Selling My Smart Phone

I sold my smart phone today. I got $45 for it.

It’s surreal. I’ve had a smartphone for years. I’ve had various dumbphone phases. I’ve dumbed down smart phones, and owned at least three dumb phones as an adult. I’ve tried lots of different setups. I never took the full plunge though, and ONLY had a dumbphone. There was always a fear. I got the dumbphone 2 from dumb.co yesterday and spent the day getting my contacts imported, switching my whatsapp account over, and letting friends know, I won’t be texting as much anymore. The phone comes with maps, 2FA, whatsapp, and signal. There really was no reason anymore not to switch.

I had several days to wait before the dumbphone arrived. While I waited, I thought about what I’d do once it arrived. Part of me was going back to the old problem solving tactics, “What if I just keep my smartphone in the storage area downstairs? I’ve never had a storage area before, so I could use this!” or “What if I asked a friend to hold on to it?” While excitedly awaiting my dumbphone in the mail, I watched every video I could find about dumbphones, and life with a dumbphone. There was a common trend with what felt like almost all of them. They never fully got rid of their smartphone. The titles of these videos or articles would always be something like “I ditched my smartphone.” Almost all of them eventually switched back, after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, or even after a 1 year break. It was disheartening how few people actually committed to this lifestyle change. It fed my fears, that it really is “impossible”. Afterall, all of these people ** had ** to switch back at some point because eventually they encountered a problem that needed a smartphone to overcome. Until, I heard someone mention August Lamm, and her work inspiring their dumbphone journey. I found her site: https://augustlamm.com, and I read everything and listened to every interview I found.

She had done it. She had no smartphone at all. She moved to a new city with no smartphone, and she even got rid of her computer completely. She continued to work, make friends, navigate, and do all of the things responsible adults need to do. With ** just ** a dumbphone. She didn’t even have a computer. There was no crutch anymore. It was just existing. That was it. No alternative, digital reality to dip your head in and out of every few minutes. She was permanantely unplugged. This made me realize several things:

1. There is no reason someone “needs” a smartphone. Her new book is appropriately titled, You Don’t Need a Smartphone

2. Keeping your smartphone somewhere, anywhere is a crutch. It’s just the addiction talking, telling us we still need to have a “way out”. It’s like we’re scared of reality.

3. Not only is keeping your smartphone a crutch, but I think the addictive design of it always leads people to get back on their devices one day eventually. Otherwise, all of these people who switch to dumbphones and talk about loving the experience and prefering it would never switch back. One day, for one reason or another they start their smartphone again, and they’re back to believing they “need” it.

So that’s it. I have no crutch anymore. It hasn’t fully hit yet. I mostly just feel happy. I’m sure it’ll be painfully boring at times, but I’ll do my best to bring a book or something with me everywhere, and savor the realization and knowledge that I am in fact alive. You really don’t need a smartphone. Most folks want to believe they have a special reason they still need to hang on to their smartphone, but it just isn’t true. The “inconvenient” alternatives aren’t impossible. There’s always a workaround. If your bank requires you to have a smartphone. You can bank elsewhere. There’s no reason we need to unconsciously accept every new “improvement” to our lives tech companies hand us. You can opt out at anytime.