butchbaby goes offline(ish)

I've been interested in the idea of divesting from apple and smartphones in general for a while. My iphone is about 6 years old and looks unrecognizable next to the gigantic buttonless phones of present day. I have a few reasons for 'going dumb' in 2026. Primarily, I am tired of having a phone addiction. It feels like every time I have an unscheduled moment I turn to my phone to fill it. I want to be creating more. I really love knitting, and I miss reading novels. Despite my desires to engage in different activities, my hands move me to watch pointless and endless reels. I don't even enjoy watching them. It's a bit dramatic, but I feel like I am taking my life back. Another reason I am moving away from the smartphone is an ethical one. I am not interested in supporting slave labor, or the genocide in Sudan. I want ethically sourced, ethically created, sustainably made things in my life. My finacial power is nearly insignificant but I am part of the larger masses and I can take an early step in the right direction. I can only do as much as I can, but I feel that I must do it.

How are you replacing your iphone?
I intend on buying a 'dumbphone' and carrying books and knitting with me on my travels. I will not get rid of my iphone as it is barely funtional (would not serve anyone else) and I use it to access important tools at work. Likeley I will leave the phone at work with just those apps installed on it and no sim card.

You seem pretty online... I am reading this on your website
This was never anti-internet. I am interested in disengaging from unconcious practices, and there are asepcts of the current net that I find myself unconcious on. Neocities is actually a big part of this shift for me. I love to make things and I truly love the internet. I want to communicate my thoughts and ideas to my comrades but I cannot resist the endless scroll of instagram and tiktok. I am so tired of it.

updates on my progress
12.02.2026
08:44 - Everything takes just a little longer on my Light phone but I have more time because I'm not sucked into it like a black hole. Got to read my book for 20 minutes this morning!
21:23 - After one full day of use (listening to music for probably 6 hours, sending and receiving lots of texts and calls), my battery is still at 54%-- major improvement from my old iphone who couldn't last 3 hours turned off without a charge. Today my 3 annoyences with my phone were 1) I am so slow at texting with no autocorrect, 2) The voice to text is so aggressive with the punctuations!, and 3) I can't use the salut emoji which is my favorite.
Anyway... here's what I've been looking at lately:
11.02.2026
I got it figured out! Turns out you can activate it online, the person I spoke to originally was just CONFUSED!!! So yippie!! If you text me I will get it on my Light Phone! This is so exciting--if you couldn't tell by the out-of-character overuse of exclamation points. Taking lots of cute pictures on my phone and sending lots of texts. I've also been enjoying listening to long long audio tracks. I must reccomend Rebecca Black's Boiler Room Set. It's fantastic. Tomorrow I will leave my smartphone behind :) I will update you.
03.02.2026
Ok so annoyingly you cannot switch the plan if you don't have the app. I am being driven mad. I bought a longer plan, and now I just have to waiiiiit for the new sim card to arrive. Seems like a waste. Hopefully I will be able to switch the phone number to my old phone number. We shall see. Would be annoying to have a new number after so many years of the same number. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I'm so ready to get rid of my iphone!! I am so dissapointed that I'll need to be carrying it around more again now that I don't have a sim card in my phone.
01.02.2026
Its definitely harder to do a lot of things. But I am enjoying the resistance so far. Honestly, I am finding I prefer to go around the things I cannot do. For example, writing down a URL to go look at later. I will have a much better time looking at a website on my computer at home than I would on my phone outside somewhere. Tomorrow I make the final switch and I have two things ahead of me. 1) I have to get a physical clipper card so that I can travel around, and 2) I have to call mint mobile to get my plan changed. Somehow I have wound up with no account. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HAVE AN APP?! It honestly made me crazy already so I'm glad to have a justifiable reason to be mad now. Happy to have my little brick. I am noticing that I am much more engaged in the world already, and that I am doing the things I want to be doing, rather than being drawn into habits that don't feel good in the long term.
28.01.2026
I got a sim card in my Light Phone! I'm going to be saving a fair amount of money on a much cheaper phone plan through mint mobile, because I truly don't need that much. Its very exciting. I've found myself much more focused on my tasks, and getting out of bed much faster in the morning. Especially with my iphone totally bricked by fate, I am much more present in my life. I'm shocked at people's reactions to the phone. They're more often interested or inspired by it than I expected. When I first thought of getting the phone, I was worried about stigma around not having a standard/normal phone anymore. But people seem to be tired of the endless scroll too. And more often than not, people relate to feeling helpless in the face of screen addiction. I have found a couple things sort of annoying. Texting is slow and taking some time to get used to. I wish the notes app had a checklist feature. My ancient laptop is unable to connect to my phone (this is a laptop issue and not a phone issue, but annoying regardless) and therefore I can't easily extract photos. This is fine though, because I can just email them to myself. Speaking of... Please enjoy some photos taken on my Light Phone.
21.01.2026
Shocking news! My Light Phone III arrived yesterday! It is such a beautiful bit of gear. It truly looks like a tool and not like an infinite portal to everything ever. Unfortunately, my SIM card is incompatable at this point. I'm hoping to keep my phone number the same, for a multitude of reasons, and I'm also hoping to be able to use my phone soon. I'm planning to call them, as well as my service provider soon so I can get this worked out. Today I listened to music on my new phone, experimented with the directions tool, took lots of photos, and showed literally everyone. I'll keep you all posted.
10.01.2026
Today I purchased the Light Phone III. I am very excited about it. It is due to arrive in March. Hopefully it gets here in early March as my phone is currently super duper out of storage and I cannot access my photos, calendar, and messages-- my most useful apps. The next two months are going to be difficult but I'm looking forward to the arrival of my package!