Living Without a Smartphone in 2026: Expect a Phantom Phone

I got rid of my phone in 2017. I started writing about phone-free living in 2024, and for the most part, it’s all still relevant:

How to Live Without a Smartphone

Living Without a Smartphone in 2025: Increase Your Margins

There Is No “Phone-Free for 12 Years in Bali” Man

These articles are now the most popular content on this site.

So if you’re looking at that little piece of metal and glass in your lap and wondering if you could get by without it, you aren’t alone. And I want to encourage you however I can.

But First

Some caveats before we talk more about ditching a smartphone in 2026:

1. I will carry a smartphone again if necessary. I’ve said this since getting rid of my phone years ago, but so far I’ve always been able to find workarounds.

   However, I’m currently seeking a new role, so if you are a potential employer researching me, don’t let my current phone-free status be a detriment. If the job requires a phone, we can work that out.

2. There are times when a website or service uses two-factor authentication and won’t accept my Google Voice number. Using MsBoyink’s phone is my current workaround, but I could also just get a dumb phone.

3. Becoming phone-free doesn’t magically make you technology-free. I still spend more time looking at laptop screens than I would like. A complicating factor in our house is that we are also TV-free. During those after-dinner “I’m tired of thinking” hours, when most people would grab a TV remote, it’s all too easy to grab the laptop and start doomscrolling again.

4. MsBoyink and I are Gen X empty nesters. We grew up without smartphones, so we can remember life without them. We’re also not in the singles, dating, or highly social phase of life where phones may be more critical for connecting with and locating peers.

With those out of the way, let's talk about what's going to happen immediately after you ditch your smartphone.

Expect a Phantom Phone

Wikipedia notes that:

"80–100% of amputees experience a “phantom limb”, with some of them having non-painful sensations. The amputee may feel very strongly that the phantom limb is still part of the body. People will sometimes feel as if they are gesturing, feel itches, twitch, or even try to pick things up."

You’ve carried your smartphone in your pocket for years. You’ve gone through the motions of retrieving it, unlocking it, and scrolling thousands of times.

At this point, it’s part of your body. It's another limb. It's baked into your muscle memory. After you get rid of it, expect similar phantom-limb sensations.

You might even think you feel it buzzing in your pocket.

Your lizard brain will have your hand halfway to get it before your thinking mind can catch up and remind that that it's not there.

This is normal. 

And, as with amputees, this reaction will decrease over time. Just give your brain a chance to rewire itself.

There's more you can do.

Carry a Notebook

Ever see a smoker trying to quit by using candy, pencils, or toothpicks?

Same idea here. Carry a notebook where you used to carry your phone.

Use it to record the thing you were about to look up.

Use it to remember what you were going to text your partner.

Use it to write down directions to the new place you’re going.

Or jot down that clever tweet, TikTok, or Reel you want to post later.

And use it to feel a little less doofy when your body goes looking for something you don’t carry anymore.