If you cannot control yourself enough to stop constantly taking pictures and posting them to Facebook and you don't like this behavior, then tossing the phone in the trash might be your best play. But for those of us who own a smartphone and rarely touch the camera and Facebook app, the phone isn't affecting my life in a negative manner. Yes, I'd rather have access to 16GB of local music and access Spotify than not have it. If it's there, I can choose to use it or not.

The issue here isn't the smartphone, it's making bad choices that lead to negative outcomes for you.

It's an awesome feeling like nothing else. Helps if you live with someone so they can let you in when you return.

Holidays feel awesome when you just do what your body tells you - eat when you are hungry, go places when you feel like it, sleep when you are ready.

I spent a few weeks in Thailand like this and I felt amazing - I'd wake naturally (feeling great) around dawn, and the days felt huge with plans not tied to times.

Similarly I would have nothing in my pocket except a little paper money. My shack had a combination lock on the door. I'd buy some water when I wanted it, and eat anywhere, leaving the change as a tip. Going down the beach and knowing I had nothing to be stolen, to forget or to go back for (was so hot that I swan in a t-shirt to avoid sunburn) you could just swim off and come to land much further down the beach. Man those were good times!

This makes no sense.

Yes, around the holidays if you don't have to go to work, it's fine to just wake up whenever your body decides to wake up in the morning. But if I consciously think "ok, body, you need to wake up at 7:30 am tomorrow" it's probably not going to happen without an alarm clock.

Not true. I've always been able to wake up pretty accurately without an alarm clock (not to the minute, but within 30min or so). It's just one of those things some people seem to be able to do, and others can't.

As a result, I've never been particularly dependent on alarm clocks, and use them more as a backup for important events than as my primary method of waking up...

I was first told about this as a kid - the 'trick' was to bang your head (gently) on the pillow for the hour you wanted to wake - so 7 times to wake at 7am.

I tried it all the way through the summer and was amazed - then forgot about it.

When I went travelling I didn't take a watch and remembered the trick (though didn't bother with the head banging) and found I could wake when I wanted pretty accurately.

When I started university I used this method for nearly the whole first term - and never missed a lecture.

If you have been heavily drinking, or have been really run down then yes this won't work, but in normal life it works fine. It helps if the time is part of your routine (waking each day at 7.30 for example) but I've easily got myself to wake at 6 or earlier if I need to.

I find though that if I know i have an alarm then I just fall into a DEEP sleep, and find it much harder to wake. I do find that I feel far less sleepy when I just tell myself to wake.

Anyway, your mileage may vary, but try it - it really does work - remember that farmers etc have been waking before dawn to start work for thousands of years before the advent of clocks.

Some out of date Kodak 35mm film (free) and an old Praktica camera (free) and the city was mine. That, clothes and a rain coat and I was happy :)

I don't advocate it, but trespassing has certain interesting side as well and is free (if you don't get caught).

For me, every time I do this, I get a feeling of contentment. I also feel inspired.

If you like the idea but lack the self control, the new iPod Touches have bluetooth, or you can always turn off certain wireless services on your iPhone/Android/etc.

Yeah, every time I did this, I had to break into my own house through the window. :(

Never again.

The pro's listed: You call people more & you don't worry about damaging your phone anymore. Personally, those pro's don't even come close to outweighing the inconvenience of not having instant access to maps, music, camera and email for me.

Just as I drive as carefully as I can, I avoid being engrossed in my smartphone the whole day. But that doesn't change the fact that when I need to fire off a quick email, check my calendar, or find out how to get where I want to to go, having a smartphone makes a big difference.

I have two phones. I mostly use my trusty Nokia 6021, which lasts a week or so without charge and I find more pleasant to use as a phone. If I think I might need maps, camera, connectivity etc I also take my £40 Android phone, which does all those things well enough. If I could get a week's battery life from a sub £100 smartphone, I'd probably make the switch but for now this is fine.

I found myself properly engrossed in the TV I was watching (this coincided with getting netflix, so we only watched what we were interested in, not filler TV), as I wasn't half watching everything while studying my phone.

My comments on the points you mention:

Maps: I'd either study an online map, print a map off, bring an A to Z map, or best of all, just head in the general direction and ask people. Talking to people is not scary!

Music: When I was at my PC I had music, but then the time I spent walking was spent actually thinking, not just 'thinking I'm thinking'. Silence is brilliant, and I now don't carry headphones. Also others are far more likely to approach YOU to ask for directions etc.

Camera: I've always hated people that spend gigs and festivals glued to the camera, so I've always tried to enjoy the moment without worrying about capturing it as social proof. There's been times that I've missed the chance to snap something cool - but now I just tell my friends about it in person down the pub, rather than post it to facebook. If I'm going somewhere cool, I'l take a real camera and get far far better pictures.

