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# Before we start
- URL: https://disconnected.ghost.io/before-we-start/
- Published: 2026-08-11T11:38:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-11T11:38:47.000Z
- Author: Henrique Caldara

Before we start, this is not an anti-tech manifest. 

I like technology. Finding my way around an unknown city with Google Maps. Staying connected with my high school friends through a WhatsApp group. Paying my bills without having to wait in line at a bank. All these things are amazing! 

But more often than not I'm spending between 4 to 6 hours a day on my iPhone, and I don't have that many places to go, things to discuss with my old friends or bills to pay.

I also like beer. That doesn't mean I want to carry a can in my pocket, taking a few sips every hour. That's how I started thinking about my smartphone. I like it, I just don't want to carry it around with me all the time. 

I've tried setting up time limits for social media, hoping that would help me reduce my screen time. Didn't work. Then I started logging out from the apps. Also didn't work. So, as a last resort, I started uninstalling the apps altogether. Yes, you guessed it, that didn't work either. I would always find a workaround to go back to the doomscrolling. Whether it was on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or just reading the news over and over again, there I was with my smartphone in my hand 6 hours a day. 

I would always find a way to justify my social media usage (except for Facebook, I honestly don't know what I was doing there) . "My friends and family will like to see this photo of my kids on Instagram". "I'm only keeping YouTube because it's helpful to get a gym training". "What if an amazing job pops up on LinkedIn"? So I'd reinstall the app with a noble purpose, just to find myself doomscrolling again a few minutes later. 

Eventually I figured out I can't trust myself with unlimited access and decided to take a more radical approach: stop using the smartphone. I bought a Nokia 110 for roughly $50 at Amazon and that's my new phone now. I still want to be reachable, just not that easily. If you really want to reach me, now you have to call (or SMS) me. 

As I said, I like technology, and I'll keep using it, but away from my smartphone. I don't want to move back to 1998, so I'll keep using WhatsApp, banking, and other important and helpful apps on my laptop. I'll also keep watching Netflix and Youtube on my TV. This is not about giving up technology, it's about having more control and consciousness of when and how I use it. 

I anticipate I'll face some challenges, but I want more time and less anxiety. I want to be bored sometimes. I want to find out what happens when the internet isn't sitting in my pocket, available every second of the day.

I'm going to write about what happens. The easy parts, the annoying parts, the moments when I go cold turkey and reach out to my iPhone (I anticipate I'll have those too). And, hopefully, the things I discover about my own attention, my time, and the way I actually want to live.

This isn't a guide to getting rid of your smartphone.

It's an experiment.

Mine.

And you're welcome to follow along.