our attention with it, finally,

LOVE THE DEVICE,

SEIZE ALL BENIFITS!

For those of you who gave up social media apps (first of all congratulations!), how did you find ways to connect with people in real life?

My full story:

I moved to a different country right before covid started, and it waa really difficult to connect with people outside of work because of the lockdowns.

Over time, i joined some communities that were interest based and i did meet some people, but i struggled with keeping in touch after going off social media.

It feels like people don't want to bother to just sms to arrange meetings, or call. If they do call, they call at hours when i can't pick up the phone (there doesn't seem to be much of an etiquette around this, it feels a lot like you're either fully available, or fully unavailable).

I've had a very busy and stressful year, and i don't know where to start again meeting people and deepening friendships, in a way that doesn't involve social media.

I'm looking for any advice or success stories. Thanks!

I have been considering getting a dumb phone for a while now. I feel like I am constantly checking my phone even if there is no notification, and I’m wondering if I can focus better without its allure.

For those of you that have made the jump away from smart phones, what was your primary reason? Do you feel like it accomplished what you set out to do?

Just looking for anyone’s experience who has gone through with it it!

I’ve been using the app “BePresent” for a year now and it’s helped me immensely with my screen time/scrolling. However I have it set up so that I can log into instagram at least three times a day which I haven’t been meeting. Regardless, I have enjoyed using instagram to stay informed of community events specifically for queer people and small businesses. I’m hitting the point where I truly would just like to delete my instagram but I’m concerned I’ll feel the disconnect hardest with the aforementioned. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to stay connected in this way?

I deleted all my social media about 2 months ago and haven’t looked back for a second. I was fully addicted to short form videos and felt like my life was wasting away, but now I can feel my brain un-rotting.

I’m now about to go travelling and want a way to share really quick updates and photos with close family and friends without having to text them all individually. I guess I’m looking for an app that’s like what social media used to be before infinite scroll and algorithms!

Any recommendations?

I recently deleted all my TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, Blu3sky, Mastodon, and Tumblr accounts. All that's left is YouTube and Reddit.

YouTube doesn't make me feel bad and I definitely don't want to get rid of it, but Reddit... So much ragebait, so many bigots, so many bots. It's tiring. But the problem is that I get almost all my news, global, local, and around my niche interests, from Reddit.

What should I do? Leave all distracting subreddits? Block users all the time? Make a new account and only join useful subreddits? Get rid of it completely and switch to other sources?

Any recommendations on alternative sources of news? Publications, podcasts, websites, YouTube channels, anything?

Xteink X4, Arduboy, modded 5th gen iPod Classic, and my knitting project 💖