2024 the best advice for cell phone use is: review

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(as of Oct 21, 2024 12:09:16 UTC - Details)

Packed with tested strategies and practical tips, this book is the essential, life-changing guide for everyone who owns a smartphone.

Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? Do you frequently pick it up “just to check,” only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Do you say you want to spend less time on your phone—but have no idea how to do so without giving it up completely? If so, this book is your solution.

Award-winning journalist Catherine Price presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up—and then make up—with your phone. The goal? A long-term relationship that actually feels good.

You’ll discover how phones and apps are designed to be addictive, and learn how the time we spend on them damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories. You’ll then make customized changes to your settings, apps, environment, and mindset that will ultimately enable you to take back control of your life.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ten Speed Press (February 13, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039958112X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399581120
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.55 x 7 inches
Reviewer: KMLG
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent quick read
Review: I wouldn't consider myself addicted to social media, but I definitely have seen changes in myself over the last few years. I lose track of time and realize that I've been scrolling for over an hour, but it feels like just a few minutes... This book came highly recommended and I was able to read the first half (the authors research) in an hour or two. The second half of the book gives a daily guide (for 30 days) to help you "break up" with your phone. All of her suggestions are awesome and really easy to do. I don't know if I'll take it as far as she suggests, but I've already seen a huge improvement in my relationship with technology.

Reviewer: Kelly
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This book is changing my life - master your phone without having to get rid of it!
Review: A more accurate (but less catchy) title might have been “How to Re-establish Dominance In Your Relationship With Your Phone”.Price has no problem with people using their phones… as long as that’s what they want to be doing.But she makes a compelling argument that our phones have started to use us instead, and that app designers have harnessed neuroscience to keep us scrolling and checking far beyond what has become useful for us.The goal of her book is to make us aware of how and when we use our smartphones, how it makes us feel, and to break the cycle of mindless app surfing, scrolling and checking by breaking our addiction to the dopamine cycle.The book begins with a section explaining why the current relationship between many people and their phones is not a positive one, and some potential consequences which include reduced attention span, reduced memory, and depression.The second half of the book is a 30 day plan for “breaking up with your phone” and then reforming your relationship so that it’s a healthy one where you’re actively deciding when, where, and how you use the phone.I’m purposefully following Price’s 30 day plan because it takes time to change a habit. If you try to do it all at once, you might have a good week, but it may be harder for it to stick. Picking up her book every day and reading what “the plan” is for that day and journaling about my progress has helped me play the long game.This book is changing my life.I’m on Day 6 of the 30 day process and it’s already changing my life. I’ve reclaimed time in my day by taking those minutes of scrolling and adding them together into blocks of time which I can use to actually sit and read a book for 30 minutes, or bake something, or tackle cleaning out a drawer.I’ve also noticed an increased level of focus. Because I’m actively trying not to pick up my phone unless I want to initiate something (rather than consume something) I’m better able to empty the entire dishwasher without checking Instagram or Facebook or seeing an e-mail that I must deal with right this second.I freaked out when reading the section of the book about how our attention span is suffering and our brains may actually be changing due to our phone use. Now I actively try to see tasks all the way through. Every time I completely finish a task without stopping and doing something else, I’m training myself to have more focus and patience. think everyone with a smartphone should read this book. Maybe you have a perfect relationship already… but I would be surprised if even the most technology savvy and mindful of us can’t learn something from Price’s straight forward tactics for being aware of your current relationship, forming goals for what you’d like it to be, and coming up with a plan to break your addiction and get back in control of your device.

Reviewer: PamCNM
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Outdated, but lots of useful ideas
Review: Outdated- for many of us, landlines aren't even an option anymore- but there are still many good ideas for breaking your phone addiction and improving your attention span and focus.

