How I use this phone-shaped eReader instead of my smartphone (sometimes)
"Dumb" phones have been having a moment lately. Some companies have even experimented with phones that use e-ink instead of the AMOLED displays that dominate the smartphone market. I've had an e-ink device (Kindle) since 2011 and regularly use it to borrow digital library books. I've always been impressed by e-ink's ability to emulate real paper, resulting in less eyestrain when compared to using other screens. It also uses minimal power which translates to great battery life.
As good as it is for reading, e-ink was never designed for scrolling through webpages, browsing social media, watching videos, or many of the other things that people do on their smartphones. But for those who are trying to loosen the grip that their smartphone has on their attention, ditching the luxuriously bright, colorful, and responsive AMOLED screen could be just the thing.
The Palma 2 is made by a Chinese company called Boox that uses e-ink in most of its products. The Palma is phone-shaped but is not a phone– it has WIFI and Bluetooth but no SIM card slot. Unlike my Kindle, the Palma runs Android 13, meaning it can install and run any app from the Google Play store. It can run reading apps like Kindle and Libby but also music and productivity apps. It's possible to watch YouTube or play video games on the Palma (even "Call of Duty"!), but it's certainly not the experience smartphone users are accustomed to.
The Palma interested me because I had developed some smartphone habits that weren't ideal. I would use my phone to watch videos on YouTube while doing chores or hanging around the house. YouTube served up an algorithmically enhanced cascade of videos anytime my thumb found its way to the app on my phone. I was frequently grabbing my phone to find a new video or even watching videos when brushing my teeth, using the bathroom, or even walking up and down stairs. This wasn't necessarily horrible— it made doing household chores easier and the videos I watched were often interesting and informative— but since the smartphone is the most successful attention-stealing device every devised, any moment of contact with it is an invitation to seek out more distraction.
For example, when tapping around YouTube, I would sometimes find myself idly switching over to Reddit or Google News (I think of this as the "smartphone slippery-slope problem"). The amount of time I spent using my phone wasn't excessive in terms of minutes spent. But having the phone on my person was starting to feel distracting and even anxiety-producing. I had an inkling that the Palma 2 might be able to serve as a more mundane and limited substitute for my smartphone in some situations. At worst, I figured it could be a slightly more portable eReader that I could use the same way I use my Kindle currently.
When I received the Palma, I installed just a handful of apps: Libby (for audiobooks from the library), Kindle, Pocket (for reading online articles), and my music and podcasting apps. There are lots of good reviews of the Palma 2 out there and they do a better job of presenting the device's strengths and weaknesses than I ever could. But suffice it to say that reading on the Palma is just as good as on my Kindle and the audio functionality is very similar to my smartphone (Bluetooth connectivity, downloading audiobooks/podcasts, etc.). After a few weeks of use, I've settled into some new routines. I've broken them out by activity/location here:
At home
Primary device: Palma
The Palma functions as a media player. I really enjoy listening to podcasts, audio books, or music while I do chores. I keep my Shokz headphones paired to the Palma because these allow to hear my surroundings while I'm doing these things.
The phone stays in a room away from where I spend most of my time at home.
At work
Exercising
Walking
Doing car errands/traveling
I've started thinking of the Palma as an audio device akin to a Walkman or CD player of yesteryear. The e-ink means I'm not tempted to stray from a few basic functions. I use it for reading too and I've definitely done this in a few moments where I would have been witlessly browsing around my phone instead. An unexpected benefit of this Android-enabled e-ink screen is that it has changed how I prefer to read online articles. Instead of clicking around Google News and reading snippets of articles, I've increasingly been purposely selecting articles to be sent to the Pocket app for later reading (I love this app's uncluttered article view and the ability to turn "pages" with the Palma's buttons rather than scrolling). Another realization I've had is that there aren't really that many articles I actually want to commit to reading all of.
Conclusions:
The Palma has led to some good changes for me. I've enjoyed using it for reading books and online articles on Pocket. I've also basically stopped using YouTube on my phone. I actually don't miss it all.
Average daily YouTube minutes 2 weeks before Palma | Average daily YouTube minutes 2 weeks after Palma |
21 | 2 |
I definitely could have just deleted YouTube from my phone like I've done with Facebook and Instagram. I've found myself wondering- could the solution to a problematic device really be to add another device?
Upon reflection, I think that this unbundling might actually make some sense. Smartphones are undeniably practical and using them has become incredibly comfortable and frictionless. A result of this is that we are susceptible to any application that has been designed to monopolize attention, even if it is just one of many less pernicious apps we use. YouTube, Google News, and Reddit caused this problem for me recently but it could easily be some other app in a the future. There are various digital wellness apps that claim to help with this but they all have a fundamental flaw– they require using your phone!
A general solution to the smartphone slippery-slope problem could be to introduce some separation from the smartphone whenever possible. So far, the Palma has proven to be a neat device that allows me to enjoy reading articles and listening to audio without having my phone anywhere near me. In a world where screens are all around us, it may be beneficial to choose ones that are more purpose-built for how we plan to use them. The alternative is allowing them to use us whenever our guards are down.
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