As an advocate for software and digital technology, it’s sad to realize how problematic my relationship with my smartphone became. I’ve found myself wasting hours of my day scrolling different apps that leave me feeling emotionally drained and mentally exhausted. The experiences I once loved - sending and receiving Snaps from my friends, for example - have all been degraded to squeeze attention and money out of their users with relentless notifications, sponsored content, and psychological engineeering.
After cracking the screen on my Pixel for the second time, I decided to switch to a flip phone - partly to have a more durable device, but mostly to break up with abusive apps. It hasn’t been easy, and there are a lot of trade offs, but I’m feeling much better now that my smartphone has a smaller role in my life.
The Cat S22 Flip 🔗
One of the most popular flip phone options in 2025 is the Cat S22 Flip. It is very similar to the pre-iPhone devices that we loved in middle school. The major difference is the inclusion of a touch screen and the Android Go operating system, which includes things like Gmail, Google Maps, and Play Store.
Replacing Value instead of Behavior 🔗
When trying to remove destructive apps from my phone in the past, I had always sought like-for-like replacements, for example, replacing Tik Tok with Instagram Reels… Focusing on replacing the value an app provides was much more effective.