I love technology but I hate my phone
If you're like me, you grew up in the early 2000s during the age of the computer, eventually got a smartphone, had your life ruined by social media and fell into the same loop of internet-induced-depression we all ended up in, where you hate your phone but you can't let go of it for some specific reason, most likely your addiction to social media.I personally was addicted to doom-scrolling Twitter (and later Bluesky when Twitter went to the shitter permanently) and Instagram, and after thinking everyone who got hooked into the infinite-scroll-content-trough systems of apps like TikTok were dumb, I eventually got hooked into the Reels and YouTube Shorts flavor of the same hellscape, as did most of my friends. Yay, hypocrisy!
Last year, Eddy Burback, a YouTuber I enjoy a lot, dropped the video "I hate my phone so I got rid of it" and it made me realize something. I also hate my phone! For most of the same reasons he did! However, I couldn't just stop using my phone due to several reasons, like banking apps or my planner app for uni being a big part of my day-to-day flow, and the only device I could use it on was my phone. So I just... kinda let that idea rest in my mind dungeon for the better part of a few months.
Fast-forward to early 2026, I decided I could probably figure out a way to get rid of my phone without losing access to things like banking apps, and I kinda came up with an idea - I have had this iPhone 5S just sitting in my drawer for the better part of 3 years, and it's just been collecting dust doing nothing. I knew I couldn't install any apps on it, or do anything cool with it, but that was already my plan. I didn't need a "smartphone", I just needed a dumb-phone that was slightly smarter.
The iPhone 5S is actually a surprisingly capable "detox phone" - at least in my case. it can do LTE (no VoLTE which is kinda annoying but whatever) and Wi-Fi Calling, the latter being an incredibly important thing for me due to cell reception in my house being horrible. Thankfully, the 3G cell towers where I live are still in-use, but not for long, and if you're in a more developed country like the US, chances are they're already out of commission. Rant out of nowhere, but this is a shame in my opinion, because while I do understand the benefits of LTE-only, and it HAS been near 12 years since it got popularized, I think 3G still is very important for rural areas or places with less capable LTE or 5G connections. But whatever.
So, I found a replacement for the core phone functionality of the smartphone, but what was I gonna do about notes, music, and all the other small stuff I use my phone for...? Well, music shouldn't be too hard to answer as you don't have to look through my blog for too long to realize I have a thing for iPods. During the beginning of the "challenge," I had a 5th gen classic which lasted a bit, but then died due to my antics as explained here. The other stuff like notes and uni planning were fairly easy - we still have paper notebooks, you know. Anyway, I got most of my stuff ready and started the challenge. Except for the banking apps, but I'll get to that later.
It went fairly well for the first few weeks. I noticed I was using my computer a lot more but that was already the case on weekends for example, and eventually I solved it by just... turning my computer off whenever I was done with whatever I was doing. Turns out waiting for it to turn on, enter my decryption key and then my login and then starting up everything I had was a lot more demotivating than I expected!
Then, my iPod died. I already went into detail on what happened in the blog post I linked earlier, but it did put a ditch in the detox. I picked my phone back up, fell back into the same rabbit hole as usual, and that lasted a while. Eventually, I had saved up enough money and started looking into getting a new iPod. I got a 2nd generation Mini after finding out the SD card board I got for the 5th Gen was a drop-in replacement for the Mini's hard-drive. I set it up, got my music on it, and was ready to go again.
But there were a few issues. I had gotten a Galaxy Watch 6 Classic during the period where I was just using my phone like normal, and you can't really use those without a phone (or so I thought at the time) so I was much more reliant on my phone compared to when I started out with the detox. Also, banking apps became a much bigger issue, as my bank stopped offering an even remotely decent experience with the online banking platform, which in turn made me just use my phone instead. Hell of my own creation, I know. After making some changes to my lifestyle (and cancelling my credit card, since those are the worst idea humanity has had in a while,) I felt i was ready to go back in.
So, it's been about a week and a half, and how has it been? Well, it's been... fine. I'm still not back to my peak, but I'm definitely doing better. The watch has become less of an issue after realizing they do work even if you don't have your phone on you - you just need a phone for the initial setup - and for things that absolutely require a phone I've just uninstalled literally everything on my "old" phone and put it back in the lockbox. The iPod has been great, though the battery life is a bit hit-or-miss, but it's 20 years old, so I'm not exactly surprised by that.
In my old blog post about my detox I mentioned missing the camera of my old phone - well, I've solved that by just... getting a good ol' digital camera - specifically a Canon 600D. It's an expensive solution for a non-issue, but I love photography and have always wanted a camera. I've been planning on putting together a showcase of the best photos I've taken for my website, but that's for another day.
Do I recommend this to anyone? Well, it's a bit complicated. If you can bring yourself to do it, it's a nice experience. But it has its ups-and-downs as I have mentioned several times in this post, and in the past, and I don't think I'll go back unless something absolutely required it, whatever that may be. But for now, I'm happy.
So... 5 months since the last blog post - sorry! I've been dealing with... well, you read the post, no? I'll try to write more on here, but with uni starting again, and with my personal life, I can't make any promises. I hope you enjoyed the post. Have a nice day/night!
- Asya, 3/10/26
(side note about the Eddy Burback video - it also introduced me to Kenny Ueda, a wonderful artist who makes some very good music. I've been in love with his album Pasadena Garden since I heard parts of it in the video and bought it thru Bandcamp, and I highly recommend you buy it & also support him. Not affiliated, he doesn't even know I exist, but I wholeheartedly believe his work deserves whatever amount of money you pay for it. It's also on streaming services, if you're into that.)