I tried to not use my phone for 30 days. These are the results of the experiment.
The best way to reduce screen time: https://clear-space.app.link/nate
(trust me, it works)
Instagram ➤➤➤ https://www.instagram.com/nateobrienn/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nateobrienn
Hi everyone; This was such a fun experiment. Should I make more videos like this?
Also, check out Clearspace, it would mean a lot to me 🙂
https://clear-space.app.link/nate
Yes! Yes! Yes! Nate PLEASE make more videos like this! I am excited about them already!
I’ll be watching and waiting …..
❤
Absolutely! Love such vids.
very informative to watch your video. Yes it be cool to make a similar one like this. And I agree with what you said when one can’t find their phone one panics. Where’s my phone where’s my phone. I always think to myself it’s just a phone but it’s a gateway to the Stars. And even though your goal was 30 days and you only did two weeks. That’s still a major accomplishment. Cuz I’ve tried to see how long I can go without using the phone and I have only managed to do it for one day before I break down and have to call somebody or text somebody or send an email or do some research on the internet. So congrats for the two weeks of Silence
Good stuff, watched this on my phone kus I’m bored
Yes down time coming out yes I know something
Thank you
I don’t own a smartphone. I use a nokia non smartphone pay as you go.
It’s battery life is 2-3weeks.
If a smartphone becomes essential to live in the modern world, I will f**k off and live in the middle of nowhere. F**k that.
I use a tablet in the house. Alot at the minute cause I’m out of work.
But it’s so utilitarian though… Why limit it? No one limited fire when they invented that.
To cure the addiction. You need to give it up for some time to sort of detox and then return to a healthy amount of use.
For the same reason why you shouldn’t eat burgers and fries every day. They taste good but can have negative effects if over-consumed
🩵 field notes
Great video Nate. ClearSpace has been a game changer
what location are you in? looks amazing
My life changed when I walked to school and to my home without hearing anything.
I used to listen to podcasts. Ones I stopped that, my mind became so clear and I dindt over think that much since
Many people use their phones precisely to tune out that insane public transport noises and find some peace.
@Brick Templar Well I tried to maximize my effort to gain knowledge.
Now I on my own with my mind and the thoughts. That’s much better
Man i miss a nice lil nature getaway like youre showing in this video. Did one solo ome time with minimal phone time. It was very wonderful
Great video. I thought about stop using my phone but I can’t as I’am about to have Airbnb go live on my investment property.
dude this was so good. inspired me to cut back on my phone time.
Have a old school flip phone or slide phone. No apps but it’ll let you make calls and text.
It is so funny to me that people get pissed at me when I do not answer my phone because I cannot find it. I only just found it this morning and turned it off. Like coming up for air when I turn it off!
Algo is gonna pull this video down
That’s my favorite typa video, that’s why I like you bro, I’m finna try this, much love
It’s sad you’ve never known a life without a phone. As a Gen X I hate that I am so reliant on mine, I miss the freedom. Sometimes I leave the house without it, go for a walk, it’s so freeing.
Turn it off when you don’t need it, mine will be off till monday morning, and off again on friday till monday. People get pissed because they can’t reach me to help them with their basic life skills. I always tell them my time is precious, their’s is not.
Great video, super important topic. My best work comes after extended breaks from the phone
Nate saying he was born in the 90s. Pretty sure he was born in December 1999 but his soul has been wandering the earth to locate him since the 70s at least. Another good video!
Wait! When did Nate start modelling for Ralph Lauren?!
The way nate explains i cant fail on my tests its so clear and intresting
I have 2 phones, one that I have give my number to others, I only turn on whenever I needed it, maybe once a day for an hour or every few days, another phone I don’t give number to others, only for listening music, this phone I have on me all day . I have been living like that for a few years, phone is adding a lot of distraction to our life 😊I am the only one I know live like that , but I know this is the life that I enjoy
This is a great idea. What phone do you use for the music? Since I use Spotify for music I would be totally okay with just that on one phone.
@rawmilk good morning, the phone I use for music only is iPhone 8 , I got it used for $150, is definitely a peaceful feeling that no one will ever call when listening music
Wow only 2 weeks
My gf won’t listen…she gonna be mad when I don’t respond 🤣🤣
Good. Your life is more important than her emotions. 😂
Fantastic video. I really love using the locking cookie jar to reduce phone use. Another tool I’ve used has been getting a Nokia 3310 so that I can still get and make calls when I’m out and about without having to bring my smartphone. I think this is an area that we will all have to work on at some point if we want to get anywhere particularly impressive.
