None of these devices contain a portal to the internet. None of them contain apps that bombard you with notifications to try and get you to spend hours in them. None of these devices have been relentlessly A/B tested to maximize addictiveness.

It's the tools. Friction and barriers aren't bad things. When you have a CD player, there's a higher barrier to switching from "listening to music" to "doing something else."

It's something I noticed in myself when I switched from streaming services to a curated local library. I actually listen to entire albums and savor them instead of jumping around from one infinite content firehose to another. Streaming is convenient, but the friction of maintaining a local library makes it meaningful.

Self control and discipline are not cognitively free, they take an amount of effort that you may rather spend in something more useful.

1) Choosing to split up tools in this way is a valid form of self control called precommitment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precommitment

2) Apps may change and often experience “enshittification.” Hardware can break but non-connected hardware is otherwise unlikely to change.

3) Many apps collect private data through telemetry or ad networks. Data may leak or be sold.

4) Decoupling allows you to precommit to different situations. For example, you could bring your media player but not your phone to your workout if you have trouble staying on task, or if you just want to disconnect for a while.

5) Many people have limits to their self control, hence the prevalence of destructive addictions (gambling, alcohol, drugs) in society. For these people it’s a good idea to precommit when possible in addition to working on other skills to manage the problem.

Sure, but that's kind of like saying meth is a better productivity tool than coffee, it's just a self-discipline issue to use it safely. Phones are inherently designed to be addicting.

The apps designed for phones are known to use addictive patterns with measured negative effects on our brains.

Why even bother trying to moderate the use of a device that has been purpose built to hook into our reward centers like a slot machine? An addict’s worst enemy is “just one more can’t hurt”

MP3 players don't send me notifications, or show me the latest AI DJ playlists or advertise podcasts I have no interest in. The issue isn't self control, it's platform bloat and engagement optimization.

Is consciously rejecting deliberately addictive short-form content and sacrificing convenience in favour of purpose not a sign of self control and discipline?

I've often thought the same as you wrote in your comment, but my inner contrarian just gave me an answer.

I think it takes discipline to accept that it's impossible (for you) to "purposefully" use short form content and choose the higher-friction option of single purpose devices. The discipline just happens at a higher level, where the Pavlovian temptation to scroll hasn't kicked in yet.

For some reason, that option is commonly seen as lack of self control. Perhaps that is true in the literal definition of the word, but I'd argue (since the result is the same - less time wasted) that it's equal to not scrolling when you have a phone.

Granted, less drastic options are available. I've installed a lot of feed-blocking plugins and time limits (HN noprocrast) which works reasonably well for me.

It is exactly that. And the method used is basically adding inconvenience for no good reason and seems more like a hobby than actual measure.

That is not to piss on single use devices, I still have calculator on my desk just because it is more convenient for me to have key per function, but most of those are outright worse experience.

Tho there is something to be said for pressing play and just getting music instead of waiting for spotify mobile app to sort its mess and still somehow forget on what state it was last time...

The tools feed into self control.