Our dependence on our phones isn’t an accident. We depend on them logistically for our navigation, payment, and communication. But our phones and the apps they contain are also designed to build emotional dependence — there are entire teams of top-of-their-field psychologists, engineers, sociologists, and designers getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make apps even just a little bit more addictive. The emotional and logistical dependence on our phones intertwine in a mutual feedback loop, making it difficult to reduce either.
Every interaction we have with our phones deepens opportunities for state surveillance. Our online activity creates a database of our interests, purchase history, friend networks, location, and activism that the FBI of yesteryear could only have dreamed of. But the biggest problem, as with any addiction, is how something that is fun and useful in small doses can start to take more and more of our time and attention, preventing us from doing other things that we value. So what is there to do?
Reducing Emotional Dependence
For most of us, the apps that most deeply build psychological dependence on our phones are social media apps and games. These often take, in some ways, the place of cigarettes in our society today — we do them on a quick break, or when we need to ‘unwind’. But like nicotine, they mostly sate the need that they themselves create. After unwinding in this way, do you feel deeply rested and reset?
If there is an app that you feel wastes your time, or you dislike how much you use, just delete it! You can always re-download it. Note down in your organizer the date and time you deleted the app, and why. If you redownload the app, note that down too. It’s helpful to understand our own patterns of use, to help us understand where we use “tools” or “toys” out of necessity or fun, versus out of psychological dependence.
Think about other activities you can do when you would have used your phone. If you delete an app, it’s easy for some other app to quickly replace it. Be realistic about what might feel fulfilling and restful while deprogramming, in those times and in that headspace. Watching landscapes slide past, noticing the people around you, thinking about your present, past or future, having a conversation with a friend or stranger, reading: each of these might feel more wholesome or restful than your phone. Your Slingshot organizer may be able help you… Don’t you think the edges of the date pages could use additional intricate doodles? Or perhaps you can journal a bit, filling in past date entries with what you remember doing, seeing, eating, or thinking on that day? Use the blank pages in the back to write poetry or outline a manifesto or draw art. Let your boredom be a canvas, a portal to discovery, not something to avoid.
These activities won’t feel as stimulating or give you the same dopamine rush as the apps you’re used to. It’s normal to feel a sense of confusion or loss in this process. Perhaps at some deep level the bright, shifting light of the screen feels like a flickering fire: a thousand generations of finding safety and community in campfires draws us inexorably to this bright cold flame. Try changing your phone’s settings to have the display be in black and white, or switch to a dimmer, less attractive color palette.
We can also feel emotional dependence on the instant knowledge and communication phones provide. What if we can’t respond right away to a friend or loved one? It’s so easy to ask a question to AI like Siri or Google and get an affirming answer! Like puppies or young children, we become anxious without the constant presence of that communication or knowledge. Try consciously pushing your limits more often — if you don’t know something, discuss it rather than looking up ‘the answer’ right away. Delete search bars and AI assistants from your phone and download the Wikipedia app, so if you do need to look something up, you will break that instant gratification loop, finding your own answer and giving yourself context along the way. And try setting aside a specific time of the day to answer your messages. Let friends or loved ones know you might not respond quickly outside of that time.
Reducing Logistical Dependence
Logistical dependence is hard in a different way. Practical uses for our phones are often the most problematic sites of government and corporate surveillance, and reinforce emotional dependence by repeatedly forcing us back to our screens.
Try leaving your phone on airplane mode when you’re not using it (this also saves battery!). See how long you can go between phone charges; try to go longer and longer. Even better, leave your phone at home for an errand, for an afternoon, for a day. Pay with cash, not contactless or apps. Use a watch.
Use paper and pens, use your organizer. Practice navigating with paper maps or from memory. If you write down important contacts, you can ask to borrow a friend or stranger’s phone if you need to call someone. Meet people and post flyers in radical spaces. Do math by hand. Write lists, take notes.
Freedom is never easy, not at first. It is slow, clumsy, disorienting. But always, always worth it.