The primary time I used the Light Phone 2’s GPS, I drove to Los Angeles for a date. I ended up parked in a crimson zone, hyperventilating to the rhythm of my hazard lights. All I did was get misplaced, and but, I used to be seconds away from puking throughout myself. (I didn’t, thank goodness.) I ought to have picked a lower-stakes occasion to test-drive the navigation characteristic, however I assumed it might work in addition to Google Maps. I used to be mistaken.
The Mild Cellphone’s GPS was terrible a yr in the past. It usually thought I used to be on a floor road as an alternative of the adjoining freeway, or vice versa, so it might incorrectly inform me to maintain going or take an exit that didn’t exist and never register my precise location till a couple of minutes later — if it registered that in any respect. It additionally took a number of minutes to seek out my location once I began it up, and it wasn’t nice at discovering an tackle if I typed within the title of a enterprise. I used to be livid that I had spent $339 for the telephone, case, and display protector so I didn’t must depend on my smartphone, and all it had finished for me up to now was set off my nervousness and almost smash a date.
However I made a decision to make it work, and the Mild Cellphone 2 continues to be my major telephone a yr later. To be truthful to the Mild Cellphone, the scenario wasn’t totally its fault. Sure, the GPS was terrible, and it did get me misplaced, however driving round Los Angeles makes me nervous on the very best of days, and I ought to have examined the navigation round city like a very good little tech reviewer earlier than driving 30 miles throughout county strains to go on a date.
This 2020s-era mashup of a telephone — with its chunky plastic physique, E Ink touchscreen, and deliberate absence of apps — isn’t for everybody. Reviewers and tech fans alike have come away from utilizing the Mild Cellphone 2 with little greater than a shrug. Others genuinely loved it however couldn’t discover a method to combine it into their lives. Even The Verge wrote, “We would say we wish to kick our tech addictions, however who amongst us is able to shell out $350 for a gadget that does so little?” again in 2019. But the “dumb phone” boom is real, and persons are on the lookout for methods to peel their eyes from their smartphones like a layer of Elmer’s glue from their hand — to take away part of themselves that basically isn’t part of themselves.
The Mild Cellphone works for me as a result of I used to be able to decide to dwelling a smartphone-free life as a lot as attainable. Muting notifications and deleting the apps off my smartphone had finished nothing to curb the compulsion to verify my accounts. If I felt anxious or bored, reaching for my smartphone was an automated response, to the purpose the place I typically didn’t notice my telephone was in my hand till I used to be 10 cat movies deep on Instagram. I’m the sort of one who likes to retain management over my colleges, in order that terrified me. By making the Mild Cellphone my major telephone, I hoped to separate myself from easy accessibility to social media and alter my relationship with how and once I accessed the web. The Mild Cellphone 2 had the appropriate lack of options: no electronic mail, no social media, no web browser or some other apps, so it made step one in my course of straightforward to attain.
My smartphone turned the equal of the Gateway desktop PC I had as a youngster: a tool saved in one other room that I needed to bodily go to if I wished to get on-line. Inside per week of utilizing the Mild Cellphone, my complete smartphone utilization dropped from 4 hours a day to underneath an hour per week — and it stayed there. By not utilizing a single system for every little thing, I reintroduced a number of the identical technological friction that we had on the flip of the twenty first century.
The Mild Cellphone took some getting used to. The GPS has improved tremendously within the final yr. (I’m not afraid of getting misplaced and puking in my automobile.) Texting continues to be irritating due to the gradual E Ink display, so now I name my mates extra usually — on the Mild Cellphone or on video from my pc in the event that they’re overseas. It was additionally awkward at first explaining to household and mates why I couldn’t instantly verify my Instagram after they despatched me a humorous meme or why I couldn’t see an image they texted. The Mild Cellphone doesn’t assist MMS or hyperlinks in texts. As an alternative, it forwards these messages to my electronic mail.
I used to contemplate this an inconvenience, however studying Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World helped me perceive what my quest to disconnect was about: reconnecting with the bodily world. It doesn’t imply changing into a luddite, however to restrict all of the methods our telephones distract us from the issues that actually matter. This one sentence in his introduction introduced every little thing full circle: “They agreed with my arguments about workplace distractions, however as they then defined, they have been arguably much more distressed by the way in which new applied sciences appear to be draining which means and satisfaction from their time spent out of labor.” Somebody lastly put into phrases the deep pit of despair my smartphone dragged me into.
I haven’t been in a position to utterly ditch my smartphone. I preserve it in my bag in case I want it for sure issues, like restaurant QR codes, authentication apps to log in to my work accounts, and Slack once I’m touring for work. However I’ve began shopping for digital albums once more and importing them to my Mild Cellphone like the great ol’ iPod days. (Later, Spotify.) I can get calendar reminders, hearken to podcasts, name, and textual content. My smartphone not has an information plan, so if I do want to make use of it, I tether to the Mild Cellphone’s built-in hotspot. Extra usually, although, I exploit the hotspot with my Kobo so I can borrow library books on the highway. My life is a lot less complicated and a lot extra centered than it was a yr in the past as a result of I deliberately made it tougher for myself to get distracted by my telephone.
Some critics say the Mild Cellphone isn’t definitely worth the worth as a result of it doesn’t have the identical variety of options as a budget smartphone. To them, I ask: what’s the worth of your happiness? I don’t know what mine is, but it surely’s positively price far more than $339.
Images by Joanna Nelius / The Verge