Like most people, my iPhone comes to the bathroom with me. While I don't have social media on it, I do have YouTube and Unread1 an email client and Strava. That means I often scroll a few things to "triage" RSS links or view some YouTube Shorts. I'll check in on what bike rides people have done or check my own last ride. I'll open up emails to "check" on messages and delete stuff I don't care about.
This activity extends past "personal" trips and is a default action when I touch my phone. I open YouTube and watch something while telling my kids they don't need to be on their devices all the time.
Much worse than these trips to the commode is the way that my phone gets let's me escape what's around me. I go searching for interaction and distraction because the bath my kids are having is far less interesting than what could possibly be happening on my phone. Sitting on the deck with my wife there is a moment of boredom and both of us reach for our phones instead of sitting in the boredom and finding a deeper point of interaction.
I Don't Do Useful Stuff on my Phone
The reality of my phone usage is that it's 99% stuff that doesn't matter. Sure sometimes I'm looking up the hours of the store I'm going to or finding the right aisle to go down in Home Depot, but it's mostly a distraction machine.
I'm not reading that email and crafting a proper reply. I save that for sitting at my iPad or Mac. I'm not reading deeply into some article. I'm not watching any useful video, though I have learned a bunch of movie facts.
All of my "productive" computer work happens in my office looking at my iPad or my Mac2.
But I keep looking at my phone because something interesting may be happening at any given moment and I've lost the ability to sit in boredom.
The Boring iPhone
In an attempt to make my phone more boring I've removed YouTube, YouTube Studio, Unread, and Spark. I guess I still have the default Mail application on my phone but it's so bad I never feel tempted to touch it.
I'm also making a stronger attempt to not even have my phone on me. It can sit on the counter where it's not easily accessible. When we're sitting on the deck with a bit of background music, I am perfectly able and can get up to walk the 5 feet to my phone to change the music instead of having it directly in front of me.
The hardest part of my longer-term transition to get away from my phone is always those around me. When I notice my wife grab her phone in a slight conversation lull, it feels insulting. I know that no person can be more interesting than whatever a stack of behaviour scientists have put on her screen.
My chosen companion for the porcelain throne is now whatever book I'm reading. Usually, the one that's not as deep so that I don't feel compelled to take notes in the middle of a pit stop.