What do you all do on your phones that isn't doom-scrolling or mindless mini games?
I find myself checking out pretty often and just making myself feel bad about the state of the world, or killing half an hour on stupid games that I could 100% live without. This is probably pretty common, and I’m wondering what other people have found as a way to do more productive things with their phones in the downtime.
Pretty much just communication and occasionally looking up some info. I save gaming and everything else for the computer. Phones are portable, but they are pretty awful for anything beyond the basics. Plus, if I’m out and about, I want to be there, not on my phone.
Mostly multi-factor authentication for my day job, because I work for a bunch of cunts who won't spring for a company phone for company apps. The only reason I even have an iPhone is that my mobile provider was giving 'em away for free while forcing people to upgrade to 5G devices.
And if I ever get to retire, first thing I'm doing is getting rid of my phone and home internet connection. If I need internet I'll use a VPN over free wifi at the public library.
Look up word etymology. Also kanji and language studies. You don’t need a language program like memorize, you can just study words.
Listen to ABC Listen podcasts and live. Listen to my music. Listen to audiobooks.
Camera. Photos and occasional video. I have been photographing some of my garden, same plants each day to show growth.
Stay in touch with friends and family on Telegram, or just with a phonecall.
I know people who use their phone for money but I don’t do that. It does contain my drivers licence though. I prefer the licence itself, that said, I don’t want to hand over my unlocked phone.
I use mine to SSH into my homelab and fix misbehaving servers so I can use them on the go.
I also have rustc and my full neovim configuration installed inside of termux, so sometimes when I’m really desperate I can write code on the go too. Using neovim and an onscreen keyboard with an escape key and easy access to symbols makes the experience of writing code on a touchscreen… I won’t say good. I won’t even say tolerable. It makes the experience marginally less agonizing.
Using neovim with a Bluetooth keyboard however is an experience basically equivalent to desktop apart from screen size. On long car trips when in the backseat I like to wedge my phone in the headrest and use it like a tiny laptop. The performance isn’t as bad as you’d think.
Nothing, really. I only check the chats with my best friends, look at the time, and check the school timetable (I do have it on paper, but they always make some changes and then I’m the idiot for going to the wrong class…)
Way too much music and occasionally working on some personal writing projects that don’t end up anywhere because I have started so many that I lose interest in an idea/story.
I read the first page of hacker news twice a day. Once in the morning, and once at night. Usually nothing comes of it, but sometimes some new tech shows up with immediate application for one of my clients. Or someone posts something really insightful that makes me think.
If I want to play a game on my phone for 15 minutes? Fallen London. Great writing, tons of content.
I (strictly) have no social media apps on my phone. My rule is to decide how to spend time, then do it – never ever just do things to ‘kill time’ (it is, after all, time that kills us).
If I don’t know what to do, I study. I pick a subject and try to learn it to an ‘average’ level of competence. I typically do this ~2 hours a day, and it’s been my conscious habit for approximately 25 years so far. This is hard, but possible to do on a phone. Sometimes I’ll do research on a phone, and save the links to read properly on a laptop later. If I scroll on a phone, it is an act of hunger and hope.
People sometimes tell me to ‘live a little’. I don’t think they know the difference between living and dying. Every day, I become more. My neighbors spend their days at home drinking and eating – every day, they become less.
I mostly use my phone for reading ebooks. I keep the internet disconnected except for checking email and weather. All social media use is through my PC and not the phone.
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