Email: I'm far more productive between 9-5 if I keep my emails to 9-5. If someone needs me they can call or text, but generally - and email doesn't need answering for at least a day. In the office I now only check my emails 3 times a day, any more and I know that I'm just 'making work' for myself, rather than doing work.

Anyway, I understand why they these might all be a loss for others, but for me, they've freed me up, and let me enjoy my life a bit more, than trying to feel like I'm cramming entertainment or 'work' into every second.

I totally realised that I was was 'addicted' to posting and sharing likeable content, which wasn't really developing me or actually improving my relationships with friends.

If you are glued to them, whether you admit it or not, it's not doing you any good. The sun will still rise if you unplug for a few hours and have a normal conversation.

This shouldn't be about your phones causing you to waste all your time and lower your quality of life. It's simply a lack of self control, whether people want to admit it or not.

- No one reads (books) on buses/trains anymore. Its very rare to see someone reading a book in SF in public transport. - No one looks around anymore. I seem like the only person who is looking out the window, or observing fellow passengers. I would say around 80% of the people have their headphones on, and are engrossed in their smartphone.

One funny incident stands out. I waked into Chipotle (restaurant), and everyone in line was staring into their smartphone. As soon as I walked in, everyone looked up, and in unison went back to their smartphone. It was synchronized enough to be like something from a parody.

I wouldn't say this is necessarily bad, just different than how it used to be. I have a smartphone, but not a data plan, so I don't use it outside of home. However, the maps and transit (to me) is a killer feature.

People are engrossed in their smartphones, but whether they're looking at cat pics or reading Nietzsche, you won't know until you ask.

They do here (Tokyo area).

What's interesting is that a few years ago, far fewer people seemed to be reading; everybody was staring at their phone. Lately (within the last couple of years), however, this seems to be changing, and I see many more people reading actual books [this is helped by the fact that Japanese paperbacks [文庫] are almost perfectly suited for train reading, being small, thin, light, and flexible].

My guess is that the bloom has passed to some degree, and highly capable phones have become so normal that people are less fascinated by them, and more likely to see the tradeoffs compared to things like books/newspapers/etc. [and indeed, I seem to see more people reading actual broadsheets on trains lately as well]

That doesn't mean people don't look at their phones, of course; many do. But books are back, baby... :]

[This is all merely my personal observation of course; YMMV...]

If I had to guess, I'd say that a third of the readers* on the subway are using paper.

*People I can positively identify as reading something, as opposed to playing a game - if they're using something like a Kindle, or if I see them looking at a screen swiping up or down at regular intervals.

Move to Boston, we read here.

The end of the article did make me chuckle, as after his great story of 'disconnect' he ends the article with 'you should follow me on twitter'.

I went through a stage of dependency on my iPhone, always filling in small gaps in my day with games, Twitter, email or Facebook. I realised I was spending too much time on it, and so for the past couple of years I've significantly restricted my time with the phone. Certainly it is never used in company. In my opinion, I've found a happy balance. I still get all the myriad pros that a smartphone offers, but don't reach for it every time I'm not busy.

Buy a cheap Android phone.

For example the HTC One V regularly sells for $150 (with no contract) and has had a few sales days over the past few months where it was selling for only $50. A $50-150 phone gives you that same "I don't really have to worry about my phone" situation while still allowing you to have the smartphone experience -- web, email, apps, GPS with turn-by-turn directions using the excellent Google Navigation, etc.

I owned an iPhone 3G then went to a Motorola Droid (the original one) and then realized that while I could afford "expensive" phones and data plans, I was mostly throwing money away so I switched to cheap Android phones on no-contract plans (Virgin Mobile in my case though T-Mobile also has some nice options).

I spent several years with my family in a rather primitive house. We tried to minimize use of power when possible to save money and not be dependent on it. As a result, our refrigeration needs were minimal.

For several months, we started shutting off the main power circuit into the house for one day a week, usually Saturday or Sunday (and banning the use of battery-powered gadgets). It was awesome. No phone calls, no humming of the refrigerator, no ability to distract oneself easily with the PC or a movie or the radio. We would eat basic meals, go on walks, or just sit around the house/property on our own and reflect. I'd read more. The evenings were often spent playing cards together, often by the wood stove, with candles, talking more, drinking wine.

I miss those days, and someday hope to return to such a situation. This isn't some kind of snobbery. Such silence and freedom -- such idle time -- is good for the mind, body, and soul (at least that's what I personally believe). I encourage people to experience such peace when they can.

But I don't feel in any way forced that my life needs to revolve around this little computer in my pocket. I can still enjoy my surroundings and talk to actual people. Heck, I sometimes even miss calls because my ringtone defaults to “no one else should be annoyed by it” but that's ok – just because I carry a cellphone doesn't mean I must use that connectedness at all times.

