I can't believe that any majority of smartphone users' lives are being debilitated by owning a smartphone. Just like there is a large area between not drinking and being a full-blown alcoholic, there is a large area between not owning a smartphone and being addicted to a smartphone.
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.
These were kind of my thoughts. I love having a smartphone and even before they existed I tried to get the dumb ones to do the maximum possible via sms. I really like being able to not worry about finding my way someplace or being able to think "Hmm, I want to go to a museum/eat at 5 guys/walk around a park/swim. Where's the closest one?" and be told. I like being able to check my email or take a picture of something I find amusing. But it's not ruling my life, it's a tiny fraction of it. If people want to know so badly what I'm thinking, eating or doing, well, call or text I guess - I don't have time to document it. I've found very little disturbance to anything, the only possible time I might miss something is if I'm somewhere deathly boring and I choose to ignore it in favor of browsing and even that isn't common.
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.