THE EXPERIMENT BEGINS

on joining the Dumb Phone movement

Dear reader,

About a month ago, I ordered a dumbphone. If you haven’t heard of the dumb phone movement, it’s exactly what it sounds like: droves of people getting rid of their smartphones in exchange for something simpler, like a flip phone.

When I had a health scare two months ago, I knew that it would change how I showed up for myself. What I didn’t expect to happen was a major overhaul of my across-the-board health. I started combing through every area of my life where I was not taking care of myself, my body, my brain, or my aliveness.

There were two main areas I ran into: movement and attention.

I have known for a while that I wanted to incorporate more movement into my daily life, and have been consciously finding safety in my body and working toward this since January (it is my year of Move, after all).

But—attention. Ah. This one is sneakier. For someone who writes a Substack literally called Sacred Attention, perhaps I have not actually given much attention to the ways I give it away so carelessly.

So I asked myself: what in my life is taking away my sweet, precious, sacred time, attention, and energy? What is keeping me out of living in the present moment? What is frying my energy, my brain space, and my attention span? Is there anything making my life feel more frenetic?

Overwhelmingly, the answer was clear: my damn iPhone.

So, thus the experiment began. I ordered a Light Phone II in early July, and it has finally come in the mail! I’ve decided to track/document/share about this journey here. Let’s dive into some questions & considerations, shall we?

---

🕯️ Experiment desires

My real desire is to heal my attention span & find more presence in my daily life. I’m sure this will be a challenging transition, but I’m committed to going slow. I also give myself permission to absolutely hate it.

🌿 Why I chose the Light Phone II

I discovered the Light Phone around five or so years ago. I love how simple it looked — no colors, no flashy settings, no social media, no blue light. It also has a music/podcast player!

And honestly, I just really enjoyed the company’s perspective on going light. It felt correct to invest in an option that is actively not vying for my attention.

🌀 Potential concerns

My four main areas of concern: GPS, music, podcasts, and the camera.

Though the Light phone has a Maps option, I’m sure it won’t be great for long drives and it possibly won’t be super accurate. This is something I’ll have to play around with over the next month or so.

The phone also has music & podcasts, but it’ll require more attention and forethought on my end. This is because I’ll have to upload music & podcasts ahead of time. It’ll be interesting to see how I feel about not having *immediate* access to Spotify or different music options.

And, ya know, I do love documenting & taking photos, so this might be a clunky transition. I have a physical film camera that I’ll probably carry around more, and maybe I’ll start getting disposable cameras to snap photos here and there. I can also carry my iPhone around for this.

🪑 What I’ll be doing with my iPhone

I won’t get rid of my iPhone (immediately, at least), because I appreciate the option to have it around and switch my SIM card back into the iPhone if needed.

For now, I’ll use my iPhone more like an iPod. I set the color scheme to grayscale, deleted most social media apps, and will only be able to use it on the Internet.

🐚 How to reach me

Y’all, I’ve gotten this question a few times and might I remind you: dumbphones can still receive texts and calls (lol). So, yes—text me, call me. I won’t be able to Facetime from my phone anymore (just my computer), and I won’t be able to send voice memos.

But! I do love voice memos, and will likely keep sending them via WhatsApp and Telegram. It’ll just take me a bit more time to get around to them.

---

I am not expecting this to be a perfect process. My commitment is to stay open, go slow, & have fun with this experiment. I’ll be linking some resources & inspiration for this transition in another letter. Updates to come!

<3
Christie