When I went to dumbphone (Oct 2017, so more than three years at the time of this writing), the model I got had an FM radio so I was like “OK that’s fine, I’ll switch from pods&music to listening to FM”. And that was frankly awesome! Until the headphone jack broke after a few months. And then I was like “OK that’s fine, I’ll just have to practice not having pods&music when I’m out and about.” And that was hell for the first few days but I ended up liking it.
I really appreciate smartphones for the maps feature, I woulda completely panicked in a new city without it.
Two unexpected things I’ve noticed:
First, I (subconsciously, but still) really strongly hoped people would be impressed by me not having a smartphone and think I was cool. But that has almost never happened.
Second, and this one is a good thing: I get way less annoyed at people whipping out their phones, checking their phones at dinner etc. For three reasons:
With a little planning, I found I could avoid most hardship. I took a camera when I might need to take a photo or a book if I might be waiting.
I had been meditating for a few years when I went dumbphone so for me that part was not so bad.
My smartphone broke early October 2017, and I went three weeks without a phone altogether, and then got a dumbphone at the end of October that year.
In March 2020 I inherited my grandma’s old tablet. So that kind of put an end to the dumbphone experience in a way.
For the actual phone part of the phone I’m still on my dumbphone, but the tablet means that I’m never more than 3 cm away from what’s pretty much indistinguishable from the smartphone experience I thought I had left behind.
In the summer of 2021, I got to start leaving my apartment some more after being cooped up for a while. Getting away from the desktop and the tablet, and once more getting to experience the benefits of dumbphone.