Turning Your Smartphone into a Dumbphone

Growing up in the 90's I was blessed to experience the last generation that truly played outside until the sun went down (at least in my opinion anyway). I know we experienced the emergence of America Online, better known as "AOL", but the internet wasn't as much of a craze as it is now. We now have the answers to almost everything in our hands at anytime we want. See, back then when we wanted to listen to music we'd have to carry a Walk-Man. If we wanted to take pictures we'd have to carry a camera. Imagine carrying around planners, address and phone books, calculators, maps, and notepads! Now we only need our cellphones. I remember when Facebook first made an appearance, it was only for college students back then. Everyone was crazy about MySpace and never thought Facebook would be as popular. Boy were we wrong, the social media boom hit us hard. Suddenly, it's 2007 and Steve Jobs is announcing the release of the first iPhone. Fast forward 17 years and gone are the days where you could walk into a restaurant or any public place for that matter and see people interacting like they used to. Most people are constantly on their phones. Studies say that the average American spends close to 5 hours on their phone each day. That's around 12 years over a lifetime.

Don't get me wrong, technology can be great! The advancements made by humans in the last couple of decades have been extraordinary. Being able to chat face to face with loves ones hundreds of miles away, staying in touch with old friends, the ease of looking up the answers to a question you may have in a matter of seconds. But you have to often wonder if the bad outweighs the good.

In recent years I've personally made some major changes. I deactivated Facebook around 7 years ago, deleted Instagram about 5 years ago, and don't use any other social media. I remember the anxiety and depression I would feel constantly on those websites. There have been multiple studies conducted that link heavy social media use and an increased risk for anxiety, depression, and self-harm. It's so easy to get lost and lose track of time. I can't tell you how often in the past I would spend glued to Pinterest alone just to end up feeling disappointed in myself for wasting so much time or on Instagram spending countless hours scrolling through pictures feeling bad about myself for not meeting society's standards in any way and obsessing over likes, trying to gain validation from others. As a mother I finally realized what all the grown-ups were talking about when I was younger. "Time flies!" or "Before you know it, you blink and your kids are grown!". They were absolutely right. I remember my daughter being a toddler and finally realizing how convicted I always felt when I'd spend hours on social media. I decided then and there I didn't want her growing up with a mother who was constantly staring into a screen. It was difficult but over the years I feel I've finally gotten to the point where I am happy with the changes I've made. This may not be for everyone, but for those of you wanting to take a break or completely stepping away from your phone for good, I have some tips!

I would go back to a flip phone in a heartbeat but like for many of you, I heavily depend on my reminders app, notes app, camera, and family shared calendar. However, that's pretty much all I have on my phone, with the exception of call, text, bank app, etc. I've been in the process of dumbing my phone down for the past 2 years and I've finally got it to where I like it. I've decided to use my laptop for anything like blogging or running my Etsy shop, as it makes it less likely I will stay on for as long as if I were to use my phone.

• If you do want to keep using social media, try only going on your computer/laptop and maybe checking those accounts once a day.

• Delete any apps that are distracting or that you spend a lot of time on. You can find this out by reviewing your screen time. Go to Settings > Screen Time.

• If you can access it on your computer, take it off your phone.

• Make your phone less attractive to look at. I use plain white or black backgrounds.

Apple recently released the ability to change the look of app icons in their new iOS 18 release. You can also now move apps to wherever you'd like on the page as opposed to them being forced to the very top!

I'll show some screenshots below of two examples on my phone:

You'll notice how you can't see the typical app dock box on the bottom like you can in the image below: 

That's because if you use certain colored backgrounds, it will remain hidden.

If you are wanting to use light mode you would need to use an ivory white wallpaper (hex code f4f4f4). If you are wanting to use dark mode you use a slightly gray-black wallpaper (hex code 242424). I will share below the wallpapers I've made for each mode:

Make sure you are not blurring the homescreen wallpaper:

If you've happened to come across this post and have decide to read this far there's a likely chance you are considering simplifying your life by dumbing down your phone. You are not alone. Many people have been feeling the stresses of phone addiction and what it has done to our society. Some people may be able to handle social media and an app packed phone, but if you're anything like me, give this a try. What do you have to lose? On the contrary, there is a lot to gain.