How I unbundled my smartphone

And other notes on digital wellness

A month ago, I came across this video. Honestly, if you had to choose, you can skip reading the rest of this article and just devour this instead. It’s 1.25 hrs well invested.

This came into my life when I’ve been thinking a lot about digital disconnection, mindful living, improving my relationship with music, and other such mid-lifey things. The TL;Dw of the video is: The creator, Brandon Shaw, wanted to experiment for a month without streaming on his phone. He ended up going down a month-long journey of taking several functions off his phone. This is not one of those stories that ends in a dumbphone or him abnegating the internet - though at one point he does get himself a typewriter - and that’s what I find appealing about his journey. It feels like anyone - even someone in a tech-first, media-focused job - could gain back control from the time-sucker that is the modern-day smartphone.

In the video, Brandon creates this nice diagram showing what all he tried unbundling from his iPhone.

I won’t say I’ve got inspired by the video, only because I’ve been unbundled things from my own phone for years. I’ve always been conscious that the device could be a time-sucker and have been careful of my usage. I’ve been careful to never be ‘addicted’ to it.

Still, it was a worthy reminder to achieve one thing I feel is useful in today’s age: Spend as less time on the smartphone as possible. So today, how I’ve gone about doing that.

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Stuff I’ve unbundled from my smartphone, and to what

Music - a dedicated media player

Unlike Brandon from the above video, I’ve used an external music player for years (a habit from the Creative Zen days). But only recently with my new-ish Sony Walkman NW-A306 and generally changing my listening habits did I derive benefits from disaggregating music from my phone.

This device has only MY songs, mostly legally purchased from Qobuz or iTunes (here’s a slightly nerdy workflow¹). I do not use streaming on the player, though it does have the facility and I could replicate my curation on Spotify. I'm not anti-streaming, I use Spotify a fair bit myself. It’s more a ‘purity of usage’ thing.

I think there’s a difference between having all the music in the world instantly accessible at your fingertips, vs a collection that you’ve consciously curated - and in some sense, are limited by.

The player is connected to one of two kickass headphones: The gorgeous Meze 99 Classics (for daily listening), and the ugly-but-sounds-otherworldly Stax L700 (for involved sessions). Both make music listening an intentional experience. There should be some friction².

The Meze is showing its age, but it’s been a workhorse for 10 years and I love them so much.

I have a monthly budget to buy music. If that seems strange in an age where Spotify gives you everything for free (or close to it), consider this was the way music was for generations. I feel like I own my files, I am not subject to streaming’s whims, am not distracted, and importantly, do not need to use the internet to access my music³.

Please keep in mind, I do all this because music is my primary hobby. I don’t recommend casual music fans go out and get a dedicated high-res music player or a pair of electrostatic headphones. But it’s worth thinking what YOU care about, enough to have a separate device or just even dedicated time for.

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Reading for pleasure - Kindle and physical books

I was a Kindle early adopter, so that was an easy thing to unbundle. I hate looking at the tiny screen for too long anyway, reading an article there gives me a headache. But recently, I’m finding a lot of joy in the physical. Not for the whole “smell of physical” thing, but for magazines and books that are specifically designed to be a nice physical experience. The anthologies of stories from Bengaluru and Bandra, Luru and Pudding respectively, are a delight to hold and browse.

Two really nice anthologies

As is Rohit Saran’s new data-meets-storytelling beauty, 100 Ways to See India.

And of course, my trusty Kindle, which I think is one of the best single-purpose inventions in the 21st century.

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Reading for information / news - my tablet + newspapers

I use my tablet (an old Redmi, nothing fancy) for just two things. One is a cool word game called Spelltower. The other is to read articles, Substacks and publications like WIRED, Nautilus, Foreign Affairs, FT and The Ken. I carve out dedicated time to do so every weekend, and my hope is to do so daily.

I get a daily dose of newsletters of various kinds in my inbox which is way too much to read. So I sift stuff I want to properly get down to, in a specific folder on my browser which syncs with that on the tablet. I don’t get through all of them, but whatever I do, I try to devour and go down its own rabbitholes, sometimes ending in a book purchase at the end of it. The metric of “maximum articles read” is long forgotten.

While I try to keep up with the news and politics, I’ve also become aware that I don’t care for it too much⁴. Instead, I’ve gone old-school and started getting… physical newspapers⁵. No, really. Shorn of the online anger and irritating pop-ups, the calm of a static newspaper allows you to imbibe everything at a glance, and go into what you feel is important. There’s very little rubbish like those horrible “netizens react to tweet”. The editorials are nice, and Mint Lounge on weekends is so good. Once a Times of India accidentally got delivered to our place and even that felt… sane.

