The Worst Thing About Using a Dumbphone or Sell Your Smartphone

This is another tiny update after selling my smart phone. If you missed it, I sold my smartphone almost two weeks ago. I’ve been loving using the Dumbphone 2 by dumb.co. It was extremely cheap to buy, it works really well, and it makes me feel alive. I feel like I am already doing so many more little things in my free time here and there. I feel so much more present and creative. It feels like I’m finally living my own life. I’ve also been very happy with the quality of the phone.

I’ve used three different dumbphones prior to this as an adult, the quality/user experience varied with those. So far the Dumbphone 2 has been extremely solid though. Everything works really well. The buttons are snappy. Texting, calling, Whatsapp, Maps, and 2 factor authentication all work great! The app I was most pleasantly suprrised with was the music player app. I bought a 64gb sim card, and put a couple hundred albums from my Bandcamp collection on it. Along with dozens of podcasts episodes downloaded using https://podcasttomp3.com/. The player works really great. It even saves my spot in a podcast episode, so that I can come back to it later. I was prepared to go without good quality for all of these things, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out they all work great. The only app I have had trouble with so far is Uber, but that’s ok.

The worst part about using a dumbphone is not anything about the phone itself. The worst part about switching to a dumbphone is you notice, how alone you are in this pursuit. I don’t mean to say you can’t be social with a dumbphone. A common concern people have about switching is that they will lose touch with friends or won’t be able to socialize as much. I feel like the opposite is really true. I have so much more time to socialize now, and there’s nothing to do on my phone to distract me from calling or texting a friend. I’ve made more phone calls to friends in the past week or so using my dumbphone than I did in several months using my smart phone, so that’s not what I’m referring to. Once, I switched I realized how few of us there were. August Lamm’s is immensely helpful to feel less alone in this.

I spent the entire day going about the city this past weekend. It felt empowering to know I could travel all over the city and run several errands with just my dumbphone. I live in a big city. I saw hundreds of people throughout the day with hundreds of smartphones. I don’t think I saw a single dumbphone. Even among dumbphone users I feel alone because of how many people use a dumbphone only temporarily while still maintaining a smartphone. I was in this bucket too for many years. Almost no one is taking the plunge and completely selling their smartphone for just a dumbphone. It’s frusterating to see how many people want to, but feel like they can’t. Digital minimalism is really trendy right now. A lot of people are putting screentime blockers on their phones and coming up with strategies like only using certain apps on certain days. A lot of people are frusterated and failing with these half-measures as well. It’s frustrating to watch. The solution feels like it’s right in front of people, and many people even fantasize about it. If you have ever fantasized about getting rid of your smartphone completely, I urge you to just do it. Buy the Dumbphone 2 from dumb.co, and fo to your nearest Apple store (if you have iPhone) and trade in your phone for cash. I did, and it feels great.

Other than August Lamm and Robin Greenfield, I have found one other person online who has gone the hardcore, selling their smartphone route. (I’m positive there are others. They are just anomolies.) Here is his video: