Browser-less

I like to give periodic updates on my tech use here on the blog, especially when I make a big change. Here’s the latest one.

I deleted the browser on my phone.

I’d tried this once before, two or three years back, and I lasted only a few days. I just didn’t know how to operate as an adult without the ability to do a quick Google search—whether for a need, a want, or a request from someone else. Nor, it turns out, did I like being without a browser, because that meant I couldn’t read articles on my phone, including links shared by friends.

But I decided to give it another try about two months ago, and this time, for some reason, it wasn’t even hard to go without. I deleted Firefox, disabled Safari, and haven’t looked back once.

For a few years there I had settled into a pretty stable equilibrium. My phone had calling and texting plus Spotify, Libby, Firefox, and Marco Polo. Maybe a year ago I deleted Polo. My brothers and I had enjoyed using it since the pandemic, but we finally agreed it was better just to talk by phone rather than to talk “to” our phones in video-recorded form. That brought my average daily screen time down from 90+ minutes per day closer to 60-75, depending.

Since deleting my browser, though, it’s down to 30-40 minutes per day. Basically I now open my phone to text someone, to call someone, or to select the song or podcast I want to listen to. That’s it.

I haven’t had access to email on my phone in years, I’m not on social media, I’m not on Substack, I have zero news or website apps, no ESPN or New York Times or puzzles or games or anything else. I live in a small town in west Texas, so I don’t need Google Maps, but I keep it somewhere on the phone just in case I need to find an unknown destination, or for when I travel. And I’ll re-download Uber or Venmo or what have you as needed, when traveling, and maybe a few others.

But for all intents and purposes, on a day-to-day basis I’m down to calls, messages, and music. That’s my simple little home screen: a black-and-white rectangle with a few squares I touch when needed. This old iPhone might as well be a Spotify-enabled dumb phone.

And I love it.