Downgrading Instead Of Replacing

Me, three weeks ago: “Time to replace my phone. The battery isn’t quite enough to get through a busy day without charging, and everything’s running slow.” I resented the expense, and the time required to switch everything over, but it felt like a necessary upgrade.

Then I went through and cleaned off apps I didn’t want to transfer to a new phone. It cleared off half the screen. I followed it up by going minimalist on other apps as well. I went through them, one by one, and queried whether I was getting any value out of having them on my phone. The results were surprising:

• No more mail app (I don’t answer emails on the phone, only read and ignore them);
• No more IMDB (I only ever look things up on my couch, and the computer is right there);
• No more YouTube (often used for streaming music during the day, and easily replaced by less distracting alternatives)
• No more Chrome app (I still have a browser, but not one that remembers my bookmarks and search history, giving me a work-around way of accessing social media like Twitter and Facebook)
• No more Instagram (I schedule and post images from Facebook’s business manager, mostly).
• No more RSS reader (I never remember to check it on the phone, only on the desktop).

The short list of things that survive the cut: ereader apps for Kindle and Kobo; he messaging services used by my closest friends; check-in apps for COVID tracking; the handful of apps I used to run Brain Jar Press and the long-form aspects of my web presence; a handful of apps for tracking eating and health.

The sole new app added: a music app for streaming tracks without playing videos, so I didn’t backslide and download YouTube again.

The phone became a useful tool, rather than a place to waste time, and the battery rarely dips below 60% now. No need to replace it unless I backslide and load all the deleted apps again, but in three weeks I’ve lived without everything and gradually weaned myself off constant checking.

I’ve never resented my phone less.

And if I do want to waste time on my phone, there’s still a backlist of ebooks and comics that need to be read. Which hardly feels like wasting time at all, compared to the other options.