I found that I didn't miss my phone at all. I had Google Voice at the time, and could text the family from the hotel while winding down. The occasional phone call would have been nice, but I could have used Skype if I really needed to.

Also, my internet browsing habits have changed completely. I only frequent about four websites regularly. Most of my internet free time is spent reading HN Posts and other similar technical articles/blogs that I happen across.

Side note: While I didn't get a SIM, I wish I had purchased some sort of mobile hotspot. Hotel internet access was ridiculously priced, upwards of $20 per day.

Currently I have a very basic Nokia model. There is a process called 'handing over' or 'hand shake' that happens when you move from one cell (a small region of an entire area) to another or when one cellphone tower 'hands over' the signal to another tower. This process is handled exceptionally well on most smartphones, but not so well on the basic phones such as lower-end Nokias.

So, if you were in the middle of a call and this handshake happens (mostly when you are traveling) and if it isn't done on time, or if it isn't done right, the call is dropped.

Previously I had a HTC Desire S, which I dropped from the top of a building by mistake and hence I ended up with this Nokia. Now, this Nokia had frequent call drops and it won't even notify me when it happens. It got irritating after a point, because I would still keep talking assuming the other person is still listening (while on a call) only to realize that I would have to repeat whatever I just said.

One day, I got so angry, because it was an important call, I just thrashed the phone on to the ground on purpose. Luckily, only the display broke, but the phone would still function normally.

Here's my experience with this phone:

1) Previously, on my HTC, all my 2000+ contact would be synced from my google account automatically. There was zero effort needed on my part, so, basically I had everyone's number on my phone synced automagically - My family, Friends on Facebook, Friends on whtasapp, etc.

With this nokia phone, I would have to manually save each number to the phone (which has only a max. of 500 contacts) also it's a tedious process, because I'd need to type them manually. Since the display is gone now, I need to memorize the numbers of important people. And I could feel in a week's time, my ability to memorize (which was previously rusty) has actually improved. With a smartphone, I didn't have to memorize anything - While convenient, it's dangerous, sometimes. For example, I once needed to recall someone's number to deliver my movie tickets at a particular place and I had actually forgotten their number. It was a nightmare.

And it's not just numbers, I actually have the workflow memorized too - To access phonebook, press right right select. To access recent calls - down down left. Stuff liek that. It's ugly, but it gets the job done.

2) Productivity. I'm a heavy Facebook user. Or I was, rather. I realized, my smartphone alone was responsible for over 80% of the status updates and photos uploaded to my account. It was a content producer by itself. Now that it is no more, I feel the urge to use the platform has considerably decreased, because I don't have a camera phone now and I haven't uploaded anything much since my phone broke.

3) Savings. I saved a LOT. No data plans meant cheaper monthly rates and no phone book meant memorizing only important people's numbers and calling fewer people. I do have a back up of my contacts on my google account though.

4) Safety. I don't walk on the streets typing some random shit on my Android qwerty keyboard nor do I talk to someone over the bluetooth headset while driving. This is subjective, though - Not everyone does all this with their smartphones.

5) No screening. Since my phone doesn't have a display, I wouldn't be able to see who's calling me. If I miss them, I will never get to know who had called me either. So, sometimes, if the phone rings, I just answer and say 'hello' and talk to whoever it is, instead of ignoring people by their name (sometimes to avoid them on purpose, because I would be busy with something). I realized how much I missed out by categorizing certain people as boring. Again, this is a subjective thing.

6) Battery. This phone lasts for almost 2 weeks. My HTC would last only a little less than a day. It's a huge difference. No charging or low battery woes.

All in all, I'm a productive person, comparatively and a more real-world friendly guy - instead of taking pictures of pancakes and uploading them to instagram, I just fucking eat them.

"instead of taking pictures of pancakes and uploading them to instagram, I just fucking eat them."

Secondly I have a very strange and irrational relationship with smartphones and I've never really been able to explain it. I always have a phone that does far to much, much more than I will ever actually use it for. I know this but still end up with a phone that costs £100s when really I could manage just a well with a basic dumb phone.

I guess this proves the power of advertising and marketing.

You've identified behaviors you feel detrimental. That, in itself, is extremely useful. Now you can go back to using your smartphone, and try to minimize those behaviors while still enjoying the benefits of your smartphone.

Let's not blame our tools for our own bad habits.

Are you sure this is accurate? I've never had call drop issues on the various non-smart phones I've owned.

I've never owned a smartphone and usually use basic candybar or flip phones, such as this cheap $20 Nokia sitting next to me. I can't say that reason sounds likely. (And I have a whole drawer full of old, cheap phones that I give to foreigners visiting the US)

Dropped calls are rather rare for me and usually happen when I'm sitting still in my office, not moving about.

But spot on to all your points :)

What you really need is to lay off the twitters and the instagrams.

