This might be the wrong place to ask this question but, as someone who has owned more Apple products that I could count, I’m interested in reducing my dependency on them (and tech, in general) moving forward.
A significant portion of my life has included spending time and money on devices and applications to “make my life easier / more productive”. It’s becoming all too apparent though that this has created a reliance on technology that can become difficult to separate from if a company, such as Apple, makes changes that are displeasurable or disruptive to the habits I’ve adopted my daily life.
I mean, my bluetooth trackpad is acting wonky right now, so that’s not fun. Wired always works. Is there too much technology?
I am not a fan of having to keep a phone on me at all times. It’s always in silent mode and visual notifications are kept to a minimum. I can and do sometimes go two to three days without even knowing where my phone is. If I leave the house, I more often just take my Apple Watch and a note pad. (However, with the realization that Apple is changing the Watch UX with OS10, I’m not so sure I’ll be using it much longer.)
I’ll go through my phone once in a while and delete apps I rarely use. If I need something, I can easily reinstall it. The only things I really need a phone for are Maps for navigation, Safari to open a restaurant’s menu, to manage my Apple Wallet, to get a Lyft, to view my Fitness / Health info, and to access an MFA Authenticator app.
After my Apple TV, my iPad is probably my most used device, closely followed by my Mac mini. (I have a MacBook for work - I don’t consider that part of this conversation.) Thinking about it though, I could probably eliminate the iPad in favor of the desktop experience. Since there is not Finder replacement on iPad, I need a MacOS computer to mange my music, photos, files, etc. Although, I hate sitting at a desk more than I need to already for work. If MacOS Finder were available on an iPad, I might be able to ditch a desktop computer.
I just checked Screen Time on my phone - I’m averaging about 1 Hour / Week. My iPad is about 4 Hours / Week. Why do I even have these devices?
So, my problem is that I need(?) each of these devices for just a small handful of tasks. Stepping back from it, it feels stupid that I have all this crap. It’s a lot of money spent and it’s a lot of opportunity for something to break my daily habits. Although, speaking of habits, I have to admit I feel an addiction to these things that prevents me from getting rid of them.
Aren’t we all addicted to out devices? Are we actively encouraging or reducing our dependency on technology and what affect does this have on our mental well being?
I’m wondering if anyone has taken steps to replace or eliminate devices or experiences. How are you living a minimalist technology life?
Paradoxically, Apple has regularly introduced features over the years that result in me needing to use my devices less. When I got my first iPhone (an iPhone 4, I believe), every little notification would light up my phone’s screen. These days that doesn’t happen, and Apple has further cut down on those intrusions with focus and bed time configurations. I’m big into using HomeKit for home automation. And while it annoys me that home automation is still such a simple application, Apple has done a good job of insulating me from the need to use my devices when I want things to happen in my home.
In short, letting myself take advantage of the Apple ecosystem reduces the touch-points of the technology I use. I just have to invest the time to learn about features and how they work, and to tune them to my preferred lifestyle.
Home automation is something I struggle with. In fact, I’ve worked in the home automation industry since 1998. Ironically, I have nearly zero home automation in my home other than the recent addition of smart bulbs via HomeKit. Maybe my experience with troubleshooting automated technology for over two decades has something to do with my philosophy here.
I have a small home with a handful of lights from Ikea and Voco. As has been my opinion for 25 years, automated lights are one of the single best home improvement investments someone can make in their lives. But now with everything so dependent on Updates, it’s incredibly easy for an iPhone or WAP update to break your app-controlled automated lights. You might need to wait weeks or months for the manufacturer of your lights to push out a firmware update so you can use them as you always have. Or Apple, or Philips, etc., may simply decide they have a better idea to use something that’s contrary to what you and your family is used to.
So, yeah, technology is great but my point is aren’t we too reliant on it? We’re slaves to software and firmware updates with essentially zero recourse other than disable auto-updates on everything we own.
I just let technology do its thing with a bit of tinkering to minimize touch points. If anything becomes too intrusive, I stop using it.
Every once in a while I do things without depending on tech… like taking a walk to someone’s house and knocking on their door to talk to them face to face.
And I say this as someone who’s worked in commercial automation; I too have minimized the time I’m willing to spend fiddling with tech on my own time.
That’s probably why I’ve been an Apple user since the 80s though.
While the most recent piece of Apple technology I’ve used was a Macintosh 7, I’ve gone through similar issues with Android phones and desktop devices.
For Windows, the reliance came from the tendency of people (myself included) to avoid change, and Microsoft exploiting that, and with Android, because rare are the cases of commercial phones that don’t come with Google’s bloat.
But, upon switching to Linux and vanilla Android, as Nobuo Uematsu once said, “(…) the more limited people are, the more ingenious they begin to get (…)”. So while I had lost most tools I had in my comfort zone, it was a good opportunity for renewal, of which I took advantage.
In lights of that, my recommendation is to “take the leap” and try technologies you’re not used with, and see what you can learn from them.
the more limited people are, the more ingenious they begin to get
Just another way of saying necessity is the mother of invention. Which I don’t disagree with at all.
I think the opposite has taken place over recent years though - Invention has replaced Necessity.
Smart people have invented “cool” technologies often for the sake of being cool. The spectacle and wizardry of technology can distract us from what’s behind the curtain and from a task that only a human mind can or should unwind. I can’t tell you how many times my boss would tell me to integrate some cool new widget into something then when I asked why he’d say, “cause it’s cool”. Yeah, where’s Google Wave now?
I think taking the leap into unknown technology has been the problem. For me, at least. I wound’t have a career without doing so but at this point, the weight of my choices is building up.
I have an iPhone and an iPad. My philosophy is to use services that work on both iOS and Android, rather than just one. So Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Dropbox (I got 10GB free, using around 20% for notes and documents) with Cryptomator, OneDrive for pictures, Signal, WhatsApp, 2FAS Auth, Bitwarden and Joplin for notes. I can swap between an iOS and Android phone in 30min and have a few times as I enjoy both.
I don’t have any subscription apps by choice.
In my home I have a little server running PiHole, homebridge and Home Assistant, this way I have access to smart switches/thermometers from any OS.
On my phone I have notifications disabled for most apps, including social media. Only enabled for messaging apps, authentication apps, etc.
deleted by creator
