I saw the beginning of the end when a dialog box popped up saying something like "Microsoft Word requires your attention." This represented (to me at the time) a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of office software and who it was working for. Apparently Microsoft (and Apple who implemented whatever irritating API they were using) decided that software should be in charge of the user, instead of the reverse.
Now with the attention economy, there is little pretense regarding who the software serves primarily (vendors and advertisers) and who it exerts dominion over (users.)
My partner left her phone home the other night when we went out to run errands. It felt like a pretty big step on her part.
I've been considering reformatting my phone and installing a bare minimum of add-on apps. Feels cleaner, and I have way too many apps on my phone to go and delete them individually.
My phone is at my desk. I turn off all notifications and sounds, and only allow it to ring from people on my contacts, and I otherwise don't use it. It's basically a chat computer that sits on my desk. I'll take it with me on any major trip anywhere, but otherwise when I leave, I try to not bring my phone.
I don't know how people stand to live with these devices and the irritating software that runs on them. The expectation now is that anything you install will irritate you, and people aren't properly valuing their time, but some of them catch on to it, and stop installing new software...