Last month, I decided to downgrade to a flip phone. I'd grown exhausted with the intoxicating allure of a conventional smartphone (despite deleting all social medias and other distracting apps), as I'd still find myself reaching for it in moments of boredom or loneliness. So I'd set my sights on the CAT S22 FLIP, an industrious little flip phone running a basic version of Android.
My Flip Phone — Thesis
It's worth noting that the CAT S22 FLIP is not actually a dumbphone, as it runs Android, has a tiny touchscreen, and works with most modern apps. (The only app I couldn't install was bizarrely the Wikipedia app!) While you could choose to download the most time-wasting and mind-numbing apps out there, the phone's tiny screen and clunky physical buttons makes this difficult to be too addictive.
As for my personal experience, I'd long left social media apps behind, so I was thrilled to start fresh on the CAT phone, downloading only my favourite, most essential apps. This was actually a gateway for me into the world of open-source android apps! Here's a few of my favourites (All are completely free by the way!):
My home screen on my CAT phone.
- Auxio
- A wonderful open-source music player that simply and beautifully plays your downloaded music!
- Merlin
- This app listens to and identifies bird calls and songs. An excellent accessible way to get into birdwatching.
- Organic Maps
- Simply an amazing map for hiking, as it displays the contours and footpaths. I also have Google Maps, but I only use it for driving.
- Via
- A minimalist web browser that does exactly what I need it to, with all the adblock and no tracking. Just open and search! I would prefer the search engine to be Ecosia though.
Photo of the valley taken on my CAT phone. The camera's not too bad!
With my CAT phone, I had a lovely hike to an old quarry reclaimed by nature, using Organic Maps to find my way. At a beautiful summit I was able to play the Heart Sutra on the Plum Village app, and chant out to the valley below me.
Disaster — Antithesis
After a week or so of enjoying my new phone, the inevitable happened. While out on a run, I wanted to call a friend, but I had no signal. I assumed this was due to being deep in the forest, but as I came home and the issue persisted, I knew what had happened. Unfortunately it's a common issue for this phone to just stop reading the SIM card!
After trying to repair the issue with no success, I succumbed to accept my dissatisfaction with the CAT phone. While I found the idea of the rugged flip phone very alluring, in practice, putting all my effort into setting up the 'perfect' minimalist phone actually left me using a phone even more than before!
Synthesis
As I find myself back on my smartphone after a short-lived folly on my flip phone, I find that I'd learnt plenty from using it.
The biggest change I made was to install only the essential apps that I love to use, and to remove the built-in bloatware (e.g. Google TV) and other apps I have little/no use for. You can see on my homescreen I have my favourites like Merlin and Organic Maps, displayed beautifully on Niagara Launcher. (This launcher is working great for me, but the free version offers little customisation so may not be for everyone!)
My favourite change is to have abandonded Spotify and its predatory user experience (not to mention their exploitative practices), and to have freedom to listen to my own downloaded music on Auxio. I love the process of downloading my favourite albums, adding the cover art, and making my own playlists is a fun novelty that reminds me of the iPod days!
Ultimately, I've ended up back on the same old phone with some minor changes, but my mindset to using my phone has changed greatly! I try to really enjoy the time I use my phone, by sticking to apps that really give me value in the real world (e.g. learning about local birds, planning hiking routes, or keeping in touch with friends), and of course listening to my favourite music as well.
The biggest challenge for me was to avoid reaching for my phone to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering. Fortunately my practice here at Being Peace supports me to learn how to come back to the present moment and be in touch with the joys around me, but having unwholesome apps off of my phone certainly helps too!