A 365 days without a mobile phone after 90s

Behind the smartphone is the fear of young people's binding of technology.

Wen ｜ Wu Xin

Edit ｜ Willow

Source ｜ Houlang Research Institute (ID: Youth36kr)

Cover Source ｜ Vision China

Leon has not used smartphones for more than a year.

Starting in March last year, the post -90s living in Shanghai replaced the smartphone with a "old phone" that could only call and send text messages, which began a modern life that "do not disturb".

The mobile phone is no longer a part of the body, and the eyes and hands are liberated. When the bus and the subway are taken, he does not have to bow his head to cope with the unread little red dots, but lift his head to observe the expressions and expression of the people around him, and even the advertisement on the subway. "The advertising style of each city is large. Different".

I didn't have a video of meals again when I ate, but it was strange that the senses seemed to have been opened. He had more attention to pay attention to whether the rice was delicious. How about the taste of the dish?

Leon is not the only person to choose to do. A group of young people advocating "minimalist digital" are reflecting on their relationship with digital technology through "throwing away their mobile phones".

In Douban, more than 30,000 people joined the "anti -technology dependence group", and more than 20,000 people joined the "Minimalist Group". They areolate electronic equipment, reduce screen time, delete social software, and start a series of "minimalist" attempts.

The concept of "digital minimalism" first appeared in 2019. Cal Newport, a doctor of computer computer, MIT, proposed in his book "Digital Minimalism", "Digital minimalist minimalism "It is a technical use concept that focuses on the online time in a few carefully selected and optimal digital activities, and then enjoy the unimportant activities that miss the rest.

He suggested that it takes 30 days to suspend the necessary technology, reflect on their meaning to life, and re -explore and discover those precious things for people.

So "minimalist numeric minimalism" does not need a mobile phone? How can the indigenous people join the "digital minimalism" of the Internet, what changes will become "digital minimalists" bring to ordinary people?

Houlang Research Institute talked with young people in different fields, and their "minimalist" practice was different. Some people have stopped smartphones for more than one year, some have deleted all social software, and some have developed an algorithm app to escape the algorithm. I do n’t know if you are reading the article with a smartphone at this moment. Will you also want to “throw away the phone” after reading it?

Discontinued the smartphone for 1 year, my various sensory resurrection was resurrected

I have a box of smartphones, including many classic styles, such as Pixel, such as almost every generation of iPhone, but now I no longer use them, but I just take it out to play.

Buying these mobile phones is due to personal interests and professional experience of science and technology reporters.

I don't think the difference between those smart phones and functional mobile phones. This made me feel too painful for a year when I stopped the smartphone.

In the past, I really used smart phones every day for about 4 hours. "Addiction" was not a problem for me. But the purpose of using smart devices is completely opposite to the actual feelings.

Originally I wanted to play games, listen to music in the interview, and relax, but I did not know more about it; I originally wanted to find some creative inspiration, but I always involved in various emotional fragments; All kinds of monthly cards, red envelopes, and points are so complicated, making me anxious and irritable ...

It can be said that the relationship between people and technology perfectly interprets the network of "you run, I chase, you can't fly into wings".

So I think I should make some changes. To a certain extent, it is professional, but from a deeper level, it is that it has some pathological relationship with these science and technology.

When leon is ready to stop the smartphone, the notice issued in the circle of friends

I have stopped using smartphones in March last year, with the purpose of regaining digital health. The entire "digital disconnection" plan can be described as "overkill", that is, to do subtraction first, thoroughly, really feel missing and essential things that need to be added later.

Before the plan was started, I communicated with my relatives and friends to keep in touch with SMS and telephones. I used a computer client to replace smartphones to complete the necessary work operations, and began to explore services provided by smart government affairs systems. You must use smartphones in life, and you can find alternatives.

For example, I am going to interview in Shanghai. In fact, there is an electronic ink screen at the entrance of many subway entrances and old communities in Shanghai, that is, the taxi call platform, which can be called one -click. But it is inconspicuous, and many people don't know at all.

Without a mobile memorandum, I will bring a pocket book, which is full of daily schedules. The toolbags on the outside can install ID cards, bus cards, keys and other portable items.

The ID card and the printed paper nucleic acid code can cope with most of the situation during the epidemic, such as nucleic acid and identity registration. Epidemic prevention policies across the country are very different, but even if you encounter special circumstances, you don't need to worry about it. I still have a spare iPod Touch.

Digital minimalist mobile phone Punkt.mp02 used by Leon (Figure/Punkt.)

