Is the Answer Embracing Normieism?
Sup Void,
I, like most people nowadays, am pretty addicted to my phone.
I've done a some things to mitigate my phone use, but nothing really sticks.
Overall, I'd say I'm not the most addicted person out there, but I still use my phone more than I'd like and that's really what counts.
Currently, I am using a minimalist launcher. My home screen is a plain black background with white text to launch the apps.
The idea is to keep the phone looking plain and simple, and you will be rewarded less for using it compared to those colorful flashy icons.
Well, I think I've just realized that's a load of crap.
I am a technically inclined person. It brings me joy to tweak and customize my devices. To me, minimalist launchers are the sleek aesthetically pleasing option.
They are also functionally simpler, meaning I can launch what ever app I want when ever I want with minimal friction.
I don't know why it's taken so long for it to sink in, but the key to avoiding something you don't want to do but keep finding yourself doing is adding friction, not removing it.
So, I think my plan going forward is to make my phone (or more specifically, the parts that are distraction inducing) a huge pain in the ass to use.
I will be using a normal launcher with a billion pages and menus to get to what I want, and I will stop using things that remove or mitigate ads. Heck, I might even switch to using apps that have obnoxious ads and don't respect my privacy as a way to stop doomscrolling and constantly checking my black rectangle at every free moment.
Instead of using my phone like the technically inclined person that I am, I'm going to force myself to use it like any old normal person would. Hopefully I'll hate the experience so much I end up using my phone less and engage with the real world more.
~ V