Summer Detox: 35 Days Without a Smartphone — From Campsites to Istanbul

If I had to find a starting point for this Challenge, it would be at the Digital Detox Festival in Sauris (UD) this summer.

That’s where, for the first time, I encountered Punkt: among digital professionals, mental health experts, educators, and entrepreneurs discussing how the pervasiveness of digital technologies is becoming a social issue — not just a personal one — surrounded by pastures, mountain trails, and our beloved tent.

I didn’t end up at the Festival by chance.

For a few weeks already, I had been feeling that my smartphone was becoming a burden in my everyday life.

Lost among constant notifications, engineered ads, and endless doomscrolling, I felt my days and my energy slipping through my fingers, always occupied with the touchscreen.

I had tried several “easy” solutions, all with the same poor results.

Setting app timers? As easy as snoozing an alarm: “just five more minutes.”
Hiding apps? Out of sight, but still within reach.
Turning off notifications? Sure — but how do you stop thinking about what you might be missing?
Apps to reduce phone usage? Like a lock that opens without a key.

So when I saw the Festival advertised on social media, I thought it might be an opportunity to hear new perspectives.

To understand whether it was even possible to find a balance between digital presence and real life.

Meeting Punkt

Walking out of a talk and wandering among the festival stands, I saw it: simple, discreet, essential.

I approached and discovered the Digital Detox Challenge.

A feature phone?

The idea left me skeptical.

Sure, social media — but what about everything else? Email, banking, digital identity, maps?

Then I thought: humanity has thrived for centuries without all this.

Taking a step back, every now and then — what harm could it do?

So I accepted the challenge.

First Contact

The MP02 arrived the day before leaving for a weekend by the sea.

Between work and packing, I barely had time to open the package and throw it into my backpack along with a book.

The next day, with coffee still warm, I turned off my smartphone, inserted the SIM into the MP02, and switched it on.

The impact was strong.

Going from an immersive screen to physical buttons and T9 brought me back to my middle school years.

Minimal setup: sounds, notifications, little else.

I quickly realized I probably wouldn’t need silent mode.

The First Real Disconnection

I texted my parents: from now on, only SMS or calls.

“Why?” my mother asked.

“I’m trying to disconnect a bit, but I’m reachable,” I replied.

I got to the pool, took a dive, then picked up the phone.

Signal: yes. Notifications: none.

And that’s when something happened.

I picked up the book.

I read.

And kept reading.

I realized I had read more in one afternoon than in months.

Every now and then I picked up the phone out of habit, but there was nothing to see.

And I didn’t even feel like going back to my smartphone.

The afternoon felt incredibly long.

I paused, realizing I had read more pages than I had in all the past months combined, while observing adults by the pool. More or less, everyone’s gaze was absorbed by a screen, hands swiping through some social feed. The temptation to peek at what was behind yet another enticing song on my partner’s smartphone, lying on the grass beside me, was strong—but respect for privacy and determination not to give in so quickly kept me from doing so.

“So, how’s it going?” my partner asked in the evening by the camping stove as we cooked dinner, picking up the little phone.
 “Hard to say,” I replied, “I haven’t had many reasons to use it. But it does its job.”

I paused to reflect on those words: intention. How often do we pick up our phones with real intention, to actually do something? And how often do we get carried away by habit, losing ourselves in the parade of algorithmically optimized posts meant to capture our attention?

For the first time in a long while, I felt able to recharge, without my mind constantly being “led astray” by distractions and notifications.

Back home after the camping trip, I got in the car and realized I didn’t know the route. My partner offered to be the co-pilot using her smartphone, but I stopped her: let’s try another feature of this phone.

I pulled out the old phone, activated the hotspot function on the MP02, and we were on our way, avoiding busy streets and without getting lost.

That evening, as we packed up the camping gear and I prepared for Monday’s return to the office, I realized I hadn’t swapped the SIM in my old smartphone: unintentionally, I had extended the weekend challenge. Running late as always, I grabbed all the phones and packed them in my backpack, planning to switch the SIM at the office. But then I thought: I already have a work phone—why add distractions? So I left my personal phone aside and relied on the simple utility of the MP02.

