Here's a problem I've been struggling with for a while: how to break my dependence on my Smartphone (specifically Android).
So far, so normal, everyone is addicted, but that's not my problem. My smartphone is mostly a tool, with some entertainment uses bolted on the side.
With the changes going on in the mobile ecosystem (enforced app signing, oncoming age verification, etc.), I don't think it's tenable to stay on Android.
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@rob maybe eink screen? they suck at video and all that jazz.
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@rob yes, only a middle point. maybe less distractions. then maybe we would use phones for communication and reading webpages, not watching videos or playing games.
like you said, the world forces people to use all these apps.
@tootbrute The distractions aren't my problem. If my phone distracts me, it's probably for a good reason and from a system I've set up. If anything unwanted distracts me I mute it, unsubscribe or uninstall.
I guess my problem is probably more 'creeping techno-fascism' than anything else.
@rob @tootbrute Now you’ve gotten to the heart of the problem. It isn’t that phones are such good distractions, we can already train ourselves not to be distracted with some effort. The fact that all of the apps you use track everything you do and report back to their makers is the real issue.
I use a smart phone that isn’t top of the line, but is decent. I do the same thing where I only have a few apps that I use, and aggressively avoid things that will “suck me in”. Still, the apps I do use have some amount of tracking, and I haven’t really cut ties with the big app providers. I recently installed F-Droid and am starting to look at open source apps with my own services behind them (immich, for example). There might be some good solutions there, but I think it doesn’t yet cover everything I want. Maps is going to be a hard one I think.
Rob Connolly 🇳🇿 🇬🇧
tootbrute
Ray Kelm