Of course, there will be some embarrassment. Some individual businesses do not have POS cards and credit cards, and they do not have enough change in them. They will encounter difficulties in finding zero. This problem encounters a lot. But under normal circumstances, you go to communicate with others very nice, which can be solved. However, the minimalist attempts in China are still more difficult than foreign countries. I have done the MEDIA FASTING experiment in Denmark. The feelings brings differently from my domestic experience.

As a highly digital EU country, Denmark, mobile payment, ticket purchase, life payment, and some public affairs can be completed on mobile phones. Everyone is born, enters the country, or has an electronic ID and a national mailbox when living, or can participate in all transactions.

The difference is that its digital technology and offline tools coexist. This allows many people who cannot or refuse to access smart devices to have more options.

One of my friends "Ingeniøren" is the product of the industrial revolution, and paper magazines are still released to this day. This kind of century -old newspaper is not uncommon in Denmark, and can even send it directly. However, in China, the number of newspapers and periodicals in most cities is cut, and a large number of paper magazines have been cut off. Many traditional old newspapers have changed from tens to dozens of.

In the book "Super-Sticky Wechat and Chinese Society", WeChat is regarded as a super aggregation platform. It is unknown that such applications have been increasing in China. Although overseas applications also want to be highly aggregated, the function is relatively single.

In addition, many cities in Denmark are not large. I want to find friends to walk or ride bicycles directly.

In China, ordinary smartphones are already a relatively normal way of lifestyle. The first two weeks before they are suspended will feel strong and uncomfortable. There is no smartphone passing time. Suddenly I don't know what to do.

During the stopping smartphone, Leon learned to use a typograph

But in the transformation of "forced boring" and "enjoying boring", I found that in fact, nothing itself can make people calm. If you don't want to read a book, don't want to fitness, then you will be dazed. Lying, leaning, sitting, standing, or even doing nothing is good, don't have to do anything, just enjoy boring.

Sometimes I do something strange to interact with my "boring". For example, repairing me on a second -hand market spent 20 yuan to play the typo, repair my old tooth loss film camera. I often take pictures on the street on the weekend. I do n’t want to be beautiful, just to enjoy.

I compare my workaholic and often forget to eat, especially for dinner. So I developed a habit. Dinner will sprinkle some birds in front of the window. Those sparrows are waiting for me to feed every day. A lot of it every day, there are twenty or thirty. This is just something that seems meaningless in life.

A year later, the birds even built a nest in front of my window, and they also gave birth to the super cute "little sparrow". I would call me up at more than 5 o'clock in the morning every morning.

Putting down the smartphone, my shielded sensory gradually recovered, and I felt that the distance between me and the real world was closer. Many of the disabled, face -to -face communication made me find a feeling of being truly being human.

Leon's street shot in Shanghai

There are old communities near my residence, and the surrounding businesses and neighbors are relatively fixed. One day I stood on the street, and suddenly found that those walking, riding, and running around were no longer strange passers -by, but a specific person who could call the name. This is a kind of very Strange feeling.

On the subway, I will pay attention to the surrounding advertisements. The expression and feelings of people, the advertisements on the subway in different cities are very different, and the state of people is different.

Without a smartphone, would I worry about missing major news? Will there be no common topic with peers? First of all, as long as you have a certain connection with the surrounding physical world, truly major news will definitely not miss it.

For example, the epidemic will be closed tomorrow and cannot go out. This kind of thing will be known without a smartphone. Secondly, I will transform the mentality of worrying about missing into enjoyment.

Now I am still using my iPod Touch, it is not a good device, and even brings a lot of troubles. But one of the main reasons I do n’t use back to the smartphone is that I did n’t find a smartphone I especially wanted to use, and that's all.

Introduction to social media more than 20 times, and finally succeeded

The first time I heard that the concept of "minimalist numeric minimalism" was when my freshman was reading philosophy in UCL in the UK. The process was very interesting.

At that time, we made a group discussion in the teaching building and proposed to add everyone to a Facebook group. A classmate said, "I don't have Facebook." I asked him, "Do you have anything else? WhatsApp or the like", as a result, he didn't have any social media, and only said that he could give me the phone number. That was the first time I saw my peers without social media.

I really started to be familiar with this concept. In 2018, I went to Brucel a Christmas. On the train back to Britain, I was sitting next to a British boy with a golden -haired, wearing fine -frame glasses, and he was particularly "British". He read a book quietly. He studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

Later, the two of us talked, talked about what books and changes in life recently. He said that he recently "threw" his smart phone, and he still held a flip phone in his hand, especially old. When the train arrives, we will make an appointment to eat together at Cambridge next time and attend the seminar together. He took out a pencil from the pocket of a suit jacket and a stack of stacks of paper, which asked me to write my email, and said to contact me back. Later, I really passed me Email! I invited me to go to Cambridge to attend the seminar.

