On Single-Use Devices

Table of Contents

Recently, I find myself watching and reading materials on single-use devices. My YouTube home page is filled with videos about iPods, e-readers, dumbphones, and other similar devices.

Why do I gravitate towards content about dedicated devices? Why are more people creating content around this topic? I’ve also noticed more content about physical media and ownership.

While going through my bags in my room earlier last month, I found an old digicam, a Sony Cyber-shot W710, and to my surprise, it worked perfectly. I could still post the old photos on it to social media, and no one would question the image quality. I mean, it would lose when put side by side with a Google Pixel, but it was a cheap entry-level digicam back then. Since discovering it, I get the urge to take more photos; I even went on a run with it since it’s pocketable.

Modern smartphones will be better than most single-use devices, but sometimes they can suffer from being a ‘Jack of all trades and master of none.’ Digging The Greats in his iPod miniseries (linked below) analogised this to a Swiss army knife. When you want to do some task, you don’t instinctively go for the multi-tool but rather a dedicated more capable tool.

The main areas that appeal to me about single-use devices are that they excel at what they are made for and they don’t carry the baggage of distractions that come about with smartphones. I’ll use the example of an e-reader. I own a Kindle and I can confidently say it is significantly superior to a smartphone or an iPad at reading. The screen is perfect, the battery lasts an eternity, and to tie in the other aforementioned reason, I get to have a proper reading session where I am not bombarded with notifications and other forms of distractions.

It’s not the manufacturer’s fault, but big tech companies want eyeballs on their apps, and this has brought forth dire consequences, but that’s a topic for another day.

I think the popularity of these devices will continue increasing as more and more people want to rid themselves of dependency on smartphones.

Truth be told, there is also a huge aspect of nostalgia that gets me (and probably a lot more people) googly eyes. Is that even a saying/phrase? I think you know what I mean though.

I never thought I’d be the one to enjoy this regression back to the mid-2000s, but I kinda like it. A dumbphone for calls, messages, MPESA, and basic functionality, iPods for music, e-readers for reading, a camera for photography.

While we’re at that, can someone make a dumbphone with decent Spotify (where’s lossless audio?) and a proper digital-to-analog converter (DAC)? Please!

Digging The Greats’ iPod Miniseries

From time to time, I watch videos by Digging The Greats and he just started this 4-part miniseries of his experience listening to music on just an iPod for a month. The first video is what made me want to make this post of what’s been on my mind and as such I also recommend watching the miniseries.

He naturally goes through various stages until his eventual resolution to make technology work for him and more of a tool.

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