casual musings on things

Breaking the connection

It's been a few days and I have not written anything here. It is most likely because the world has become a bit more chaotic and complex this last week. Anyhoo I figured I should discuss how I have decided to break the connection with my smartphone. Dumbphones are becoming more popular as more and more people realise that or mobile devices are consuming our lives and attention spans yet we need them more than ever now.

I decided not to get a dumbphone but instead to install GrapheneOS on my 2nd hand Google Pixel 7. Graphene gives you control over all your apps as well as sandboxing the google playstore. So when you aren't using it you are off the google grid. This makes things a bit difficult since you now have to really decide what apps you really need and what is just bloat that has been forced on you. It requires a bit of research and commitment. It's the price you pay for privacy and having full control over your apps.

To give you an idea on the level of control you have, I was struggling to get the instagram app to work and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I realised after a day that I had forgotten to give it permission to connect to the internet. Boy did I feel silly. All my google based apps are in a separate user profile so when im in the owner profile I can't use them at all. This was purposful on my part as I didn't want to be tempted by the apps when I looked at my phone. In fact my phone doesn't have any notifications turned on. That includes text messages.

So far everything is going well. Some days are better than others but I do feel my phone usage has decreased significantly overall. I have run into issues while using my phone but you kind of just have to figure it out on the fly which I don't mind. I might be going to the extreme to try disconnect from social media and digital distractions but judging by how things are going im fine with it.