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Clock / alarm - actual clocks, actual alarm

I’m strict about keeping my phone out of the bedroom. For bedside time, I’ve got a digital alarm clock (Amazon has so many). But recently, I bought a Pomodoro timer that allows me to countdown/up. It’s such a delight to use and I time many things, including writing this article.

I also use a cheap stopwatch when working out. Thanks to it I’ve also found my trainer often cheats during EMOMs, his 60 seconds is our 45 seconds. But he’s a nice sort otherwise.

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Notes - physical notebook

This is a biggie. I’ve always loved writing - taking notes and thinking on paper before translating them to screen. I have several notebooks - a dedicated one for each work project, some for creative stuff, some for this newsletter, and some small ones I carry with me.

For me, this has benefits beyond avoiding distraction. I love the freedom that comes with physically putting pen to paper (or whiteboard). You can scribble, you can mind-map, you can doodle, you can go all unstructured… It’s liberating in a way that the best note-taker or digital tool just isn’t.

Orion often tries to help me

Plus, I can use fountain pens <3

Tools like the ReMarkable - as sexy as they look - hold no appeal for me. It’s pen and paper for me.

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Photography - point and shoot camera

I’ve had a camera since 2004 (including a long DSLR + 3 lens phase) so I’m quite used to carrying one with me on trips and stuff. Recently, I purchased a Ricoh GR3 - it takes great pics, transfers easily to the phone and is a joy to use. On recent cycling and hiking trips, I found myself taking photos using only it, which also makes stopping and shooting way more intentional.

A pic of Malshej Ghat, shot by the Ricoh.

Like the music player, I don’t recommend everyone run out and get a P&S. Even mid-range phones take damn good photos. But if you’re serious about photography or just want to find ways to de-tether more from your phone, AND take a lot of pics… Then it’s a decent investment. You’ll get point-and-shoots for a budget on Amazon or at second hand camera marts (In Mumbai - the camera street at Fort is a good haunt).

Again, the idea is to avoid the trap of taking out your phone for doing one specific task, before getting distracted by notifications, email, WhatsApp and losing the moment fully. For me, the idea of unbundling is to use the phone as little as possible. So to that end, the next one might seem either overkill or on point…

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Cycling stats - my cyclocomputer

Ok, I admit I am including this here just to be a completionist for this list and to show off the fact that I care enough about cycling to buy a gadget for it! I recently bought a Magene cyclocomputer to track distance, elevation, speed and time when riding, obviating the need to keep Strava on during rides. It’s more accurate, saves phone battery (valuable on long rides) and more importantly, isn’t as temperamental as Strava is.

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And so this is what my final unbundle looks like!

Not too shabby! And I may not be done yet. I won’t ever go full dumbphone and I believe I have enough digital discipline to not go full doomscrolling if I have to pick up a phone to answer a MyGate notification, but I’ve found that unbundling all these things over the years have had three huge benefits:

1. The ‘mindfulness’ benefit: Whatever you unbundle, you’re more involved with, consume more intentionally, retain more, are more in the moment, etc. Whether it’s framing a better photograph, being absorbed in a news article, finding a new layer to a favourite song, or connecting dots in your notepad better.

2. Losing the animal instincts: By which I mean, you’re not giving in to quick dopamine hits, ragebait, time-wasting slop, or just getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of (high quality) content out there. I don’t get FOMO, or overwhelmed. It’s a very nice feeling to know you don’t need to read / watch / listen to everything out there.

3. Nicer to use: A physical camera just feels so much nicer than a touchscreen. My Sony player is a gorgeous device. Writing with a TWSBI fountain pen is a joy. Often, these purpose-made, single-task products are of higher quality and have better features. In the above video, Brandon compares a smartphone to a Swiss Army Knife - convenient, yes, but do you really want to use that teeny blade to make a steak?

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The failed utopia of smartphones

The era of smartphones began on January 9, 2007 as Steve Jobs famously unveiled the iPhone as three devices in one: An iPod, a mobile phone, and an internet communication device. In less than two decades, that seminal invention would turn the world upside down.

Bundling of everything into a single device was initially heralded as a good thing. Many of us remember those heady days! We revelled in letting go of our individual devices, as new generations of iPhones and Androids subsumed more and more of their utility. Cameras became rare. Taking notes on Evernote became fashionable. Apple itself killed off the first part of its trinity as nobody was buying standalone music players anymore. Alas in the intervening years we’ve come to learn better. The all-in-one tech utopia is mega convenient, but sure came with downsides.

I don’t think bundling itself is the issue here - it’s the incentives various apps have to keep you addicted, taking away from its primary functionality. Aka the “Google Search got worse” problem, or to use trendy parlance, enshittification.