Anything that gets us addicted is no good. I will do social media detox every now and then, and I realize I have better focus.
Improving my productivity was in my head before but you’ve helped me a lot with that, also with previous videos :3
I love them, please make more
thanks for your transparency 👌
great video , i’ll probably try this
Even if you only try it for a weekend, it’s still worth it. You’ll learn a lot about your current habits
Man is back with a Banger🔥
Damned… Thought you died.
Haven’t seen you in a while
Nope. Still alive 🙂
@Nate O’Brien yayyy!!🎶
Lol.
Keep up the positive vibes!
It’s very difficult to break your notebook and they never need charging!
Like every other month i usually try a similar experiment whereby i font use my phone dataper a month i usually download a couple of movies and some articles to read i think this is a great experiment
Damn, shoutout MapQuest!
A blast from the past.
Clear Space is only for iOS, not for Android ☹️☹️☹️
My phone is the key to my main car though.
Waiting for Android version
I was born in 1955. I embrace technology and love it! I use it extensively and well. But……I also remember decades of living without immediate access to a phone. I remember as a kid riding my bike all around town and just being out on my own. I remember if I needed a phone simply finding a pay phone or going into a business and asking if I could use their phone to call home. I remember wondering about things and making the effort to look them up in the library. I remember learning to use maps and asking for directions. I remember carrying a book with me for waiting rooms and other times. (In fairness, I still do this as i read about 3-5 books a week.). Last year I did the social experiment of leaving my phone intentionally at home. It was good. I enjoyed it to the point where when I travelled to Europe I left my phone at home. That appalled my friends but I found it enjoyable. Do I still carry and use my phone? Of course! Did I reduce my time? Absolutely. I went from 4+ hours a day to less than 2 hours on average. Balance in life adds joy.
When I turn off my phone I feel like my brain lifts
I’m always overwhelmed but when I turn off my phone I feel better.
Thank you for putting this out there. ❤ I hope it spreads. ❤
I deleted my Hulu account and bought a $20 DVD player, and I realized how much I love weird old movies like trash horror and surreal stuff from the 80’s and classics from the 70’s. Like Gattica “I saved nothing for the swim back”. Instead of watching B list or C or D list nothing movies and shows I’m just watching movies as a deeply enriching experience.
I am tired of all the tech sometimes and I’ve wanted to get a turn table and using records, don’t call me a hipster but vinyls feels good.
Also, religious people have observed a sabbat for this reason you’re talking about. You work to make a living but you have to stop to make a life
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I remember reading something like “Imagine if Benjamin Franklin had had Twitter. Would he have invented all these things?”
I try very hard to not be on my phone! But I still get about 2 hours a day which is still too much for me… it’s 14h less of working on my goals! I always do good for a while and then go back to my old ways. The 15 years thing was really shocking. Really eye opening video!
About the 15 years thing –
We also can subtract 8h/day we’re sleeping, it’s 1/3 of our lives. So if you live till your 90yo wo’ve only lived for 60 years. Then many people work the full 8h/day on a job they don’t like. That’s another 8h/day of non-quality hours a day. (Great if you like youre job and you DO feel you’re living your quality hours when you work).
But basically 24h – 8h sleep – 8h work = 8h of FREE time we’ve left. Only 30 years of quality time if we live till 90.
That thought kinda scared me recently even more.
Let’s make that 1/3 of our life we’re actually living count!
I love your videos <3
You shouldn’t feel too guilty. Phones have really connected people. Maybe shift your focus on meaningful viewership.
Nate still makes videos? I missed him
Just watch your Video “How I Cured My Phone Addiction” this was 3 years ago. It’s still a Problem.
I have a phone. Its purpose? ” Hello? ” Calls Only, 90’s Kid here, We never had Cell-phones. The world was such a better place. Your life has so much more meaning that a ” Social Media Status ” Try it
I love getting off my phone real life is SO much better
Good for you. I’m 48 and I have never owned a smartphone. I have a flip phone in case of emergencies, but that’s it.
