The one and only home screen on my iPhone. The first three buttons in the task bar are an homage to the iPhone introduction when Steve Jobs, of blessed memory, said that Apple was introducing three new devices: An iPod with touch controls, a mobile phone, and an internet communication device. (music, phone, messages). The twist, of course, is that it was just one device that contained all three functions. “And we’re calling it: iPhone!” I have other apps on the phone like banking and transit apps but you have to get to them through the app library.
I follow a number of tech channels on YouTube. Most of them are about Apple. Many of them are always whining that the iphone has become too boring. They long for the days when each new iPhone release each year brought an exciting feature like FaceTime or Apple Pay or GPS navigation for driving. Last year with the iPhone 16, Apple added a dedicated button to activate…the camera. Even I, Apple Fan Boy-In-Chief scratched my head at that one.
There was a time when I bought the new iPhone pretty much every year, but these days I tend to keep my phones for two or even three years. Currently, I have the iPhone 15 Pro. Prior to that I had the iPhone 12 Pro. Many people keep their phones even longer. I helped a friend recently replace her iPhone 7, which came out in 2016!
These days my upgrade cycle is largely driven by when my mom needs a new phone. When her phone is no longer able to get software upgrades, I get a new phone. Then my old phone goes to my wife and her phone goes to my mom. Currently, my mom is rocking a very capable iPhone 11 Pro that I bought for myself 5 years ago. It will be able to run iOS 26 which will release in September and likely iOS 27 as well.
But believe it or not, I am happy to have a boring phone and have intentionally made my phone even more boring by deleting all the non-essential and potentially distracting apps.
In 2020, I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts. I believe they are detrimental to humanity and weren’t doing me any good. Then when you-know-who purchased the social media firm formerly known as Twitter, I deleted that account as well. As for Tick Tock, I never went down that road.
There is a whole group of content creators who have made videos about giving up their smart phones and replacing them with either flip phones or the new and somewhat popular ‘dumb phones’ like the Light Phone in order to simplify their lives. I was intrigued by this but it didn’t make sense to me for three reasons.
One is that I already have a phone and it seemed crazy to ditch a perfectly good device to spend $600 on a new one that did far less.
Two, there are some things like GPS for driving or banking apps with mobile deposit that I just don’t want to live without. Seriously, am I going to drive to the bank to deposit a check for $6.42 when I can just do it on my phone in 60 seconds?
And three, yeah, like I am going to use anything other than an Apple iPhone.
Simplifiying my existing phone seemed like a good compromise. Keeping the device I love but spending less time looking at it.
Doing an app cleanse was the next logical step. I removed all the news apps from my phone and anything that could be engaging or have entertainment value. This included the Apple News App, The Washington Post App, and The New Yorker.
What I am left with is just ten apps on the home screen and a few widgets that show my calendar, health metrics, and the status of our new smart dishwasher, who is named Hygieia after the Greek goddess of cleanliness. I also decided that I would not use my phone in public unless I truly needed to check for a piece of information such as a flight update or a appointment. I turned off all but the most essential notifications including email notifications and sounds. I even modified the lock screen to show the time and nothing more and turned off the ‘always on’ display to just be dark when I am not using the phone.
Thus, I am now able to keep my phone in my pocket most of the time. What do I do instead when I am sitting on the subway or waiting for a friend at the restaurant? I read a book or I look around at everyone else scrolling on their phone or as is becoming increasingly frequent, listening to a very loud program with the speaker at full blast. (Maybe this is a direct consequence of Apple no longer including earbuds with every phone?)
Recently, I was in a waiting room where three different people had their devices blasting sounds at the same time. These were people my age who really ought to know better!
Two forms of entertainment still live on my phone. One is podcasts which I listen to only when I walk and the other is music, which is mostly for driving.
The result is a device that is useful but not much more, a tool I can use to get things done but is not engaging in any way. To be sure, I can still use my computer for entertainment purposes but it is more of a commitment to take it out and most of the time I am not carrying it with me.
And I am constantly looking for ways to make my phone even more boring, recently experimenting with making the display black and white. Far from anticipating the rollout of the next iPhone, I am hoping to ignore it.
Ok, that’s not true but I am not planning to buy it. And maybe not the one after that. Who knows, maybe the next iPhone my mom gets will be one she has to buy with her own money. Don’t worry, mom, I’ll still set it up for you.
The world’s a narrow bridge; fear nothing