EDC as a gen-z dad
- Field Notes Notebook
- Sharpie S-gel 0.7
- Modded 3DS
- Camillus knife
- Sony NWE394/B MP3 Player
- Zyn
- AT&T Cingular Flex 2 Smart Flip (Cricket)
- Wallet
I've thought about switching to a dumbphone for a long time. What spurred me to bite the bullet was that my four year old, who copies everything I do, had started making lego/paper phones and pretend to be scrolling.
We don't let our kids use any smart devices for obvious reasons and I figured there's no reason not to hold myself to the same standard.
The benefits outweighed the inconvenience right away. Just the fact of not having my smartphone in my pocket feels freeing. I have more free time, I can read a book or hold a conversation without the voices telling me to check my phone every 10 seconds, and I have more time to be present with my family.
Now for the practical details, I work remotely in IT. I do require my smartphone for 2-factor authentication (for what I couldn't switch to SMS) so I deleted 75% of the apps and it sits across the room. There was one day where I reinstalled Facebook to look for something on marketplace--and I was having trouble signing in on my laptop--Immediately I caught myself randomly opening the app and scrolling without even thinking so it got deleted again.
Navigation-wise the Cingular Flex 2 has KaiOS and a rather-challenging-to-use Google Maps app, but it gets me where I need to go. I will admit I've grown a bit more dependent on my wife, who still has a smartphone (shes talking about making the switch too), for directions, googling stuff, etc..
My favorite thing about my EDC is my pocket notebook, in which I write stuff I want to look up later, notes to put in my Obsidian vault, grocery lists, to do lists, doodles, etc..
Finally, I want to thank this community for probably changing my life, y'all are awesome.