The funny thing about this video is if Youtube is still around you will be able to go back to this about assumptions we had for the future. Can you imagine you thinking that it would be or feel impossible to go without a phone in 10 years and to find that public transportation is the major form of transportation- as we are minimizing our foot prints. Cities are walkable- trains are quicker and more efficient and getting from one place to another is the easiest and phone usage is not as it is today since our generation has decided to disconnect.
We all needed this video lol
I still don’t have a phone, and you,, too, can totally live free and clear of this system of centralized data collection and totalitarian control, taking back those 15 years of your life. It’s fun!
The world before the smart phone era was incredibly tedious to do small tasks, such as cashing a check, ordering a pizza, getting a ride to the airport. Sometimes things would seem so difficult that it would be frustrating at times. Smart phones and the internet in general have made the world so much more functional and universal. Everything is so much simpler now, which gives us time for more activities that we enjoy
Easier yes, but are people happier? No
@Nate O’Brien happiness isn’t a state of being but rather a momentary feeling, like being sad. There’s no way to accurately gauge if people are “happier” or not between generations
We certainly feel tethered to our phones. It feels stressful to me.
I had to downgrade in phone to a iPhone SE… I got tired of wanting to upgrade constantly spending my money for little meaningless upgrades…
what if your friends staring at their phone
Kick the phone and throw an egg at them
Having a notebook reminds me of being an exchange student learning a new language, before Google translate 📓
You are addicted ? Oh come on !last video you are the most self disciplined person in the world 😂
In China you can’t do nothing without a phone. need a taxi? use phone. want to pay for groceries? use phone. any interactions can be done only using a phone. no alternatives. it’s very painful to be a tourist there.
Shocking. You don’t have friends so it’s pretty productive for you.
The timing of this video couldn’t have been more relevant. Just yesterday I switched off my phone and threw it into a locker. Hoping to go without it for a week or a month. I don’t even have my personal instagram account logged in on my PC.
it is not the phone that is the problem, its the apps thay you choose to put in it.
I did this experiment
Wild results
hello Nate friend. Nice to hear from you again.
You were less susceptible to car accidents, running into people, fake news, and easier to deal with in retail dining and dating environments?😁
Phone addicts are useless on job sites. Literally stealing from their bosses. I do not interact with those that are phone addicted, there is something fundamentally wrong with their logic or lack thereof.
a good compromise is using basic phone functions only. and not connect to internet all the time. I want to try it for myself actually because too much screen time is getting counter-productive
I put my phone in Black & White
I knew someone who still used an original flip phone to this day. The phone company finally forced him to upgrade because they were cutting off the cell service upgrading to 5G. I respect this guy for going that long.
4G networks will be with us for a long time. There’s no immediate need to switch to a 5G phone. I still use 3G, 4G dumbphones. I won’t be forced to use a specific device just because someone wants me to. I’m perfectly willing to ditch cell phones entirely. I’m retired and in my 60s so it’s easy for me to make such a statement.
I’m 21 and have never had traditional social media. The only thing I have is YouTube which I’m planning to delete now because the shorts function has been occupying my time too much.
I will say that I do not suffer with anxiety or depression even though it runs in my family. I had anxiety when I was a lot younger but it was a phase I got through. I’ve never had a depressive phase. Maybe it’s the lack of social media usage, maybe not. I’m a woman and I’ve also never had body image issues. I’ve never dieted. It’s not that I don’t have insecurities, I do, but I’ve never actually had issues with food and disordered eating like most women seem to. I think a lot of this is due to limiting the unrealistic images I saw growing up.
Finally, somebody said it. [In my best Bog Sugar impression]
tu as entièrement raison 😉😉😎😎❤❤
Nate, i’m a lot older than you. I was born in the days when there were few technical gadgets and you had no choice but to use your brain. Mobile phones didn’t become available until I left school at 16. I didn’t have my own phone until age 22 back when they were keypad 🔢 only. I no longer have social media and still I’m on my phone so much. Whenever I strategised a technique, I chose to read hard back books 📖 instead of my phone
Scary to think we depend SO MUCH on this device. Definitely would love to try living my life without, going to work out the kinks for work since I need my phone to keep track of appointments, upload everything in a system for the company and call clients 🤔
meanwhile us born in the 80’s are like . . . . sigh
I have stopped using my phone as much because I decided to replace my digital planner with a physical one. I honestly prefer it because it creates a clearer headspace for me. As for meeting up with friends and what not, I have come to memorize my city pretty well. Unless I am traveling to a completely new area, I would be on the fence of not having a phone in case an emergency arises😅 As always, great video Nate!
for android, use minimalist phone, it has grayscale for individual apps
it also reminds you to set a time for individual apps, each time you click on it, it changes your apps into simple list, so you dont get attracted to it and scroll the apps. been using it and love it
Allow yourself to be bored! Man I love it. I just finished the Digital Minimalism book by Cal Newport & this is a great follow up video
Great book!