I thought he was cool at the time, and there was this way of life.

Sho Dong took photos taken with film camera

In the blink of an eye, the pressure of the graduation season flocked. The greater the pressure at that time, the more I wanted to watch social media. Sometimes sitting in the classroom, I suddenly wanted to pick it up, brush down for 5 minutes, and then pick it up every 10 minutes. The time was cut and there was no regular.

At the same time, the shadow of the new crown epidemic is shrouded in the world, and the Internet platforms of various countries are like balloons that have been swollen. I understand what is happening in China through Weibo, and what is reflected in is radical words and mutual accusations.

This kind of text that aroused human emotions made me very uncomfortable. I suddenly realized that I couldn't stand it anymore.

In July 2021, I deleted the account of all social software, only retaining the video upload function of station B and YouTube, and WeChat communication functions.

My quitting plan can be described in the four words "Go to Wu Cunjing". Since I have been in contact with social media in my youth, I have tried at least 20 times, but they have ended in failure.

All failed to teach me, this is not a black and white thing. I must figure out what it really troubles me, and my goal is to solve the "big disadvantages" that it brings to me.

First, social media aggravated my comparison. I fill out my inner emptiness by publishing my own life and beautiful photos, but it is counterproductive and more anxious. Second, it wasting my time, letting me pay attention, the quality of sleep decreased, and I frequently woke up at night to pick up my mobile phone to see. These were very time -consuming and energetic.

Based on this, I closed the function of "Browse the WeChat circle of friends of others" and uninstalled YouTube, Weibo, Facebook, WhatsApp, QQ, and Instagram. Instagram is my most difficult app. I spend 3 to 5 hours a day on it.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. The most "grinding" process of the whole quit process is to formulate plans and keep the bottom line.

When I wanted to use the "addiction" of social media in the first three months, it was like a pile of red fire ants who died your brain. There is no social software in the mobile phone to be in a good situation, but as long as you have played this tough battle.

Shidong uses film camera to record the 22nd birthday

A few of my good friends, after I quit for 3 months, I haven't noticed it yet. When I dinner, I took the initiative to mention it myself, and they asked in surprise, "Ah, are you abstaining Instagram? I haven't noticed it at all." The important friends in life will not leave you because you don't use social media to leave you. go.

Everyone's attitude also confirms that "minimalism" is needed by many people. I don't even need to explain, most people know why I want to quit social media. They don't feel too extreme, but they agree and respect this choice.

During the quitting period, I no longer obsessed with the sources of inspiration and values ​​from social media, and I no longer look forward to the praise and praise of others. But this year, I gained more.

After the ring plan was completed, everyone I knew said that I was visible to the naked eye and became particularly happy.

I can sleep at least seven or eight hours a day. The quality of sleep is significantly improved, and the appearance of appearance is much reduced.

I put on the schedule that had been planned for a long time. I had more time to call my friends. I also filled the gaps of time with new hobbies, such as writing, writing logs, and playing film cameras. Books, music, and movies have become my new sources of inspiration. They are more textured and deeper than social media.

During the abstinence social media, Shi Dong's painting records

If you have a loss, if you have social media, maybe more fans at station B can even realize it. Although it is a pity, when you think of their achievements, you have to sacrifice my sleep and mental health, and suddenly feel that it is not worth it.

As a self -media person, I think that there is a moral responsibility to admit that it is contradictory to post videos when ringing social media. But what I can do is to break the fourth wall and remind everyone that "don't watch my video in immersed" and let the audience think.

After a year of abstinence, I re -introduced social media into life for my career. When I have to use it, I download all of them to the iPad. As a portable thing, I don't allow these apps to exist. In addition, I set a fixed use time, and one day it is completely unused.

After watching the documentary "The Social Dilemma" (The Social Dilemma ", I rethinking the nature of social media. Those Internet companies, high salaries hired the smartest people in the world to create a system, the purpose is to let you see more. People with self -control are unlikely to compete through their own strength.

But I think the significance of abstinence is not to stay away from social media forever, but after experiencing themselves, I know which ones are necessary and where the boundaries of my life are. How does the technician resist the control of algorithms?

"Run if you can't fight" or develop a "White Horse Knight"

When brushing Douyin, I unknowingly found that it was gone for half an hour. This time consuming makes me feel very meaningless, and it is a strong sense of emptiness.

