iPhone de-distraction and retro tech

[Howard2k]

This isn't going to work for me. I'm a Gen-X latchkey kid that grew up rural and got online in 1985. I'm going to stay online. And long ago I learned to ignore distractions.

Tech has been a big part of my life since 1980 when I was 10. Not stopping now.

Damn it. I thought that being able to use a smartphone without being constantly distracted was a super-power. I'm feeling less special all of a sudden.

 

[eyoungren]

Damn it. I thought that being able to use a smartphone without being constantly distracted was a super-power. I'm feeling less special all of a sudden.

Sorry, it's all training. Let yourself in through the door, fix your own dinner before anyone gets home and do your homework with the TV on so your own voice isn't the only one in the house. Learning to fall asleep before the color bars on the TV come on when the station signs off for the day means you passed. 🙂

Repeat five nights a week and sometimes on weekends. There are more accelerated courses available though. They come with advanced training - and more throughly messed up results (people). 😉

 

[nickdalzell1]

Wait, what stations even sign off anymore? Isn't every modern TV station on 24/7 these days? I haven't seen a sign off since early 1980s Nickelodeon that used to do a Silver ball sign off that ended with the National Education Administration endorsement (my how times changed!)

Our local AM Radio "classic hits" station does switch their transmitter off at sunset though, so if you're listening to it you'll hear it fizzle to basic static. Never understood why though.

 

[eyoungren]

Wait, what stations even sign off anymore? Isn't every modern TV station on 24/7 these days? I haven't seen a sign off since early 1980s Nickelodeon that used to do a Silver ball sign off that ended with the National Education Administration endorsement (my how times changed!)

Our local AM Radio "classic hits" station does switch their transmitter off at sunset though, so if you're listening to it you'll hear it fizzle to basic static. Never understood why though.

I was speaking tongue-in-cheek, as if still in the 1980s. Which is where/how I learned to ignore distractions.

 

[subjonas]

After reading a few comments, I want to clarify that tech itself isn't the enemy. Tech is synonymous with tool, and tools are neutral. It's what is done with them that can be either a benefit or a detriment.

But what isn't neutral are all the algorithms and content and games coming through our tech that is specifically designed to keep us distracted and addicted. These are a form of active manipulation from certain companies, so in turn those particular applications need to be used with extreme caution, awareness, and intention--if not avoided altogether.

I don't think there is a significant market for artificially limited devices though, because I believe almost everyone believes they are in control of themselves and they want to be the ones to decide whether they do or don't want an app.

I do think there is a growing awareness of the damage of social media, but the policing won't fall on companies because they can only do what the market tells them. The policing will mainly fall on the individual. It's possible the government could get involved and act on behalf of the people, but governments are slow to react so it will probably have to get really really bad first. Some might argue it's already really really bad, and indeed some governments have started intervening, but mostly on behalf of youth such as teens. For adults, we're likely on our own for the foreseeable future.

But I admire the self-reflection and self-awareness. I probably spend too much time on MacRumors lol.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Perhaps selling the iPhone sans App Store (as Steve originally intended for the first iPhone) would have alleviated that issue where apps that can cause addiction or distraction would be unable to be installed? I mean the original iPhone on OS 1 did enough on its own when I rewatch that old WWDC event. Perhaps his idea of 'web apps' only was not so far-fetched in hindsight?

I've never opened the App Store since I got my 3GS back (it probably doesn't even work anyway!) and it's functionally the same out of the box as the 2007 iPhone. It might have a few extra apps built in (Game Center, YouTube, iTunes) but the same other than that. I don't even find myself missing out as it does everything I need a phone to do.

 

[eyoungren]

Re: social/tech/app addiction that causes self-harm.

I must be a minority (would not be the first time). But I control my devices/software/apps/connections/etc. They do not control me. They do not dictate to me. Those things do what I tell them to do - not the other way around.

If I have any addictions at all, it's to soda and fantasy roleplaying games. So, I guess I can kind of grasp this. But the subject of this thread has no draw upon me. If I want to engage, I engage. If I don't - I don't. And I don't need any neutered devices, legislation or outreach programs trying to act for me.

Maybe that's down to an immediate lack of trust for any company or person that is trying to sell me or persuade me and my own sense of rage at anyone or anything telling me what to do, but there it is.

Try and push an agenda on me and I'm going to slam it back in your face. You can ask the sales people who knock on my door that I leave standing standing in 110º heat during the summer if it's true or not.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I never really got 'addicted' to smartphones/tech either but that's because I spent most of my life without them. The smartphone didn't exist for most of my life, and personal computers being commonplace in the home wasn't even a thing until I was into high school. The 'addiction' seems to favor the younger of us mostly, but then some of the older folks, while once resistent to modern tech, have embraced it worse than Gen A, heck, my mother buys a brand new crossover SUV every THREE years like it were a phone upgrade, and can't stand to have anything older than 3 years in her home, while I embrace the 1970s way of life with exception to the few vintage Apple products that fit my tastes more than modern ones.

