Parents and teens alike are trading in their smartphones for "dumber" models to help stay offline.

Adults and teens concerned about their screen time are turning in their smartphones for “dumber” models.

Buried in the settings of many smartphones is the option to look up how much on average you are staring at your phone per day.

It can bring an uncomfortable realisation, that what was supposed to be a useful piece of technology has become an obsession.

…

According to a study by Harvard University, using social networking sites lights up the same part of the brain that is also triggered when taking an addictive substance. This has raised concerns about phone habits among youth.

In the UK, research by Ofcom estimates that around a quarter of children aged five to seven years old now have their own smartphone.

Links have been shown in some studies between use of social media and a negative effect on mental health - especially in children.

  • HeartyOfGlass@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Without knowing anything about you or your habits, I’m going to offer a counterpoint -

    I’d suggest you don’t need music streaming, email, or a fitness tracker built into your phone. “Back in the day” we’d have a small collection of tapes / CDs in the car for trips, most (all?) email providers offer decent web apps, and while I agree it’s useful to track steps and food intake and such - anymore I’m not sure I trust the makers of these fitness apps to not sell my health data.

    Personally, I’m trying to move towards a “dumb phone”, but like you I use my phone for a lot more than just social media & I’m finding it very tough. I think a phone with just a decent web browser could do the trick.

    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      0·
      5 months ago

      It’s 2024, a lot of people haven’t stored music locally for a decade or even longer. You are likely asking them to completely build a music library from scratch. This is no small task and it requires constant attention to keep up to date if you’re into new music.

      • Sabata@ani.social
        0·
        5 months ago

        I got a couple hundred gigs I collected over the years, and haven’t touched it or added to it since streaming was viable.

        • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          1·
          5 months ago

          was exactly in the same boat until about a year ago when I got sick of Spotify’s shit and the way they treat artists, so I slowly rebuilt my library and run it through my Plex server. I ultimately want to get over to Jellyfin, but it was more important to me to have something that my family can access without much fuss since they are not as technically inclined as I am. If there’s too much friction they’re just going to default to Spotify and such lol

          • Sabata@ani.social
            1·
            5 months ago

            I paid for google music from release till they killed it. Now I just use YouTube since its free and has the neiche stuff. No point in paying if an adblocker can make it tolerable.

              • Sabata@ani.social
                1·
                5 months ago

                The only other option is to torrent everything but thats a bit of a pain. If YouTube can stop me from blocking ads, they would have actually done it by now.

                • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  2·
                  5 months ago

                  Personally I wouldn’t bet against the multinational corporate juggernaut with no moral scruples lol but you do you. Going full on yar with music is easier than ever now with services like sonarr

                  • Sabata@ani.social
                    1·
                    5 months ago

                    My bet is they know they would cause an YouTube exodus and thats why all their attempts so far have been passive aggressive annoyances rather that slamming the door.
                    They can’t give any potential competition that kind of advantage.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      0·
      5 months ago

      But I want music streaming. I am not going to buy a cd player just so I can listen to music on the train.

      Also even if I had a car there is no way I’m buying CDs (or tapes if you can even buy or listen to them anywhere) for everything I want to listen to. That would be prohibitively expensive.

      But personally I don’t use social media that much. I pretty much only use Lemmy and Reddit and very occasionally Instagram.

      • HeartyOfGlass@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        but I want music streaming

        Hey, that’s fine & I get it - so much easier to shuffle a playlist than figure out which album you won’t mind hearing front-to-back again. I’m eyeballing old iPod Classics for that - I’ve seen folks mod them with sizable drives and better batteries. Dunno that I want to put in the effort, myself, but I love the idea of “upcycling” old tech.

        Getting back to my original reply: my main point was you don’t need these conveniences, much less having them built into your phone. Yep, music streaming is wonderfully handy & I use it every day, but practically speaking there are other methods.

        • lud@lemm.ee
          1·
          5 months ago

          Getting back to my original reply: my main point was you don’t need these conveniences, much less having them built into your phone. Yep, music streaming is wonderfully handy & I use it every day, but practically speaking there are other methods.

          True, but I don’t need a phone either.

          Or well I actually do because of the digital ID we use where I live but apart from that I never really need to talk to anyone.

          I have a work phone (iPhone SE) and I do need that one, but I won’t install social media on that one anyways even though we are allowed to use it as a personal phone and even transfer our personal mobile number to the company. The only restriction on the work mobile is that no TikTok is allowed. A lot of the employees do use the work phone that way, but I refuse.