John turns his phone into a 'dumb phone' and changes how he follows the news (2016)
story · status: told 2×, last update 2019 · last event: update (2019-11-07)
In 2016, on a friend's advice, John turned his phone into a 'dumb phone' that only texts, calls and plays Pokémon Go, and in 2017 put himself on an information diet of newspapers. By late 2018 he said all these attempts had failed, and in 2019 he disabled Safari and the App Store on his phone.
Told alongside: John: take a year off Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, starting when P4A 2018 ends (2018)
About: Pokémon Go, Snapchat
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-11-17 | told | John says a few months ago he turned his phone into a dumb phone (texts, calls, Pokémon Go), and about a year ago began reading four newspapers instead of relying on his social media feed. | Decathlons, Pretension, and the Weirdest Animal I've Met: It's Question Thursday 00:02:15 |
| 2017-03-21 | retold | On a friend's advice, a month later after an egregious bout of twittering, John made his phone a dumb phone: no Twitter, Facebook, email or Reddit, and he deleted Pokémon Go, breaking his son's heart. | My Information Diet 00:00:49 |
| 2017-03-21 | update | John says in the last couple of weeks he has scaled way back on the social internet for an information diet: an hour or two each morning reading mostly The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Indianapolis Star. | My Information Diet 00:02:28 |
| 2018-11-06 | update | John posts much less than he used to but still spends huge swaths of time on those platforms; all his attempts at an information diet or dumbing down his phone have failed. | Taking a Year Off 00:02:26 |
| 2019-01-08 | update | On his phone John used Screen Time to disable Safari and the App Store and deleted all the attention-grabbing apps. | I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going 00:00:29 |
| 2019-11-07 | update | He feels better informed than a year ago: he misses watching news unfold live online, but learns a lot from his local newspaper, podcasts and outlets like The Economist. | I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. 00:01:44 |
What is said about it
10 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2016-11-17 · Decathlons, Pretension, and the Weirdest Animal I've Met: It's Question Thursday — John says that about a year ago he began reading The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Indianapolis Star, and grew suspicious of his social media feed as the best way to stay informed. — 00:02:29
- 2019-11-07 · I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. — John likes his life much more now: his average daily phone time has fallen by more than 80% and he is getting more work done. — 00:01:27
- 2016-11-17 · Decathlons, Pretension, and the Weirdest Animal I've Met: It's Question Thursday — John likens social media to an intense, fun romantic relationship burning the candle at both ends that will not last; maybe he should end it, but it isn't serious. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:44
- 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John admits the phone still has a browser plus Delta, Yelp, Google Maps, Chipotle and a soccer-on-TV app, so it isn't really that dumb, but he has no way of twittering. (playful) — 00:01:22
- 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John says the dumb phone hasn't worked: in seven months his background stress has decreased somewhat, but mostly he just spends more time on his computer. (hedged) — 00:01:33
- 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John explains newspapers and magazines to young people as a carefully curated internet printed on paper and mailed to your house: inefficient and too expensive, but he is desperate for a change. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:45
- 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John says the early results of his information diet are positive, but it is too soon to know for sure. (hedged) — 00:02:57
- 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — announcement: John: During the year John will get his news from newspapers and won't have anyone post on his behalf; he wants to see how it feels not to be in those places. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:55
- 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — announcement: John: The year off starts next month (December 2018) when the Project for Awesome ends; on YouTube things stay much the same, with a Vlogbrothers video every week. — 00:02:55
- 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — announcement: John is hosting more Crash Course next year (2019). — 00:02:55