海角大神

Eoin O鈥機arroll, the Monitor鈥檚 science, environment, and technology writer, is unabashedly enthralled by technology. He can turn on his lights just by talking to them, he has a closet dedicated to AC adapters of uncertain origin, and can plug in a USB cable in just three attempts.

And yet a month ago, this paragon of technological understanding traded his iPhone in for a flip phone. For this chat, Eoin discusses the transition with fellow Monitor science writer Eva Botkin-Kowacki. Along the way, Eoin has learned how technology is bundled 鈥撀燼nd the merits of unbundling it.

Eva Botkin-Kowacki: When you told me that you were getting a flip phone, I was surprised, given your penchant for gadgetry. What inspired you?

Eoin O鈥機arroll: I鈥檝e written a lot of stories on tech overuse, online misinformation, and all the ways digital platforms change how we treat each other, and I realized that I wasn鈥檛 myself immune to its effects.

My iPhone鈥檚 screen-time tracker told me I was spending upward of an hour a day basically doom-scrolling Google News, Reddit, and Twitter. It wasn鈥檛 making me happy, I wasn鈥檛 really learning anything, and, as I was explaining to my kitchen light bulb recently, it was pulling me away from not just my family, but my whole external environment beyond my screen. I decided that I wanted my hour back.

Eva: I鈥檓 not sure I dare check my own screen time. An hour actually sounds low to me. Did you try anything else to reclaim that time?

Eoin: That鈥檚 on top of the 8 to 11 hours on my work laptop five days a week!

I鈥檇 tried other digital dieting strategies, like putting a rubber band around my phone, or setting the screen grayscale. But they just didn鈥檛 stick.

So, on Sept. 5, I removed the SIM card from my aging iPhone SE and stuck it in a dumb phone 鈥� 鈥渂asic phone鈥� is the preferred nomenclature 鈥撀燼n Alcatel GO FLIP V.

Eva: How does your flip phone compare with the smartphone so far?

Eoin: It鈥檚 not nearly as slick as an iPhone, but it has a satisfying physicality to it. The buttons are real buttons. It feels natural to hold to the ear in precisely the way a glass-and-aluminum slab doesn鈥檛. And I love being able to end my calls not with a feeble tap, but with a crisp and definitive snap.

In other words, it鈥檚 a phone. On my old iPhone, my phone was just an app on my phone. As the stand-up comic Gary Gulman , calling a smartphone a phone is like calling a Lexus convertible a cup holder.

Eva: But what about all of the other functions of a smartphone? Having what is essentially a computer in your pocket has its benefits.

Eoin: I think that bundling gets to the heart of what the modern smartphone is about.

From , the iPhone was a Swiss Army device. For me, it was my newsstand, my GPS, my camera, my pocket watch, my flashlight, my audio player, my external brain, my kitchen timer, my calculator, my video game console, my light switch, and my TV remote. And my phone.

This bundling achieves some amazing things. You can integrate geolocation, push notifications, and mobile payments to summon a personal driver. You can integrate a microphone, onboard processing, and internet connectivity to identify a song playing in a cafe. Having a smartphone is in some ways like having superpowers.

But it also subtracts from some of the original individual tools鈥� qualities. If you have a real screwdriver, you鈥檙e probably not going to use the one on your Swiss Army knife. The same goes for those little sproingy scissors and 鈥� especially 鈥� the plastic toothpick.

Eva: So how are you replacing all those other functions? And how is it different than having them all bundled?

贰辞颈苍:听The past month has, for me, been a process of unbundling all of my iPhone鈥檚 functions. I started using an actual flashlight, we got a kitchen timer, and so on. As I go back to using the original tools, I鈥檓 reacquainting myself with a kind of tactility: Feeling the weight of an actual flashlight, tapping physical buttons, twisting the dial on the timer.

At least I don鈥檛 fall down a Wikipedia rabbit hole every time I pick up my flashlight anymore.

I鈥檝e also rebundled some of my iPhone鈥檚 functions onto my iPad 鈥� which I used to use mainly for reading comics and FaceTiming. Now I also use it for things like email, news, and social media. But, because I鈥檓 not carrying my iPad around in my pocket all day, I鈥檓 a little more intentional about how I use it.

It feels a little bit like it did in the early 2000s. When we wanted to use the internet to look something up, we would say, 鈥淚鈥檓 going online.鈥� We don鈥檛 really say that anymore because we鈥檙e always online.

Eva: Do you feel like online and offline life has become unblurred for you over the past month?

贰辞颈苍:听I鈥檝e noticed I鈥檓 a little more present with my family. I no longer consult Wikipedia at the dinner table. I no longer check the news while I鈥檓 playing with my kids. Overall, I feel a little freer, a little less tethered.

It鈥檚 not like I鈥檓 totally disconnected. I can almost always be reached via phone and text and I鈥檓 never more than 20 minutes away from email, Slack, and Zoom. Still, my consciousness feels a little bit less divided these days.

Eva: Do you miss your smartphone? Have there been any times you鈥檝e wished you had it?

贰辞颈苍:听I sometimes take out my flip phone and mindlessly gape at it, just as I used to do with my iPhone. But I don鈥檛 get sucked in. Unlike with the iPhone, with its bottomless content pits, on my flip phone there鈥檚 nowhere to go. So I snap it closed like Captain Kirk and put it back in my pocket.

I鈥檝e had a couple mishaps, though. The other week, I was doing a curbside pickup at Whole Foods, and I couldn鈥檛 figure out how to alert them to my arrival using the iPad version of the Amazon app. I ended up having to phone my wife and have her use her iPhone.

Eva: Oh no! It seems like society has gotten to a point where it鈥檚 assumed that everyone has a smartphone.

Eoin: Many of us don鈥檛 have a choice. If you make a living driving an Uber or walking dogs for Care.com, you need to have a smartphone.

For others, it鈥檚 a social necessity. If all of your friends are on Instagram, or WhatsApp, or Facebook, then your phone is how you connect to people. That can be just as important as being an economic lifeline.

But, as endless tech and business headlines are showing these days, by putting ourselves in a situation where our economic needs and our social lives are mediated by these platforms, all that convenience and flexibility comes at a cost.

Eva: Do you think more people will opt to unbundle as you have?

Eoin: I think we鈥檙e actually already witnessing an unbundling. Smart home speakers are growing in popularity, as are smartwatches. Even Google Glass is quietly making a . This doesn鈥檛 mean the smartphone is going away, but it does mean that, for many of us, it鈥檚 playing less of a role as our primary connection to the internet.聽