Why do people think that a person immersed in a gadget is a bad thing? I wouldn't be doing anything better without it. I would be bored to hell, as it used to be before I got my first gadget.

Did you ever think to ask the people you were phoning if they were busy with anything? Sure, it might have been great for you to break someones concentration with some basic question that could have had a quick yes/no answer in a text message, but was it great for the recipient? I would also be very surprised if someone called me for something they could have just sent a text for - and if they did it a couple more times, I'd set my phone to automatically redirect calls from them to voice-mail.

However, if someone keeps calling me for very unimportant issues, then I would ignore their calls, and check voice-mail later to confirm if it was important.

I expect to get down-voted for this as it is a bit unfortunate, but if people think they can have my time whenever they want for whatever they want, then I'm not going to have any time left for myself. Plus, if an important call does come through and I'm stuck talking to someone about something unimportant, then it's the important call that is going to be stuck in voice mail.

http://www.rfc1149.net/devel/harassme.html | https://github.com/samueltardieu/harassme

That's a little ... inhospitable and cold.

Your phone calls don't need to control you. You can just check your phone later and see if you have missed calls / voicemails.

Working on something, but it's not super important and you don't mind being interrupted for a little bit? Take phone back off of silent mode. Easy.

Well, easy for me at least. Judging my all the comments here, this is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for everyone else on Hacker News.

Why should my time or your time be any less valuable than Obama's or the Pope's?

You might think that your time is as valuable as theirs -- and I'm not arguing either for or against it -- but the fact is that you would be a minority and the world doesn't work the way we think it should, but the way majority decides (or is led to decide). And the world's that way not just when it comes to phone calls.

Do I need to answer it? Come on.

The gist of my post was that even the most important people in the world find time to talk, eat with friends and family, chat about nonsense or just watch it rain, let alone normal people.

No camera; I don't take pics from my smartphone.

No music; Not enought choice of music in the format required and anyway the player leak too much battery and it is lagging.

No maps; 10 minutes to get a fix...

I’ve started calling people more; taking 10 minutes for a fix on the agps built-in is too long

I don’t care for my phone; it is so heavy that I got asked at airport

My concerns were mostly right, but I can live without these things; but someone told me QtMoko was usable, I will give it a try also.

Let me the time to compile this thing ( Not going back.. for now )

Message sent from my OpenMoko Freerunner GTA02

However, what it brings is "Internet everywhere yay!", which I then use to read forums, wikipedia, articles, etc... whenever not near a computer. Plus of course it can play PC games like Freeciv, nethack and Minecraft.

So basically, I'm about exactly as social on a smartphone as on a desktop computer, and now have an environment that used to exist only at a desk, on trains and on the toilet :)

I don't think I'm brave enough to try this. I'd feel like I have to constantly jump between computers in case I missed an important email or some relevant news broke. And no maps? I'd never get home...

Sounds like you really need to try this then. Seriously, don't let your "fear of missing out" cripple you.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/14/fomo-addict...

Nice summary. I can't quite ditch my Droid but am decreasing the frequency of switching back and forth between the two worlds. Finding that focused single-tasking (when not at work) is underrated and not easy (at least not for me).

It's also on Giffgaff in the UK so it costs me £20 top up a month for what I was paying around £80 a month for before.

It is a weight lifted from my shoulders in many ways.

The advantage of having a smartphone is that you can get by easily on something like their £10-12 plan simply by using data to make free skype/gtalk/SIP calls and everything else is unlimited anyway.

Battery and general reliability wise, nothing beats a good old Nokia though!

£80 before: handset included and crap contract.

I do not call people more often, i use my laptop for communicating with people now. I'm still stuck with that nokia though because i think we live in a time of ugly phones.

i was about to get a 4s until they introduced that elongated screen, not to mention the huge screens on the androids. Seems like if i want to get a thin cool smart phone these days i have to put up with excess everything. i wish there was a minimalist phone out there that was still cool.

Well, you could always get a BlackBerry, you know. Or if you REALLY want minimalism, then buy a refurbished Razr V3 off of eBay. And this quote is a bit puzzling:

>i was about to get a 4s until they introduced that elongated screen

You can still buy the 4S -- Apple is still selling it.

I still use snow leopard for instance and i can't get many new features because of that.

So yes i can buy a 4s, but i was hoping for one that won't go unsupported soon. Plus you're right about the blackberry, i am considering one.

... it speaks volumes to me, none of it good.

Writing (by hand) in a journal and just experiencing the place you are in can be amazing. I found that some of the most amazing parts of my trip were when I (a) was not trying to takes pictures or something and just took it all in or (b) when I was writing in my journal about what had happened during the day.

Every time I've gone without a computer/phone for several days has been wonderful. I really should do it more often, but I have a job where I have to use both all day...