#nosurf

Long time since I've posted a longer spew, but ive had some increased interaction with the blog lately so now is as good a time as ever :D This will be more informational than reflective. Please read What do I do without a smartphone? for a reflective post :D

What kind of phone do I use? I used a Sunbeam Bluebird for a year which was a great starter dumbphone. It gave me the cold-turkey of a traditional style flipphone but still gave me access to weather, hotspot, and a navigation app (Waze). Their newer models also have email access. In February I switched to a smaller tech-startups 'founders edition' dumbphone called a Sidephone.

How do I feel about the Sidephone? It is GREAT!! It is an excellent choice and very good hardware (compared to the sunbeam which was kinda plastic junk). The support is excellent and the capabilities are amazing. Its base 'app pack' contains maps, file sharing, QR code reader, a phone-wallet, and an internal music player. HOWEVERRRR, the best part is that the way additional apps work is through packs, meaning you have full control over the applications you want on your dumbphone; without having access to a full traditional app store. With additional (free btw) packs you can get access to Whatsapp, Uber, Firefox, an Email system, three different 2FA apps!

It is also COMPLETELY SEPERATED FROM GOOGLE! This was important to me a few months ago but now nonnegotiable with its AI update. It does not run on a google android (such as the Cat S22).

Do I struggle with accessibility? Surprisingly not, especially with the sidephone which covers some of the issues I originally had (specifically, 2FA and some QR code stuff) but generally the world is still much more adaptable than it seems. To be transparent, I live in a working class military city which is far different than a modern more tech-centric one. I am able to ask for physical menus, bum off a friend/fam, or simply opt-out of the tech part of an interaction.

Can I travel with it? I live in the U.S. and travel once or twice domestically within a year to visit family. Yes! Very easy to travel. I can still print out boarding passes at airports and with a little searching (or asking around) its easy to find an answer or a phone number if things get tricky. I am traveling internationally this year for my gap year, which means this blog might be a travel blog for a second lol. I am not going to attempt to travel with the sidephone, and will be using a de-googled android phone instead for multiple reasons.

Long term affects on my life? I am so much more than I used to be! So much more energetic. SOO much more social and confident. SO unconcerned with my perceived identity. I have learned so much more in replacement of my doom scrolling, and am so much better at self regulation. I have even found that some of my more mild sensory issues have dimmed down.

at first it's actually a very strange hollow feeling when the corporations can no longer use your geolocation data to thrust you into their little world. they all share the same information with each other and using proxies/blockers breaks their model of you; when you do check the personalized feeds they will be much less targeted. the most convenient way to see the interests of people like you is suddenly just gone, and it's very alienating

I wanted to make an intro post as a digital minimalist!

I don’t have a flip phone (can’t bc of work), but I’ve made great strides with screen time blockers, deleting apps, and grayscale. My phone screen time has gone from 7 hours a day to 2 hours per day!! That’s five hours extra time per day.

I am disabled (bipolar + autism). I’m interested in taking the original digital minimalism philosophy and modifying it so it’s more accessible to disabled people and people from different class backgrounds.

One benefit of my reduced screen time is that I spend more time doing literally nothing and, because of that, feel more connected to the sensory world. The taste of food, the texture of clothes on my skin, the feeling of a pillow against my head. It’s more visceral now!

I’m not going to romanticize reducing screen time too much because we often have little choice in the matter and sometimes difficult life circumstances means screen time is higher.

This has to stop. I don’t even have fun watching videos anymore. For this I have two theories, and likely it is a combination of both. First, in 2023 I tried to quit cold turkey by unsubscribing to all channels I have been following and blocking the homepage, as a result I have lost track of all the people I have been following back then. Secondly, not sure how to say this, but the role of influencers has changed to that of content creators. There is a push to showing even more extreme lifestyles, a push towards shorter form, flashier content, and the influence of AI. Either way, I have long been trying to return to the Youtube experience I have many happy memories of, but I have to understand that it no longer exists. There are virtually no communities anymore, few interesting people, many of the people I followed have quit and many of the ones that still make videos have become an empty shell of themselves. I have said this before, and I’ll say it again, people who gain popularity on the internet and as a result choose to quit their daytime job to decide to focus on making the content machine work, lose the spark that initially made them successful.

Because I have such a hard time finding videos I actually like, Youtube has become a bit of a gambling machine for me. This is so unnecessary, although I feel like this will be the case for any Youtube replacement I will figure out since that is how the internet is structured sadly. Lately I have been nostalgically dreaming back to the time where magazines were much more influential, or where radio stations had much more of a subculture. I wish it was easier to find a community. The internet feels lonely, and yet never before have there been this many people logged on at the same time.

Anyway to return back to my attempt to minimise youtube usage, I will be installing a clock that blocks the app for 20 hours a day. We’ll see how that goes and then later I can make it more strict