The Field Glossary
Plain-language definitions of every term you meet when switching to a simpler phone — hardware, networks, privacy, and the vocabulary of getting your attention back.
Devices & Form Factors
6 termsBar phone
The classic candybar shape — one rigid slab with keypad below the screen, ideal for one-handed T9 texting.
Definition →Dumbphone
A mobile phone deliberately limited to essentials — calls, texts, maybe maps — with no social media, feeds, or app store.
Definition →E-ink (electronic paper)
The paper-like, front-lit display technology from e-readers — calm, easy on the eyes, and battery-sipping, but slow to refresh.
Definition →Feature phone
The industry term for keypad phones with basic capabilities — the hardware category most dumbphones belong to.
Definition →Flip phone
A clamshell phone that opens to answer and snaps shut to hang up — pocket-proof screen, no accidental dialing.
Definition →Minimalist phone
A design-led phone built for ex-smartphone users: premium hardware, curated tools, and an explicit no-feeds philosophy.
Definition →Technology & Networks
7 termseSIM
A SIM card built into the phone and provisioned digitally — convenient for travel, but rare on dumbphones, which favor physical SIMs.
Definition →IMEI
The unique serial number identifying a phone to the network — used for allowlists, blocklists, and activation checks.
Definition →KaiOS
A lightweight operating system for keypad phones that adds a small curated app layer — WhatsApp, Google Maps — to feature phones.
Definition →MVNO (virtual carrier)
A low-cost carrier that rents capacity from the big networks — often the cheapest way to run a dumbphone.
Definition →T9 (predictive text)
The classic predictive-text system for 9-key keypads — press each key once and T9 guesses the word.
Definition →VoLTE (Voice over LTE)
The technology that carries voice calls over 4G — and the certification a phone must have to place calls on modern US networks.
Definition →Wi-Fi hotspot (tethering)
A phone feature that shares its 4G connection with a laptop over Wi-Fi — the dumbphone user's deliberate escape hatch to the internet.
Definition →Digital Privacy
7 termsAdvertising ID
The resettable identifier every smartphone carries that lets apps and ad networks assemble your behavior into one profile.
Definition →Data broker
A company that buys, aggregates, and resells personal data — location trails, purchases, profiles — usually without your knowledge.
Definition →Device fingerprinting
Identifying you by your device's unique combination of settings and characteristics — no cookies required.
Definition →Location tracking
The continuous recording of where your phone — and therefore you — goes, via GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell towers.
Definition →Metadata
Data about your communications — who, when, how long, from where — which reveals more than most people expect.
Definition →SDK tracker
Third-party tracking code embedded inside ordinary apps, silently reporting your usage and location to companies you have never heard of.
Definition →Two-factor authentication (2FA)
A second proof of identity beyond your password — and the main logistical puzzle when leaving your smartphone behind.
Definition →Digital Wellbeing
9 termsAttention economy
The business model in which your attention is the product — apps are free because your hours are what's being sold.
Definition →Digital detox
A deliberate reset of your relationship with screens — done well, environment redesign rather than temporary abstinence.
Definition →Digital minimalism
A philosophy of technology use: keep only the tools whose benefit outweighs their cost to your attention, and drop the rest.
Definition →Doomscrolling
Compulsively scrolling negative news long past the point of usefulness — a designed behavior, not a personal failing.
Definition →Grayscale mode
Turning the phone screen monochrome to drain the feeds' visual reward — a free, measurable first step toward calm.
Definition →Infinite scroll
A feed that loads forever, removing every natural stopping point — the design pattern that turns checking into losing an hour.
Definition →Nomophobia
Anxiety at being separated from your phone — "no-mobile phobia" — one of the clearest signs the relationship needs renegotiating.
Definition →Screen time
The hours per day spent on device screens — the metric that started a thousand detoxes, averaging 4-5 hours on phones alone.
Definition →Variable reward
The slot-machine trick — unpredictable rewards — that makes checking your phone compulsive by design.
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