“I don’t know, Dad … it seems a little clunky,” my 12-year-old son said as I fumbled with my new Light Phone II. This was a replacement for my failing iPhone. I had decided not to get a new iPhone, or any other smartphone. I needed a break. I would go into the new year without a smartphone, to see how it felt.
My son was right: It was clunky—a little slower and a lot less whizbang-slick than iPhones had numbed me to expect. But this was the point, wasn’t it? To be a little more clunky, to consciously tap the brakes on my everyday life?
A week later my son noted in passing, “You’ve been spending a lot more time with us since you got your new phone.” That matter-of-fact comment stopped me in my tracks. It was true. Had my smartphone really pulled me away from my family so much? If so, what else might it have been distracting me from, all these years? Don’t worry: I’m not going to tell you how much better your life will be if only you get rid of your smartphone. It’s more complicated than that.
A November Wall Street Journal article about a small school in Massachusetts that banned smartphones had tipped me off to the Light Phone II, which the students and teachers had adopted as an alternative. With well-designed simplicity, it is made for calls and text messaging only. Its small screen is black and white, using e-ink technology, Kindle-like. The size reminds me of an old iPod Touch. The original Light Phone came out in 2017; the improved second model was released in late 2019. The Light Phone II comes factory installed with three tools: a phone, messages, and an alarm. That’s it. They offer a handful of other tools (they call them tools, not apps), but they are relatively basic, such as a music player, a tool for typing and saving notes, and a simple map and directions tool.