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by wlesieutre 3225 days ago
I'm still on a smartphone, but I took away notification permissions from anything that doesn't need it. It's helped a lot with not looking at my phone more than I want to. If anybody wants an intermediate step before you switch back to a flip phone, give this a shot.

Looking at you, Facebook, with your "Somebody you don't actually care about posted for the first time in a while."

2 comments

Fully seconded. Directly removing smartphones is extreme. I can tame my smartphone quite stringently and it is doing exactly what I want it to do.

Any app I feel is a source of anxiety I can either cripple notifications and permissions from, or uninstall.

I did the same for Facebook - no more notifications. Unfortunately, that also stops notifications from Messenger which I'd prefer to get, but oh well.
I uninstalled the Facebook app, and use the website. It's 90% as good in functionality, and 1000% better in what it can and cannot do with data on my phone.

(If you post and comment regularly, you may prefer the app. I mostly use the site for casual browsing, and checking the address of events I'm on my way to.)

They're separate apps, not sure why you don't get them from messenger.

I've left that one's notification access open because at least for now it only uses them for someone sending me a message. Fingers cross they don't move the "SOMEBODY JUST WENT LIVE WITH VIDEO!!!!" over to that.