It seems like everyone in the comments would agree with me

Digital minimalism has always been something I've wanted to achieve. I've tried and failed many times, but I think I've finally found a setup that actually works for me. So I thought I'd share it here! (This is my first post on Reddit)

My everyday carry:

• Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Wallet with a tiny notebook and pen
• AirPods Pro
• Hisense A9

As a journalist and writer, I've always been drawn to digital minimalism. I wanted to spend less time mindlessly consuming content and more time thinking, writing, and coming up with ideas. But every attempt ended in failure, and the culprit was always the same: doomscrolling.

I rarely carry a bag unless I absolutely need one. Without a bag, my iPhone 13 Pro Max usually ends up in my right back pocket. It's heavy, bulky, and constantly gets in the way. And whenever I sit down, I naturally take it out of my pocket and hold it in my hand. That's usually where the doomscrolling begins.

I've tried Screen Time limits, grayscale mode, and aggressively deleting apps. None of it really worked. Once the phone was in my hand, making it less enjoyable to use didn't seem to matter much.

I've also bought a few e-readers over the years, but carrying another phone-sized device without a bag was a hassle. More often than not, I'd just leave them at home.

My most recent purchase was the now somewhat outdated Hisense A9. It has cellular connectivity, so I can download books wherever I am, but it wasn't reliable enough to be my main phone. Installing LineageOS fixed quite a few issues, but there are still plenty of apps that don't work.

Since I couldn't be bothered to carry it around every day, I originally bought it mainly for reading at home and using it as a writerdeck.

What I really wanted wasn't to disconnect completely, but to stay just connected enough. And that's when I started seeing the potential of the Apple Watch.

With a cellular plan, the Apple Watch handles all the essential stuff when I'm out: calls, messages, emails, and so on. I can also stream as much music as I want, so it basically doubles as my iPod.

Now my iPhone mostly stays plugged in at home (it needs to stay powered on for SMS forwarding). It's basically become a landline that I can pick up whenever I need to order food (Korea is a delivery paradise), browse secondhand marketplaces, use banking apps, or do anything else that actually requires a smartphone.

Interestingly, relying on the Apple Watch for essential communication has also made my Hisense A9 much more useful.

I now use it for longer text and email replies, scanning QR codes, taking photos with its not-so-great camera (which actually produces some lovely retro-looking shots), maps, ChatGPT, and pulling up membership cards when grocery shopping.

The nice thing is that none of these are absolutely essential. If I leave the A9 at home, I can live with the inconvenience. And for quick trips around the neighborhood, that's exactly what I do. Since it's technically still a smartphone, doomscrolling is definitely possible. But the black-and-white E Ink screen makes it just inconvenient enough to keep me from falling down that rabbit hole.

As a journalist, being able to jot down ideas or the opening sentence of an article is really important to me.

For capturing ideas, I've gone back to analog. I keep a tiny notebook tucked into my wallet. I've been eyeing the Rite in the Rain On-the-Go notebook, but it's hard to get where I live, so I ended up making my own card-sized notebook.

For the pen, the Zebra T-3 fits perfectly in my wallet.

Knowing that I won't miss an idea even when I go out with nothing but my Apple Watch gives me a surprising amount of peace of mind.

I've also been curious about the idea of turning the Apple Watch into an iPod-style device, so I've ordered a RePod case to try it out.

But for someone like me who prefers carrying as little as possible, I suspect wearing it on my wrist will still be better than adding yet another thing to my pockets.

There's something really satisfying about having calls, messages, email, and music all available right on my wrist. It feels a bit like living in the future that early smartwatches promised us.

And in a funny way, it also brings back memories of the old iPod Nano, which could double as both a wristwatch and a music player.

I guess I've finally found my sweet spot between staying connected and staying away from my phone.

Cell phones are a tool for making people more individualistic, and it’s working.

Throughout history, one of the greatest concerns of those in power has been the fear of the population, since ordinary people vastly outnumber those in positions of power when it comes to uprisings or revolutions.

For a long time, attempts have been made to control this through the distractions we already know so well: entertainment, sports (especially soccer), fashion, controversies, and whatever happens to be the current topic of conversation.