Sometimes when you open the B station, you want to see if your favorite UP owner is updated, but the algorithm has tailored the content according to today's situation. These contents are very attractive, and I will be disturbed soon. I lost time, and I didn't get anything.

There are QQ, and you often push some people you know to let you add friends. I just don't want to add it, everyone knows this reason.

I think a person is a logical processor. What you enter, you will output what. When I realize this problem, I will control and control my input. The first is to minimize the input and find some credible sources.

I have paid attention to a lot of interesting bloggers before, but as I get older, I slowly feel that interesting is not a very important thing. I pay more attention to those deep topics. The most important thing is that I want to control my initiative in the Internet, and I don't want the algorithm to take my nose.

So I plan to develop an APP of a "algorithm". It will help me save time and follow my values. It really started to do it in May Day this year.

One of my friends developed an app to help people maintain a focus after work. With "hourglass" as the source of inspiration, the mobile phone will start timing, and the mobile phone will end the task when they come back. Inspired by him, I decided to implement the plan in my head.

I spent 3 days to make it and named it "Meow Sauce Love Subscribe". Take this name because I have two cats, and more importantly, the core function of the product is "subscription".

"Meow Sauce Love Subscription" in the app store

What can it help me do? In fact, it is very simple, manually subscribe to the person you want to see, and then click on the list, you will jump to his latest dynamic page with one click, that's all. It can subscribe to the contents of the two platforms of station B and YouTube, so users at home and abroad can use it.

The function is so simple, I hope to see the content I want to see at the highest efficiency and the fastest speed, and it is not interference recommended by the algorithm.

I also intend to set up "manually adding subscriptions" to increase the threshold and let users retreat when they are "wanting to pay attention to a large number of accounts", leaving only those who really can't give up.

After the app is done, I shared it in the technical community. For almost half a day, there were more than 5,000 views and hundreds of comments, which shocked me.

Some people say that they need this thing too much. I praise me very much. Some people say that he wants to do but did not put it into action. The negative evaluation mainly said that I did not conduct a survey. But even if the algorithm recommendation of station B is closed, the platform will recommend you a whole screen. I will see more content because of the psychology of hunting, and I can't save time at all.

After the app was launched, I used it for more than a month, and it was rarely used later. The reason is that in the first month, I was deliberately controlling myself, and I hope this app can help me save time. It is not because of "I want to embrace algorithms" afterwards, because I think "algorithms and these people I subscribe to" are not interesting.

It really helped me get back some initiative. During that time, my mind was messy, and I would think of many things when I made decisions. These things can not only give me a satisfactory answer, but also slow down my decision -making speed. When I tried to control the source of input, I felt my energy came back.

The APP has been launched for more than two months, and now it has lived in more than 100. Developing its original intention is destined to be unable to commercialize the fate, and the number of users will not be too much.

Some users recommend adding the functions of push and one -click import. I have considered the above products in the product design stage.

First of all, even if you add a push function, you may not be able to see it immediately. This is to surrender your attention in disguise. Secondly, the original intention of "seeing only the person who wants to pay attention to the most" is introduced, making love subscriptions is no different from station B.

User feedback of "Meow Sauce Love Subscribe"

I often think about how technical people resist the binding of technology?

The first way is "Run if you can't fight". I developed "Meow Sauce Love Subscription" to escape the control circle of the algorithm.

The second way is to create a "white horse knight" to make it compete with the "algorithm demon".

For example, the amount of information on the Internet is large, good and bad, and various recommendations are dazzling. As a result, my friend has developed an AI with a functional algorithm and information filter. He uses his preferences and values ​​to train AI, let AI re -filter the results recommended by the platform, and then recommend it to himself. This is also the technical resistance of the technical person.

In fact, we have already seen the world from web1 to the efficiency of web2, and gradually move towards the web3 era that can overcome the disadvantages of Web2. When web3 comes, we may have more initiative.

Web3 breaks through the centralized search mode of Web2, and massive information is no longer only mastered by a few search engines. Under the new distributed information retrieval mode, users can select high -quality content based on their own value and judgment. The sorting of these contents is not recommended by the algorithm, but by the user to vote. At that time, we had the right to take the initiative, and we didn't have to follow the waves in the content recommended by the algorithm. Although web3 is still in the bubble period, I think the bubble also has a certain role. The foam on the sea, as the tide is pushed forward, when the tide retreats, the foam is gone, and the trace of the bubble will still be left on the beach.

It brings at least one alert, and it turns out that I can grasp the initiative.

36 氪 Young public account

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