Smartphone declutter l Digital minimalism
prettylittlething β’ groupon
To begin with I haven't had Facebook since 2013 and never joined tiktok. But I was consumed by instagram, snapchat and twitter at some point in my life. Instagram was the most toxic which I decided to delete in 2020. Snapchat became boring so this was deleted in 2017. Twitter was not problematic however keeping up with celebrities and politics wasn't my priority anymore so I left the app in 2020 also. I use my phone significantly less since being free from social media by focussing on improving my life. But a small void was filled with Tumblr. When Tumblr became addicting I uninstalled the app. Now I blog from my laptop when necessary.
Luckily I prefer to eat healthily and also enjoy cooking and saving money. This makes it fairly easy not to be a regular customer for food delivery services like just eat and deliveroo.
As a recovering shopaholic the main purpose of my smartphone evolved to an online shopping device. Instead of scrolling on someones feed or timeline, I was wasting hours scrolling on fast fashion apps. I just recently decided to quit fast fashion which helped me overcome my shopping addiction. No more shein, prettylittllething or boohoo apps or paying attention to the plethora of email alerts from stores.
Being a conscious consumer meant trying to find the most affordable options for things by using services such as groupon or wowcher. However, this created a habit of wanting to pay for unnecessary things since being priced so cheap. As a result, I uninstalled the app and will decide to use when searching for discounted luxuries. Similarly, the app called fever lists fun events taking place in the city. This made me unhappy as I could rarely afford these tickets and would be required to spend months saving up for it. Despite valuing experiences, I prefer experiencing the simpler things in life which are often free.
The consequence of being free from social media left me feeling uninspired. Pinterest was a helpful source of inspiration until it starts to have the same affect as instagram. The scrolling is endless. So, I uninstalled this and resorted to my laptop for quick pinterest inspiration. Youtube was also a source of inspiration especilally when trying to become more of a minimalist. However, the time wasted on YouTube in order to learn about minimalism was counterproductive. Therefore, I felt the need to delete the app. However, due to safari, YouTube was still accessible and taking up alot of time. Additionally safari was very consuming due to my constant curiosity and drive to learn things. Googling new things continuously had to stop. I now reach for my phone less and am forced to be productive.
This post is personal and specific to me. Everyone has their own likes, dislikes and habits. Where I notice an addiction arising I realise it and try to improve. My ultimate aim of decluttering my smartphone apps was to gain maximum productivity during the day by utilising the 24 hours we are given. If 1 too many hours are wasted on a small screen I evaluate my habits. Not owning a smartphone in the modern world can be challenging and inconvenient, so I'm trying to use this device wisely and healthily by decluttering digitally.