But now, everyone has a small computer in their hand: a cell phone that can become addictive, with distractions available at all times, right in their pocket.

The excessive use of cell phones also breaks down family relationships and friendships by taking up time that used to be spent talking to one another. And, as crazy as it might sound, it’s also a way of suppressing our bodies, keeping us still, at home, distracted by thousands of entertainment options.

Last night, I had a realization.

For a while now, I’ve stopped using social media and started assigning each thing a specific purpose.
I had a lot of issues with stalking, comparing myself to others, and even with my own self-image. For a long time, I could spend an hour deciding whether to post a picture of myself on my story, even though I know I’m a beautiful woman. Now, I realize it didn’t really bring me much. Except for one thing: keeping up with people I care about.
Friendships have changed through social media. I feel like we have lost the habit of telling people things directly. Instead of messaging someone and saying, “This happened to me today,” we post it online and hope they see it.

I have never felt more whole than I have since deleting Instagram. But I have also never felt as alone.

Now, my phone is mainly for messaging. My eyes are for taking pictures.
My MacBook is for researching, working, and sometimes watching a few YouTubers I genuinely enjoy. I use medical textbooks and a notebook instead of relying entirely on online platforms. Recently, I bought an iPod Shuffle, one without a screen, and it gave me such a strange sense of freedom. It changed the way I listen to music and podcasts: no notifications, no endless choices, no temptation to switch apps every few minutes.

My conclusion is that multitasking devices overstimulate us when we use every feature they offer. They affect our emotions more than we realize.
Oddly, without all that stimulation, I feel like my beauty has grown. It feels as though my body is thanking me. I can focus on one thing at a time.
I’m not saying we should cut ourselves off from everything. I just think we need to separate things more intentionally and learn to protect our attention.

I’m proud to have understood this at 20. When I was younger, I was addicted to my phone. I spent entire days in bed with it. It was like the remote control for my life.

I’m not sure what else to say, but yeah that’s it.

Like I’m 48 and I grew up before cellphones. I can remember having a landline and a rotary phone, and sometimes I wanna throw my phone off a bridge, but I can’t because the bank needs an app, the government needs an app, everything NEEDS AN APP!

I’ve started to carry my phone less; like I’ve gone an entire day without having it on me and it’s completely fine.

I’ve deleted all of my apps except for WhatsApp, but I need it to talk to family back in Mexico (I also hate how that’s become the default app for everyone to chat?)

But yeah rant over just glad I am loosening the leash on this iPhone.

I’m typing this on my desktop BTW

An edit on what a "no carry" day looks like:

I wake up on my day off, eat breakfast. Leave my phone in my bedroom.

Grab my bicycle and my wallet, ride downtown. Go to a cafe, sit and enjoy a coffee. Ride around, look at the water and the ocean (west coast best coast), go pick up a few groceries, ride home.

The worst is when I get home cuz there's like 15 group chat messages on WhatsApp from my family. Like there's one group we have called ¿Quién sabe? which just means "who knows?" And it'll be dumb shit like a recipe they cant find or something, im like stop sending me this stuff lol I dont care.

P.S. I love my family more than life itself but my tia can google some shit sometimes. And all the chats fill up my phone like I legit couldn't even use my phone once, cuz all the storage was full of just birthdays, or some party, or my Tia sending 37 voice messages about what's happening in her street lol. So I gotta go through these chats and clear the chat so I have space again

I don’t get it. I go to Reddit to talk about various things, I go to Netflix to watch movies and tv. Why do both of these places have games available? Does anyone actually play them‽

I am trying to get rid of my phone on my EDC, but I am always a bit afraid of going out without a maps app. What do you do to replace it?

This post is to motivate myself as well as anyone who isn't sure about deleting social media, especially Instagram.

Eight days ago I shared here that I'd be scared to feel FOMO if I deleted Instagram, but I still wanted to do it because I can feel my attention span is so short and the endless scrolling made me anxious. I ended up deleting it and keeping it only on my laptop to save me from scrolling. And guess what, it was the right decision!

