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I didn’t do this experiment to become a minimalist monk or to impress Silicon Valley.
I did it because I wanted to know what would happen if I removed the one object that has basically become my third hand.

So I took my SIM-card, pushed it into a dumbphone that looked like it escaped from 2009, and told myself:

“Ok, Jeroen. Let’s find out how addicted you really are.”

The first days: wait… is this what peace feels like?

The first mornings were oddly quiet.
No notifications.
No WhatsApp.
No “even snel dit checken”.

Just me, my thoughts, and a ceiling that suddenly looked much more interesting than usual.

I felt something that honestly shocked me:
Focus.

I would start a task… and finish it… without checking 14 apps in between.
My brain wasn’t doing parkour anymore.
It just… worked.

I had forgotten what that felt like.

The great contact massacre: 1400 vs 250

Then reality slapped me in the face.

My dumbphone could store 250 contacts.
I had 1400.

That meant one thing:
I had to decide who belonged in the top 250 of my life.

A Hunger Games nobody had asked for.

The consequences arrived fast:

• People calling me who assumed I knew who they were
• Text messages from unknown numbers
• Me, improvising conversations like a stand-up comedian with amnesia

Sometimes I looked them up quietly in the personnel system.
Sometimes I bluffed my way through.
And sometimes I had to admit defeat and say:
“Sorry, but who are you?”

If you want humility in your life, use a phone that forgets everyone.

Week two: the silence starts talking back

Around the second week, something interesting happened.
People stopped expecting instant replies.
My mind stopped vibrating.
And the world became… softer.

But when everything went quiet, I started noticing something uncomfortable.

Without my smartphone constantly feeding me messages and updates…
… I felt how often I crave social connection just to feel relevant.

Not because I want to talk.
But because I want to feel seen.

That one stung.

This experiment didn’t just turn off my phone.
It turned off all the noise I use to avoid feeling disconnected from others, and sometimes from myself.

Week three: discovering my inner grandpa

At some point I realised I was becoming That Guy.
The one who:

• doesn’t see your message until hours later
• doesn’t respond instantly
• shows up somewhere without having sent a photo first
• says things like: “Send me an SMS”

Not having a smartphone didn’t make me enlightened.
It made me 87.

But it also made me calmer than I’ve been in a long time.

The gym was better.
Work was sharper.
My evenings were heavier, like my body suddenly remembered how to relax.

The last week: the forbidden love letter to convenience

By the end of the experiment, something funny happened.

I didn’t particularly miss the smartphone.
But I also wasn’t delusional enough to think life is better without one.

Because here’s the truth:

• I like scanning QR codes
• I like receiving photos of my favourite nephew holding a tiny coffee cup
• I like knowing who the hell is calling me
• I like maps
• I like fast contact with my friends

I didn’t crave the phone itself. I craved the middle path.

The path where I have all the conveniences…
without being a dopamine-junkie goblin who checks WhatsApp mid-squat.

What I’m keeping

The version of me that I met during these 30 days was… nice.

A little calmer.
A little sharper.
A little less desperate to know what everyone is doing at every moment.

So I’m keeping some things:

• My dumbphone is now my alarm clock
• My smartphone sleeps downstairs
• Grayscale stays
• The gym is a phone-free zone
• The car is now basically my phone’s day-care centre

I don’t need to quit the digital world.
I just want it to stop running my internal operating system.

Maybe that’s what this experiment really did.
Not detox me. Not purify me.
Just remind me that I function better when I’m not constantly being pinged into stupidity.

And honestly?
That’s enough.

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Measured Takeaways

Duration: 30 days (2 Nov → 2 Dec)
Device: Dumbphone (capacity: “good luck with that, buddy”)
Smartphone hours: 0 per day

Benefits

• Industrial-grade focus
• Actual rest in my brain
• Less compulsive checking
• More depth in whatever I’m doing
• Better gym sessions
• Better evenings
• Feeling human again

Downsides

• Contact limit → social chaos
• Didn’t know who was calling sometimes
• No photos / QR codes / quick info
• Everything took longer
• People assumed I was ignoring them

Changes I’m keeping

• Dumbphone as alarm
• Smartphone downstairs
• Grayscale
• Leave phone in the car
• No phone in the gym