i went almost three years without a smartphone. was always too embarrassed by this decision to blog about it. i went back to smartphone so i could have a reliable navigation system for giving rides to a politically sensitive group of people who don't need to experience the pains of getting lost / me fumbling with my gps / cops.

i ended up spending a lot of time on my laptop, so it didn't really cut down on my screen time. i expanded my device footprint to replace all the nice tools that come in a single device (camera, gps, notebook, etc). that made me less nimble as a traveler.

i'm glad it made me get a garmin inreach, though. i will never replace that with a glass screen for backcountry emergencies.

I understand the sentiment about not wanting a smartphone but the amount of pocket space saved and efficiency of the device makes up for most of the shortfalls. In high school I wore cargo shorts/pants so carrying 4~ devices at a time was easier but nowadays I wear slim jeans or lightweight linen pants, mostly. Only needing my wallet and phone works too well when I don't have a bag. Definitely miss the quality of point and shoot cameras compared to a smartphone though

The Garmin Edge run very well without a smartphone or even a computer. Bluetooth File-Sharing from/to Edge is built-in. And they can sync themselves via WiFi. I favor them over Wahoo because they work standalone :) And with Linux you can feed them via USB easily.

The fitness-trackers without a smartphone are more problematic. They’ve WiFi integrated but I think they sync only via Bluetooth and the smartphone? Syncing via Garmin Express should be possible only on macOS or Windows. I think they provide also USB access on Linux.

The author clearly has graphomania. I am not reading that.

I could never go back to not using a smartphone; texting on-the-go, maps, contactless payments, and ride-sharing are too important to miss out on. That said, it's possible to avoid most of the bad things about smartphones: Don't install any Meta products, and discontinue their use entirely. Don't use any Google products. Be extremely judicious and stingy about which apps you install. If it can be done in the mobile browser, do that. I've also disabled news alerts and most other alerts so that it's a pull rather than a push. It's greatly improved my mindset and freed up a lot of time.