One of the biggest faults of our modern technology, is that we use them as toys instead of tools. I have decided that I want to use technology to do useful things. I will no longer use my computer or phone as a source of entertainment. Of course I am not saying that I will forgo any form of entertainment. I mean that I will use my computer and phone for their intended purpose.

I will give some examples to illustrate what I mean. My phone is a device which I use to communicate with others. If I need to reach somebody to arrange something, I can simply send them a text or call them. I will not use my phone to distract myself when I feel some boredom while in a waiting room. My phone can also help me to navigate a route that I have not taken before. But I would rather not use it to entertain myself. The same goes for my laptop. I have a few exceptions though. For example: I allow myself to watch a few entertaining or educative videos on saturday morning.

The rules I make for myself serve the purpose of spending less time on my devices. I want to use them as tools, not as toys. I used to hate my phone because it would often distract from things that matter to me. At some point I was looking into getting a dumbphone to remove distractions. But now that my view of technology has shifted, I actually really like my smartphone. It is a great tool when you remove almost every app from it and just keep the useful bits. It turns out that a smartphone is a great device when you remove all the distractions from it.

A dumbphone will of course have way less options for distracting yourself, unless you count Snake. But using a smartphone as a smartphone in the literal sense of the word, actually makes it a useful device. A sort of swiss army knife with all kinds of useful functions.

The difference between digital tools and regular tools, is the fact that most digital tools can be used for a large number of different things. A phone is not just for calling, it can also be used to kill the slightest hint of boredom. Most regular tools only serve one purpose.

Of course there are digital ‘tools’ that serve a single purpose. An iPod can only be used to consume media, just like a radio can only be used to listen to music and news. I would recommend to use a few of these single purpose digital tools to be able to remove those purposes from a phone or computer.

You should take some time to think about what goals you want to achieve by using a tool. Want to work on a document? A laptop would be a useful tool. Want to take some notes during a meeting? A simple paper notepad would better serve that purpose. I like the view that Cal Newport lays out in Digital Minimalism. He asks a few questions to deliberately use technology: Do I need this technology for this purpose? Is this technology the best way to reach this goals? Are there better ways to achieve this? We can use these questions to filter out any technologies or uses of technology that don’t serve our best interest.