Just because I have to accept that the internet and modern tech exists doesn't mean I have to use modern tech to access them. I can do everything I need with my 3GS and 2009 MacBook Pro. Tech stopped solving problems in 1992. Everything today are merely solutions in search of problems. If I have to jump through tons of 2FA and other hoops to just get into my email account, that's not efficient when in 1998 I could just get in by having the correct password. I have far more problems with society's way of making life needlessly complicated than it was back in '92.

Why must a toaster, refrigerator or a freaking schoolbus need WiFi?! Why must an electric toothbrush need an app or a software update? None of that was necessary in 1979, a refrigerator cools food, a toaster toasts, and an electric toothbrush brushes your teeth. It doesn't need to do anything with a freaking app. I will never 'get' modern society ever. Heck, I can rant about space travel being set back by the Shuttle program since we went FARTHER into space with Apollo and less computing power than a pocket calculator but since the Shuttle we've been lucky to orbit our own planet. Says a lot about modern tech doesn't it?

 

[Siliconguy]

What's Instagram? Seriously, I know it exists but have never used it, or Facebook or What'sapp and who knows what ever else is out there.

I do watch Youtube as there are some good history segments on it, as well as geology videos including the recent earthquake in Nevada.

It's not that hard to say no especially this time of the year. There is too much else to do as the long tedious winter finally lets go.

 

[eyoungren]

I never really got 'addicted' to smartphones/tech either but that's because I spent most of my life without them. The smartphone didn't exist for most of my life, and personal computers being commonplace in the home wasn't even a thing until I was into high school. The 'addiction' seems to favor the younger of us mostly, but then some of the older folks, while once resistent to modern tech, have embraced it worse than Gen A, heck, my mother buys a brand new crossover SUV every THREE years like it were a phone upgrade, and can't stand to have anything older than 3 years in her home, while I embrace the 1970s way of life with exception to the few vintage Apple products that fit my tastes more than modern ones.

Just because I have to accept that the internet and modern tech exists doesn't mean I have to use modern tech to access them. I can do everything I need with my 3GS and 2009 MacBook Pro. Tech stopped solving problems in 1992. Everything today are merely solutions in search of problems. If I have to jump through tons of 2FA and other hoops to just get into my email account, that's not efficient when in 1998 I could just get in by having the correct password. I have far more problems with society's way of making life needlessly complicated than it was back in '92.

Why must a toaster, refrigerator or a freaking schoolbus need WiFi?! Why must an electric toothbrush need an app or a software update? None of that was necessary in 1979, a refrigerator cools food, a toaster toasts, and an electric toothbrush brushes your teeth. It doesn't need to do anything with a freaking app. I will never 'get' modern society ever. Heck, I can rant about space travel being set back by the Shuttle program since we went FARTHER into space with Apollo and less computing power than a pocket calculator but since the Shuttle we've been lucky to orbit our own planet. Says a lot about modern tech doesn't it?

Again we see things differently. That's ok, I'm just remarking on it.

The tech available to me in 1992 when creditors wanted what I owed was an answering machine. My iPhone 11 Pro Max (iOS 26) makes it so that the phone does not even ring.

And the two A/C units we have in the house that have WiFi mean that I can set the temp for the rooms those devices are in when I'm out. Do I want that from my refrigerator? No. I don't care for it there. If I had a unit like that I'd just not use that feature. But the current model we have is older than my kids and got delivered in 1997. It's still working and doing what it does despite three house moves.

So, for me I guess it's just a matter of 'if it's there and I want to use it, I will'. Otherwise, I won't.

 

[nickdalzell1]

What's Instagram? Seriously, I know it exists but have never used it, or Facebook or What'sapp and who knows what ever else is out there.

I do watch Youtube as there are some good history segments on it, as well as geology videos including the recent earthquake in Nevada.

It's not that hard to say no especially this time of the year. There is too much else to do as the long tedious winter finally lets go.

I am not entirely sure, as I missed out on that and Snapchat (I don't think I'm missing much!) but I **think** it might be sharing a video clip of a few seconds long (sorta like a video Tweet) to others online? That's what the name conjures up in my mind.

I did get into Facebook (and FarmVille lordy!) back in like 2009-10, but haven't been on it since. I also missed out on the Friendster and MySpace wave and don't regret it. Modern life just isn't my thing. It felt kinda cool back when skeuomorphic UI was a thing but sadly today it's just about being overly complicated, making solutions in search of problems, frustrating folks by adding more steps to something that once took one step (such as logging into any site), fixing what was never broken (QR code menus, AI drive throughs) and generally being boring to the point of feeling like work (flat UI design, bland interior design, etc).