After making the analogy to a Swiss Army Knife, each of whose components are sub-par at best, Brandon says:

Now imagine if your Swiss Army Knife sent you notifications. The knife is all “hey, just letting you know, I can cut stuff”. The screwdriver is all “hey, it’s been 4 days since you last used me”. The tweezers are like, “hey don’t lose your streak, tweeze something with me!”

In my view, there are two broad camps these bad experiences fall into:

1. Products are just an excuse to serve you ads (social media), or force you to upgrade (constant ads on YT free; ragebait news; the tsunami of “hey try this AI product” in Gmail)

2. Products are engineered to keep you renewing (Netflix, Spotify premium). Now this need not be a bad thing - old school newspaper subscriptions and house help also hope that you will ‘renew’ and will give you a good product with that incentive - but the problem here is that human base instincts are exploitatable, and the internet allows for business models around this to be easily built. This leads to bad digital habits (over-bingeing, gambling, or surface-level selection on Tinder). If you feel even this is okay and it’s ultimately human choice (an argument I can get behind), it’s plain to see that exploitation happens somewhere else - artists on Spotify, gig workers on delivery apps, etc.

I guess a better understanding of these, too, is why I want to unbundle as much as I can from the phone. In 2011, Facebook engineer Jeff Hammerbacher famously remarked, “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads”. Today, those brains are paid a lot more and their job description is way broader. I’d like to think that by pulling myself away from their primary window to me, I’m making life tough, if not impossible, for them.

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My two simple recommendations

This post was mostly for me to document what’s worked for me - it was not really meant to be instructions for you (maybe that in a later post). I don’t want to tell you to run off and buy a music player if you don’t spend at least more than 2 hours deeply listening.

But what I will say, if you want to take some action, are just two simple things:

1. De-tether whatever you’re passionate about, from distraction, as much as possible: Notice I didn’t say ‘from the internet as much as possible’. You may be into online gaming or YT longform - things hard to do offline. The enemy is distraction, not the internet itself. And this can be hard! Many times, it may involve actually being offline (downloading those YT videos, for example). Switch off notifications, go full-screen, have a dedicated device… Whatever helps you be fully immersed in your activity. This is my first recommendation because hopefully, you care about your passion / hobby enough to fight the deleterious pull of algorithms and notifications, and build your digital disconnection muscle.

2. Try unbundling in small parts to see what is practical for you: It may start small and cheap like an alarm clock. Personally, I think using a notebook for notes / brainstorming is the best - it unlocks so much more. And you can scale up from here.

Maybe I’ll have a proper framework in a few months. But in the meantime, I’m sure Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism will have some ideas.

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What have you unbundled from your phone?

Write back. I’d love to compile what’s worked for you into the next edition of this newsletter.

For a newsletter that seemingly celebrates the internet in its title, I sure seem to be spending a lot of time telling people how to fight it, of late. Maybe that’s not a bad thing wholly.

I’m off to listen to some music on that little Sony now. Thank you so much for reading this far.

Chuck

1. For those interested: Music sampling happens on desktop - YouTube or Spotify. This could be playlists, suggestions from friends, new artists from metal sites, etc. But this is strict ‘evaluation mode’. There is a further stage of shortlisting. I told you this was nerdy, but I swear I enjoy this! Anyway - songs I like, I purchase off iTunes for the princely sum of ₹10 apiece. For songs I REALLY like, I buy the FLAC files off Qobuz, where it’s a lot more expensive - ₹150-₹250 a track. I need to really like a song to splurge on a FLAC - and this by itself becomes a good filtering mechanism. I have two folders on my player: Silver and Gold. Once in a while, I’ll buy the entire album and sample it off my player. I strictly avoid streaming on the device, even though the functionality is there. Apart from the native music app, the only other app I have on the device is my meditation app, Waking Up. I’ve skipped many parts of this process - what qualifies as gold and silver - and I’m happy to explain to anyone who wants. I realise this entire process is a bit geeky and might be off-putting to some, but it works for me and I swear it’s helped me connect better with music. In fact, the whole structured process has helped me fight empty music consumption.

2. The Stax setup - complete with a DAC and amp - requires about five minutes of setup. I usually take the setup to my balcony which is blessed with a gorgeous sunset, load a specific set of songs onto a folder on my player, and just zone out. It’s an incredible way to spend a Sunday evening.

3. I know offline downloads exist, but sometimes you need to be logged in to the internet to be able to just get into your Spotify account, etc etc.

4. I realise I am able to say so from a position of privilege. I too had my raging lefty late 30s era. Daily news saps me, no matter which end of the spectrum it’s from and in a way the left is even more draining. Instead, I donate / purchase premium subs to several good publications and wish them all the best. But there’s no daily politics news in my inbox anymore.

5. A recommendation made to me by Rohan Joshi, in an interview I did with him.