As a thought experiment, imagine you had a smart phone without internet access (but it was somehow able to download apps).
Apps you would want on that device might include a lot of healthy apps.
For example —
It would replace many of the devices we used pre-internet. A compass. A calendar. A guitar tuner. A pedometer. A notebook. A recipe book - where you place recipes. A recording device - and a bank of guitar effects pedals.
You've hit the nail on the head. The problem is not the phone, it's unlimited internet. You can waste almost as much time on a laptop with unlimited internet as on a smartphone. OTOH, it's pretty hard to get into unhealthy smartphone usage without (or with serverly rationed) internet access.
Procreate my well be the best value per dollar of anything I’ve purchased in my entire life measured in hours of joy and self-improvement it has provided.
Same here. I bought Procreate for my older iPad Pro and it has proved to be a real game changer for me. It transformed my relationship with the device so much that I installed a few other image tools on there and now it is my go-to for creative work. I also bought some art ‘books’ on the Kindle app and that has also helped with my mental health.
At some point in your life you get bored of doom scrolling on various apps and even browsing the web I’m now totally bored of it all. There isn’t anything new. Getting creative on the iPad using Procreate and using the phone for its camera to take reference shots and arty photos has been great. We have marvellous tools at our disposal and to use them for social media or reading rehashed blog articles masquerading as news seems like a crime to me. At any point in history people would have loved to have those tools available!
I second this. I purchased an older ipad pro, pencil, and procreate for probably around $900 total. I rarely use the iPad for anything else (whiteboarding is the other main use), and joke that it's my Procreate machine. It's still the best money I've spent.
I've always thought of the phone as a digital Swiss Army knife. It's a tool to get various things done when I'm away from a proper computer. I carry an iPhone mini which helps with this, as it's a palm sized device that has some utilities on it vs an expansive 2-handed canvas for consumption.
Apps you would want on that device might include a lot of healthy apps.
For example —
It would replace many of the devices we used pre-internet. A compass. A calendar. A guitar tuner. A pedometer. A notebook. A recipe book - where you place recipes. A recording device - and a bank of guitar effects pedals.
These are all healthy apps in my opinion.