Even though it's only been a week, I'm already starting to feel better. The first day, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The second day was tough because I felt boredom for the first time in a loooong while and I didn't know what to do with myself! I felt like an addict wanting their daily dose of dopamine.

From the third day, everything got better. My sleep started to improve, I found other activities to do instead of scrolling and I'm slowly getting my attention span back (although it's still far from perfect).

I have no problem with Reddit because I only check a few subs including this one, but I still put a blocker with a limit of one hour per day just in case. Other than that, I don't have any other social media.

I know I'm only at the beginning of my journey, but I really don't want to go back. If you're thinking about deleting Instagram, do it! I haven't felt so rested and relaxed in a while.

Hey everyone! I’m considering doing a bit of a social media detox and was wondering if anyone has been in a similar position to me and found that stepping away from social media genuinely helped their mental health and overall wellbeing.
I’ve realised there are two main things I struggle with when it comes to social media.
The first is the constant comparison. I don’t really post much myself but I feel like I absorb so much of what I see online. I’m constantly seeing other people’s lives, how successful they seem, what they’re doing, what they have, etc. and even though I know it’s just a highlight reel I still find myself comparing and feeling insecure about my own life.
The second is how much I consume. I feel like I’m constantly being exposed to things I suddenly want or feel like I need whether that’s clothes, products, experiences or just the next thing everyone seems to be buying. Sometimes I genuinely don’t think I’d even want these things if I hadn’t seen them online in the first place.
I’m starting to wonder how much of an impact all of this is having on me mentally and whether I’d feel lighter and more content and more confident if I just stepped away from it for a while.
I’ve started by limiting my screen time to 45 minutes a day but I’m curious about people’s experiences with going further and cutting social media out altogether.
Did you notice a genuine improvement in your mental health and ability to stop comparing yourself to others? Did you find yourself becoming more content with your own life and less interested in constantly buying things or keeping up with everyone else?
I’m also curious whether anyone noticed a difference in their social skills or relationshipslike finding it easier to have conversations in person, being more present with people, or feeling less reliant on online interactions.
I’d love to hear your experiences, especially if you were someone who struggled with insecurity and comparison before taking a step back. I’m really interested in whether the difference was noticeable and whether it was worth it! 😊

This is mostly a venting post, but I do wonder if anyone else feels the same way.

I'm a young gen Z and next year will be my tenth year of my digital minimalism journey; It started out with a bit of curiosity after discovering a video that talked about the truth of digital life, it progressed into downloading/printing thousands of pages of research and books that talked about phones, social media and the psychology behind these addictions.

I deleted social media permanently, but my family was PISSED off because they wanted to "keep up-to-date with what you are doing", which felt like an invasion to my privacy (something I value). A few years later, I found myself starting university and being pressured by my family, friends at university and lecturers to join social media as "it's good for you". Whilst connected I found myself feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, unable to concentrate, focus and a lot more things. So, I finally gave up most social media sites (thinking about deleting Reddit) and found myself both relaxed and happy again.

Having had the ability to see how much happier without social media I am, I have made the decision to stand up for myself, stay offline and turned my iPhone into a dumbphone (I have WhatsApp and the other built-in apps I can't delete). I find myself spending an hour every day on my device, but my family are still complaining that I am purposefully being harder to communicate with and stay in touch with and they don't understand why I am a digital minimalist and think I am being a conspiracy theorist. I have sent them book recommendations and research I have discovered, but nothing seems to face them.

I know I can't change their mind and they can't change my mind, but sometimes I can't help feel like a consipracy theorist - even friends are calling me one. I'm not making anything up when I state why I explain based on published research.

Does any other digital minimalist feel this way? Does anyone in general have any advice? Apologies for a ranting/depressing post.

I would like to start having a more conscious use of the phone and technology in general. Can you tell me how you balance your digital life with your analog one? I would like to start tomorrow, today as a starting point I paid out the installments of a purchase made months ago. I’m using an iPhone 15 pro Max, but I feel too addicted and I would like to buy a dumbphone (I saw the punkt mp02 on the net and I really like it) balanced with iPad. Thank you everyone :)