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How Not To Have An iPhone
It’s still possible, and, yes, it’s worth it
What can you do when you don’t want an iPhone in your life but don’t want to be dubbed a curmudgeonly old luddite? How can you continue to make the case that attention, real attention to real life, is a precious commodity? How do you live in this world where sometimes even your front door requires a phone for entry and your family constantly complains about the burden that your persisting with phone-less-ness puts upon them?
This is something I’ve struggled with since I somewhat famously decided to quit my iPhone. After realizing that during the 12 years of my son’s life, 11 had been taken up with staring into its greedy little screen I had said enough is enough and switched to a flip phone. I had a little detour last year when my cell carrier dropped 3G (and thus my old flip), but then I dropped the replacement iPhone and shattered it. Thereafter I picked up a new 5G flip and resumed where I’d left off.
Treat the important humans in your life as humans, not as more of your “content.”
During that brief re-acquaintance with the iPhone I realized that it’s as addictive as ever. That even a sworn anti-phone person can be sucked right back in. But I also realized that there are some cases where an…
