GET SMART

Can using a dumber phone cure 'brain rot'?

- BRIAN X. CHEN

Dear readers, I have a confession. I am suffering from an ailment that the younger ones call “brain rot,” or the inability to think deeply and too much reliance on my phone. These days, it’s tough to even finish a book.

Plenty of people have this problem. So many, I have birthed a career of minimalist tech punditry, advising to rid us of distractions, from the Ai Pin, the now defunct artificially intelligent lapel pin that took notes, to phones with only basic features.

The latest example, the US$300 (21,000 baht) Light Phone III, from a New York City startup, is a stripped-down phone that does barely anything. The newest version, which began shipping in March and is set for a broader release in July, can place calls, send texts, take photos, stream directions, play music and podcasts and run ride-hails.

There is no web browser. There is also no app store, meaning there’s no Uber to hail a ride, no Slack and no social media. There isn’t even email.

“You use it when you need to, and when you put it back it disappears in your life,” said Kaiwei Tang, CEO of Light, the startup that has developed multiple iterations of the Light Phone over the past nine years. “We get a lot of customers telling us they feel less stressed and they become more productive; they become creative.”

I was curious to see if the Light Phone could cure me of brain rot, so I used it as my primary phone for a week. There were moments I enjoyed it: While waiting for a train, resting at the gym or eating alone, I was not tempted to stare at the phone screen, and I felt more mindful of my surroundings. Phone calls sounded nice and clear. The maps app did a fine job navigating me around town.