“The physical absence was the first thing I noticed,” says Katie Reid, 29, who gave up her iPhone in February for a flip¹ phone. “It felt like something was missing from my body.” This phantom-limb-like sensation will last about a month; a flip phone will never have that same hold on you. To make the transition tolerable, wean yourself slowly. For Reid, who is the director of digital media at a boys’ school in Baltimore, the process took years. First, do a smartphone self-diagnosis. “If there’s something in your gut² telling you this isn’t good for you, explore that,” says Reid, who found that the constant access to social-media sites, Twitter especially, made her anxious and sad.

“身体上的缺失是我最先察觉到的，”29岁的凯蒂·里德说。二月份，她放弃了自己的iPhone并换成一部翻盖手机。“感觉像是我的身体少了某个东西。”这种像幻肢一样的感受会持续大约一个月。翻盖手机永远不会对你有同样的支配力。为了使得这一改变可以忍受，让自己慢慢来。对于身为巴尔的摩一所男校内数字媒体主管的里德来说，这个过程花了数年之久。首先，做一个智能手机的自我诊断。“如果有什么东西在你心里告诉你，这对你是不好的，那么就把它探究明白，”里德说。她发现持续地使用社交网站，尤其是Twitter，让她既焦虑又痛苦。

She began by removing the social-media apps from her iPhone. That might be enough, but if you continue to feel a compulsion that makes you uneasy, consider flip-phonedom. Start paying more attention to geography. Reid worried most about the loss of GPS-enabled maps. Without them, you’ll need to plan ahead by looking up directions and printing them out or writing them down. “I bought some maps for my car,” Reid says. You will occasionally get lost. Still, take comfort in the fact that smartphones are all around you; nearly 80 percent of adults in the United States have one. You can ask for directions. Others can order an Uber or Lyft for you. Recently, Reid’s 1-year-old daughter had a birthday party. “I didn’t take any pictures,” she says, but of course she knew that someone else would.

她从删掉自己iPhone里的社交媒体软件开始做起。那样做可能足够了，但是如果你仍旧感受到一种使你感到不安的强迫感，那么就考虑一下翻盖手机吧。开始更多地留心地理。里德之前最担心的就是失去了带有GPS功能的地图。没有了它们，你需要通过查地图然后打印或是写下来，以提前进行规划。“我买了一些地图放在我的车里，”里德说。你偶尔会迷路。不过请放心，周围有的是智能手机；在美国，大约80%的成年人有一部手机。你可以问路。其他人也可以帮你打Uber或是Lyft。最近，里德一岁的女儿过了一个生日派对。“我没拍任何照片，”她说，但是她当然也知道，其他人会拍。

Prepare for clunky predictive-texting technology. For Reid, this T9 texting — that is, without a full keyboard — is the most irksome thing about the flip phone. You’ll end up calling people more often.

准备好面对笨拙的短信输入预测技术。对于里德来说，这种T9输入法——也就是说，没有全键盘的输入法——是翻盖手机最令人讨厌的地方。你最终会更多地给人打电话。

Social interactions will be challenging. People will tease you or apologize sheepishly for using their phones in front of you. Your parents might be frustrated³. Onlookers⁴ will assume you hate technology. Maybe you do, but Reid doesn’t. She spends long stretches of her days in front of a computer, but she has no desire to go back to a smartphone. “There was this expectation that I was going to be reachable all the time,” Reid says. “I like not having to answer to that.”

社交往来会很有挑战性。人们嘲笑你，或是在你面前使用手机感到很不好意思。你的父母可能会不胜烦扰。旁观者会认为你憎恨技术。也许你确实这样，但里德不是。她每天会花很长的时间坐在电脑前，但她不再有重新用回智能手机的欲望。“过去有一种预期，那就是我随时都可以被联系到，”里德说。“我不想被迫地去回应那些消息。”