dumb-phone-diaries

[dumb-phone-diaries]

So It's been like 2 months now since I started using the dumb phone. I had a few teething problems but I've actually solved a lot of the issues I mentioned in my last post. I've gotten much more used to the keyboard now and I've found a lot of shortcuts that i didn't realise were there at first so I'm now texting like a pro again.

The audiobook situation is not perfect but i've loaded this thing with a 32 gig SD card, and I found a wonderful opensource program called Libation, which scans my audible account, downloads my books and spits them into chapters all in one step. The bonus side effect of this is that I now have all of the books I've paid for stored on my computer hard drive where they won't disappear is audible changes their minds about hosting them.

This is probably very illegal and you should definitely not download it here: https://getlibation.com/

Granted, the books I'm currently listening to have chapters that are an hour long or so, and I can't exit out of the mp3 player without losing my spot. This has honestly been a blessing in disguise because it forces me to not be distracted every time I get a text message. have to wait for the end of the chapter before I can look at it. I can answer the phone without losing my place.

So yeah. the MP3 player could be better, and honestly there's no reason why it shouldn't be, I'm certain this thing has the capability, it's just shitty programming. But I'm dealing.

More significantly though. I've honestly been surprised at just how quickly my need to scroll has just gone. there wasn't even much of an adjustment period. for a couple of weeks I'd find myself occasionally picking up up my phone, unlocking it, and then locking it again and putting it down cuz there's nothing on there. But very quickly I just don't do that anymore. I don't even think about it that often. All the anxiety that I thought I was soothing, all the noise in my head that I thought i was turning off by scrolling, has just gone. The call was coming from inside the house, guys.

About once a week I come to my laptop and scroll tumblr for a few minutes, maybe half an hour, and I'm using pintrest very rarely if it's the best search engine for something I'm looking up, and I use facebook only for marketplace and my business page, and instagram again only for my business. It's forcing me to be very intentional about those things.

I've also rediscovered my ability to sit and stare into space. I haven't had the brain capacity to read a book with my eyes recently, so over breakfast I'm just... sitting and eating. Which I suppose is quite mindful. but also I'm just spacing out so maybe not. But that's something I haven't been able to do for a long time. It's nice.

I do need to get a camera though I think. I do need it for the business, I can't keep stealing my husband's phone to take pics, and sometimes he's not around when I want to make a post. Also I just like taking photos. The camera in the phone is sufficient for sending pics of things I found in the shops to my husband and sister, or sending my timesheet to my boss because his shitty software won't let me clock in on PC. But it's not good enough for product pics or anything like that.

I'm also now carrying my planner/journal/filofax thing around with me which is something i've been working toward doing for a long time. I don't have access to google calendar while out and about now so I need to write down my appointments properly. I bought a new bag that fits my journal, purse and book. I feel very cute using my planner in public.

So yeah. It's going well so far. I think this may be feasible as a permanent change.

[dumb-phone-diaries]

So Friday morning my phone shit itself. I'd been considering moving to a dumb phone but wasn't really expecting to have to make a decision quite so quickly, but here we are. Since I'm still chronically online though, I've made this blog to document my experiences and see how I go and how long I hold out before I cave and just get another smartphone I guess.

I've just been becoming more and more tired of finding myself scrolling mindlessly down apps I don't care about, that are feeding me content I don't want to see, and more adverts than posts by people I care about. I've become tired of constant software updates, planned obsolescence, and my battery running flat by 3pm every day. And now the introduction of AI generated content. If no one can be bothered to create it why would I bother to look at it, y'know?

So yesterday I went and bought this beauty. She's a Nokia 325 4G in "Future Dusk" (that's dark purple) and she cost $89.

This was the most up-spec phone I could find that didn't run android (or ios). She has a 2mp camera! I'm thrilled with how grainy and creepy the photos look, but i am going to need to get a proper camera, which is not a bad thing. I've been sussing out some options and I think I've found a cool Canon compact on Marketplace.

I've gotta tell you though, this feels like it has less personalisation options than my old 3315. It probably doesn't though. although what ever happened to a little hook on the corner so i could attach a wrist strap or a little flashing hello kitty charm or whatever? rude.

The predictive text feels very clunky, there doesn't appear to be a way to save custom words in the dictionary, which i definitely feel like the old T9 did. There's no emojis so we're back to texting ascii art, which is fun tbh.

Ring tones are limited but you can set MP3's as ring tones so that's fine. The standard text tone I've set is actually very cute, it sounds very magical, and receiving text messages is suddenly very exciting. especially since I've become so used to messenger.

Oh wait! I've just figured out how to add words. Great. So like, even as someone who's used this kind of tech before, there's still a little bit of a learning curve as I reacquaint myself with it.

There's no way to move menu options around to suit my preference as far as I can tell but there aren't that many of them so it's not that much of an issue.

The big challenge I'm facing is how to listen to audiobooks. I've become rather reliant on listening to audiobooks in order to get tedious tasks done. It's honestly something I dreamed about as a kid and audible basically saved my life, I'm not even exaggerating (much). This little phone can play mp3s, and there are ways to convert audible files to mp3 but having a 30 hour long mp3 with no way to skip back and forth on the track is not especially useful, and there's also no way that i've found so far to change the play speed.

There are MP3 players capable of running audible, but that also means they're capable of running all the other apps that I don't want to be able to have access to. I don't feel that I'm addicted to my phone precisely but I also don't have a lot of self control as regards the bad habit I've developed of reaching for my phone any time my hands are not otherwise engaged. If anyone out there knows of some ways around that please let me know!

Anyway

Please appreciate these grainy-ass photos I took with the phone's camera of my dog Tillie, and some Daffodils growing in my garden.