Reviewer: Susan B Arico
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Price does all of us a service through this book!
Review: How to Break Up with Your Phone is a readable, concise, helpful, inspiring book.In the first half, Catherine Price does a masterful job of succinctly presenting the problem and scenario of modern day phone usage and the real challenges they pose to human flourishing. She provides just the right amount of phone development history and narrative thread to give the key points of the big picture and help the reader feel oriented.In the second half, Price provides a practical, workable step-by-step guide to diminishing phone use significantly so readers can be in charge of their phone lives (instead of the other way around). It is thorough but not overwhelming. Her suggestions are specific enough to be employable, but no one day's directlives feel overwhelming.Many of Price's observations and suggestions are unique and memorable, such as her recommendation to "have a fleeting relationship" (by which she means - have an in-person conversation with someone you meet on the road or in line, instead of looking at your phone).I have gone back and referred to this book many times since my first reading.Price has also given several excellent interviews about her work in this arena via podcast, and I benefit from the emails she sends to subscribers.

Reviewer: Kurt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I'd recommend this book to any smartphone user!
Review: I first saw this book on a whim when I was at the library. I noticed the title, and thought it sounded interesting. It's a quick read, as once I started I couldn't put it down. The book starts off with "An open letter to my phone", and I was hooked from there. I included that letter in the pics.The book is broken down into 2 sections - The Wake Up and The Break Up. The Wake Up goes into how phones are so addictive, how they can harm memory and attention span, etc. The Break Up is essentially a 30 day challenge where you do one thing each day, with the goal of ultimately creating a healthier relationship with your phone. After reading the book in 2 short days, I decided that to get the most out of it, I needed to do the 30 day challenge. It exceeded my expectations!I really appreciated how the author, Catherine Price, isn't telling us phones are bad. She says they are incredible tools that can help lead to richer and more fulfilling lives, if used appropriately. She isn't telling us not to use our phones, but is instead giving us tools that allow us to make the choice of when/how to use our phone a conscious one...rather than the addictive habit that phone usage can so easily become. I would strongly recommend this book to any smartphone user, and I've already purchased an additional copy for my brother.On a side note, I reached out to the author directly and actually heard back! She was friendly, encouraging, and very thankful.

Reviewer: Freddie
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: How to break up with your phone book
Review: Not what I expected but okay. Some of this is just plain common sense approaches to limits on using your phone.

Reviewer: ZanPlan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is so accessible and really eye opening. I left it out and my teenage son picked it up to read, even he was able to start applying some of the advice. Love the size of the book too, it’s just really easy to read and pick up, would totally recommend to anyone trying to restore better balance in their phone relationship!

Reviewer: Jahr
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I learned something I already felt all along , because I deleted Instagram a long time ago. This book is fun to read and enlightening.

Reviewer: byola
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The book everyone should read!

Reviewer: Orito
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a phenomenal book that tells you exactly how evil you already know your phone is. Yet, it’s realistic and acknowledges our phones are wonderful devices for connection, organization, and entertainment when used sensibly.Of course, you wouldn’t be interested in this title if you only used your phone sensibly. And the interesting thesis proposed here is that nobody really uses their phone sensibly. Furthermore, our phones and all the nifty apps inside them have been ruthlessly designed to keep it that way.We are each of us a treasure trove of data and attention that is being plundered every second we stare at our screens. Even this review I’m writing enriches people I’ll never meet.That said, I have cut my average daily screen time down to one quarter of what it was before I read this book. That’s 3 hours every day that I’m spending talking to people, reading, planning my life, and just enjoying all the boring, mundane, simple pleasures of being a human. And yes, I still have my phone and find it very useful.I can’t recommend this little book highly enough. It’s improved my life enormously.

Reviewer: marcelo maita
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Já vinha me desligando do meu telefone há tempos e no meio da jornada me deparei com este livro. A primeira parte é muito rica em informação, inclusive com pequenas pistas sobre como as grandes empresas deturparam o que seria uma invenção maravilhosa. A segunda parte têm um plano elaborado pela autora para ajudar você a diminuir o contato com seu telefone. Vale muito a pena.