Stop the train, I'll get off in 1979 and maybe play some Yar's Revenge.

 

[aespana]

As always with this kind of topic, I highly recommend to read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. It really changed my mind in many ways that I'm really happy I read it.

There is a challenge for 30 days to stop using optional technology.. one of the best things I did. You can give it an opportunity.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

As always with this kind of topic, I highly recommend to read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. It really changed my mind in many ways that I'm really happy I read it.

There is a challenge for 30 days to stop using optional technology.. one of the best things I did. You can give it an opportunity.

I second this. Great book!

Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi is another good one.

 

[aespana]

I second this. Great book!

Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi is another good one.

Very interesting. I will give it a look!

 

[boswald]

Not me, I love my tech stuff. I grew up in the 90s, so I had a decade of Nintendo (later Genesis, dad wouldn't buy me an SNES), squirt guns, cookouts, skating rinks, street hockey, Inspector Gadget, Looney Tunes, Salute Your Shorts, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and etc. It was a great time. But towards the end of the 90s (and the beginning of high school), something changed. Rather than going out and spending time outdoors, I decided to hide away and play games like Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament and etc until 3 in the morning (yes, on school nights). I think that's when I fell in love with technology. I was shut in, I taught myself everything I know, and I had a blast doing it.

 

[turbineseaplane]

To add on here, the vast majority of my music listening is locally stored files off iPod Nano 7s.

(Gym & Running).

I've tried endless newer knockoffs and modern flavors of the Nano concept and still nothing comes close to the polish of, now, very old Nanos (of which I have a small fleet).

 

[turbineseaplane]

I use my pixel with grapheneOS so it does not have any google stuff on it. I do not and never will have any social media accounts as just dont need the distraction.
Most of my screen time is on a kindle reading books.

Which Pixel?
I'd really like to try this, but all the Pixels are bigger than I care for as a 13 Mini user. 😕

 

[eyoungren]

Not me, I love my tech stuff. I grew up in the 90s, so I had a decade of Nintendo (later Genesis, dad wouldn't buy me an SNES), squirt guns, cookouts, skating rinks, street hockey, Inspector Gadget, Looney Tunes, Salute Your Shorts, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and etc. It was a great time. But towards the end of the 90s (and the beginning of high school), something changed. Rather than going out and spending time outdoors, I decided to hide away and play games like Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament and etc until 3 in the morning (yes, on school nights). I think that's when I fell in love with technology. I was shut in, I taught myself everything I know, and I had a blast doing it.

There was a period of time from my senior year (1988-1989) up to around 1996 where I was single, had a car and lived at home. I had a job, but because I was living at home I really only had to concern myself with getting my own meals.

During that time I transitioned from the Commodore 64 to the 128, got an Amiga 1000 and became solidly PC in 1990. A former friend and I used to play a lot of games. I'd go off to work at 9pm, do my 4 hour shift and then be home around 2am and he'd still be on my PC playing games, LOL!

I also had copious amounts of time for Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs. The weekends, starting with Friday night, were great. I used all the tech I had then to improve the games I was running. It was great.

I'll never abandon tech, I'll just bend it to my own uses.

 

[NUFC2025]

Which Pixel?
I'd really like to try this, but all the Pixels are bigger than I care for as a 13 Mini user. 😕

I went for the 9a but miss my iPhone 12 mini.

 

[Happy_John]

So with the general sense of malaise with … modernity, that is rippling through both tech-focused communities and otherwise, more and more people are looking to get back to their devices as being a source of productive tooling and non-distracting entertainment, myself included. I think most people are now aware of the degradation to the social fabric, politically, democratically, and individually around attention/cognition that constant access to the social media attention extraction machine does to us, and want to think about disengaging.

The most success I’ve had so far with this is the use of the Blank app to dull my home screen and force me to do 10 push-ups before I can open Instagram. (this doesn’t sound like much but it’s been the most successful method so far to remove constant Instagram use, particularly away from home because you’re not exactly gonna drop and give me 10 out and about)

I’ve also got back into iPods and off-line listening where the music doesn’t fade into the background of whatever other more distracting tasks my device is able to distract me with.

So both of these got me thinking about how much interest there would be from every day non-apple heads for either/both a new modern day iPod (with click wheel, bluetooth, modern design language but older interface and syncing, where the work required to navigate is in service of the engagement with and mindful curation of the music)

And also the potential for an iPhone model that at firmware level is not able to run any social media applications (or the ability to black list particular applications), where perhaps an aftermarket desire to do so is subject to some kind of administration fee for Apple to turn that back on at hardware/firmware level. It sounds like overkill but I genuinely think I would opt in to a social media free SKU over the standard phone. I would then just use home devices to do that more mindfully for less time.