At the end of the day, while preparing dinner, I checked my old phone to see what I had actually missed: advertising emails, the usual messages, lots of spam, little else. That’s when the idea came to me: why not spend a summer embracing Digital Detox? Holidays and all. Initially, it seemed crazy, remembering that until elementary school, all vacations (and all days, really) were Digital Detox by default.

Would I make it? The real challenge was beginning.

During office days, the MP02 certainly reduced digital distractions, although colleagues stopping by to admire the small Punkt phone were frequent. More than one person followed my example, aiming for less “dependency” on social media and distracting apps. Many said, “I couldn’t do it,” but I always had a ready answer: “If I can do it, why not?”

Then came the holidays and the first big challenge: a week in Turkey, my partner’s home country, visiting her family and attending a wedding in vibrant Istanbul. I thought that, between my phone in the backpack and my partner’s, the differences wouldn’t be much compared to home life. But once we left Europe, on a ferry from Kos to Bodrum, an additional challenge arose: without a dedicated plan, I wouldn’t be able to call or receive calls.

“I’ll get a tourist SIM, worst-case scenario,” I agreed with my partner as we unloaded our luggage on the pier.

(Spoiler: I didn’t need it.)

This was certainly helped by moving around with a local who could navigate the bustling streets without maps and knew the spots without relying on online reviews.

Without the distraction of the phone, I also took the opportunity to be more social in the old-fashioned way, practicing my basic Turkish with my partner’s friends and relatives. I certainly won’t earn a language certificate, but I met new people and relaxed without distractions, spending days at the beach and sipping çay (Turkish tea).

Even during more social moments, like a boat tour kindly offered by a friend or a trip to a shopping mall for last-minute wedding accessories, it was enjoyable to immerse myself in the moment without checking the latest emails, usually full of irrelevant promotions, or taking photos I would never look at again, lost in a gallery already overflowing with bits and pixels.

Even in Istanbul, from breakfasts in the lively Beyoglu neighborhood, visits to mosques, and tours of the Golden Horn, up to the big event, the only technology coming between me and my holiday experience was the camera, to capture moments and views I could appreciate better without distractions.

Finally, to end the holidays, we brought the MP02 home, where it all started: a few days camping in Sauris to disconnect from social life before returning to the office. Here too, although signal issues were resolved, I resisted the temptation to resume “old habits,” staying true to my challenge.

The only exception was using an app for mountain trails, just to avoid having to use the MP02 to call for help. Even then, it was impressive in its simplicity, allowing me to call my parents from alpine huts where my partner’s phone had no signal!

The last “challenge within a challenge” during this Detox holiday was relying on paper maps, just like before apps and smartphones, for an e-bike tour around Sauris. Thanks also to the well-marked trails, we completed our tour without issues, letting ourselves be carried away by the scenic mountain views.

Thanks to VoLTE support, call quality was excellent, better than any smartphone I’ve ever owned. For a phone designed to do that and little else, this was necessary but not guaranteed. The box includes a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for headphones. Bluetooth is also supported without issues, and speakerphone maintains good quality both ways.

In trying to keep the design essential and compact, the lack of “left” and “right” keys (paired with “up” and “down”) is sometimes noticeable, but using numeric keys (e.g., to select emojis for SMS) becomes accessible after some practice.

The T9-like predictive text works reasonably well in Italian and English, though its logic isn’t always clear. There’s no option to add new words to the dictionary. More languages could be offered (perhaps downloadable), potentially expanding the market.

The battery never failed me, lasting a full day of continuous use, assuming it’s used primarily for personal purposes. Hotspot and connectivity naturally increase consumption.

The phone’s shape is comfortable for typing and calls, even long ones. Lightweight and seemingly robust (survived drops; real shock resistance unknown). Easy to forget in a pocket, which is good—unless you accidentally toss it in the washing machine.

Navigating contacts can be tricky without “clean” contact lists, but shortcuts (pressing and holding keys) are helpful. Dark background improves readability in sunlight.

- di Raffaele Catoni