Hi Nate, I really enjoy and agree with your viewpoint on this issue. People walk around like brainless zombies staring at their smartphones and trying to fit every function into every second of their day! People need to have a little time where they are a little bored, think and meditate. It’s nice to go to a park and smell the flowers and listen to the birds and frogs. I have a landline and a flip phone and have never owned a smartphone, and watching the way people use them, I don’t want to buy one. The people in our society suffer from information overload, they have to know everything at that very second and they don’t have the patience to wait a little bit.
Hey people always talk about how they miss the 2000s, maybe we just miss the idle state of mind. limit your phone usage to 1hour a day, it will feel like the 2000s.
we already pay everything with phone for many years in China
you never try this in china Even for a day···🤣
Who remembers not having smart phones?
Omg. I miss it. I’m a 95 baby. I’m glad I experienced life without a phone for a few years.
Grayscale tip you said like 2 years ago was lowkey game changing
Nate, I do not use my cell phone excessively ,BUT I sure do so with my computer. I am contiplating cutting my use time. Maybe I will set a number of hours for each part of the day. The mornings could be for one hour. The afternoon could be two hours. The evenings for one hour. That will be 4 hours daily x 31 days =124 Hours per Month.
Ok I’m selling my phone for $1000 who wants to buy?
I decided to remove all social media sites from my phone recently. I still have access to the sites but they are not as easily accessible. Best decision. I have now able to see where my time goes and be more productive.
Honestly, using your phone is fine. Just don’t use social media and entertainment apps on it. Using it exclusively for improving your day-to-day such as transport, maps etc. is completely fine and mandatory even.
Backpacked 4 months through Europe without a computer or a phone. Was amazing. Then another time went one month without a phone and used Skype on my computer for business meetings or calls with Mom. The phone addiction is real and you’re right in a few years it won’t be possible to live day to day without a phone from banking to transportation. Sucks.
Boredom is certainly underrated. It is just an aspect of impatience i.e. the inability to suffer the passage of time.
If it’s good to be bored, then this video is having it’s intended effect.
nice scenery. Think I saw a ski area in the background. Where is it?
I’ve tried going without my phone and I can see how it might be healthy but I use it literally all day and I’m fine with it although I’m not wasting my time either or always looking at the screen. I listen to educational podcast, I read books, do research and also get work done. I’ll do social media maybe 30 min a day. So basically long as I’m being productive I feel good about it
How did you get Tinder on your notepad? 🤔
alright bro.. i need to try that.. because i think i always needed something like this..
Sadly the phone is quite an essential tool. One way I stay out of the phone is with a cellular Apple Watch which allows me to stay connected to business notifications and it has some of the essential features without the entertainment value.
A better experiment—a drinking game: every time Nate says “like”, take a shot! 🙂
My opinion as a software engineering student (don’t hate me lol xD) is that: People say and have a guilt that we spend too much time on the phone but I don’t think that’s that relevant. I think the important thing is WHAT THINGS WE ARE DOING on our smartphone while we use it. Sometimes we are planning a trip, sometimes we are socializing, sometimes organizing our day, sometimes entertaining ourselves, sometimes working, sometimes we are shopping etc. The smartphone is simply something that has emerged to have all that pack (which was previously had separately) in a single device. I don’t see the bad thing if you’re using it correctly. If anything, I think people’s biggest complaint about wasting time on their smartphones is when they use it too much for entertainment or socializing. Also, I want to say, that I respect all the people who want to do those things the old way (maps, books, ask someone on the road), I think it’s a nice experience that we should all experience sometime.
Noting that this experiment won’t realistically be able to be replicated in our near future is kind of terrifying.
4:37 good “board” pun. I see what you did there.
Loved this video. New subscriber here. 🙂