On one hand, it’s kind of self infantilising effectively delegating parental control to Apple, but these systems are psychologically designed from the ground up to be addictive. it would be empowering for a gambling addict to be able to purchase a phone that can’t run gambling applications so why not for people who have issues with social media?

is this massive overkill/over thought or do you think there would be sufficient numbers buying in to these ideas for a sufficient financial incentive for Apple to make these a reality?

Best thing I did in recent years to manage "too much wasted screentime" was get an Apple Watch and AirPods.

No scrolling. Get the message, calls and notifications that are important, can even check email, but to reply I have to dig out my phone or sit down at a keyboard and the added friction of having to take out the phone or sit down at a keyboard.

The watch works brilliantly as a iPod for music and podcasts - I download them and the watch is not a great interface for getting distracted by music or podcasts / playlist you didn't intend to listen to.

Unfortunately, this only works when "away from work", and I've had a hell of a lot of work on for the past few weeks, so I'm constantly in front of screens. No social media at all - current MR is the only online platform I randomly spew out words as a pressure valve ( my real work is happening at the same time, and there I use language very carefully).

 

[eyoungren]

…and the watch is not a great interface for getting distracted by music or podcasts / playlist you didn't intend to listen to.

I wonder…maybe that's what I'm missing here. Any time I use my devices/tech it's because I intend to do so - for the exact purpose I intend.

I see no reason to mindlessly pick up a device or get sidetracked by it.

 

[Happy_John]

I wonder…maybe that's what I'm missing here. Any time I use my devices/tech it's because I intend to do so - for the exact purpose I intend.

I see no reason to mindlessly pick up a device or get sidetracked by it.

Anything that suggests content you have not specifically asked for is going to tempt you into distraction.

That said, Part of my worklife is spending a lot of time keeping various newsfeeds open ( Reuters, AP, a lot of European country specific newsfeeds etc ), so it's sometimes a challenge to not let a skill I use for work bleed over into non-work time and habits. It helps hugely to have a Mac desktop setup that I only use for work, and never using that setup for anything other than work.

 

[eyoungren]

Anything that suggests content you have not specifically asked for is going to tempt you into detraction.

That said, Part of my worklife is spending a lot of time keeping various newsfeeds open ( Reuters, AP, a lot of European country specific newsfeed setc ), so it's sometimes a challenge to not let a skill I use for work bleed over into non-work time and habits. It helps hugely to have aMac desktop setup that I only use for work, and never using that setup for anything other than work.

That's what I find annoying though. If I did not specifically go looking for it or request it, then I consider it an intrusion. If I am interested however, but doing something else, I will look it up on my own when I am ready to. Even if I am not doing anything, I'll go looking for it myself rather than responding directly. So, that's me choosing to control the interaction, not being controlled by whoever it is trying to entice me.

Otherwise, intrusions of this sort are a fast way to make me very angry. Behind it are people who think they can use/control me to get something THEY want out of me. I don't like being used or controlled. And if it's annoying enough or makes me angry enough, that person/company/whatever will never see my money or time.

 

[HiVolt]

I've been using computers since the very early 90s, first got online with BBSes then internet and IRC, etc... I've always resisted the more modern social media, I had an ICQ account but stayed away from the more mainstream MSN Messenger and never got on Facebook or Twitter, certainly not the Instagram or Tiktok garbage. I remain on IRC in a few channels that i've been for decades, with many of the same folks from the 90s and 2000's still remain in this isolated, algorithm free space that we can still chat freely without censorship. I still remain on a few forums, though some have disappeared over the last few years and some have become unusuable due to censorship and politically motivated moderation.

 

[eyoungren]

I've been using computers since the very early 90s, first got online with BBSes then internet and IRC, etc... I've always resisted the more modern social media, I had an ICQ account but stayed away from the more mainstream MSN Messenger and never got on Facebook or Twitter, certainly not the Instagram or Tiktok garbage. I remain on IRC in a few channels that i've been for decades, with many of the same folks from the 90s and 2000's still remain in this isolated, algorithm free space that we can still chat freely without censorship. I still remain on a few forums, though some have disappeared over the last few years and some have become unusuable due to censorship and politically motivated moderation.

My first connection to a BBS was 1985. From late 1987 to I think 1991 I ran a BBS in my area on a Commodore 64 and then a 128.

I also have been primarily involved in online forums since around 2001. Facebook came in 2010, but only because a friend wanted me there. In February 2017 I stripped all my content out using a script and then had FB delete my account entirely. The only other social account I have is for X and that is primarily used to contact my carrier's customer support. I think I've logged in to it twice since 2024.

This forum and Reddit are the only two online connections I interact with daily. But because of online forums over the years I have friends all over the world who I email or iMessage with. Had I not been connected, I never would have met those friends. One of them is actually right here on this forum as well.

So, I'm totally in line (if not exactly) with where you are.