This mirrors my own experience. I had one up to about 5 years ago. And then decided that I my personality is to addictive for things like these. Having not the option to "exit" any boring situation lets me experience the world around me much more.

Then disconnect your data plan. To me, just having the Android Calendar & Contacts interfaces is a huge improvement over most dedicated 'dumb' phones.

I guess that you still have to have the discipline not to connect wifi, but I don't think that would be too much of an issue. Disabling/enabling wifi on Android is fairly easy. This barrier, though small is probably enough to help keep you in-check.

I haven't verified this myself, but friends tell me you can no longer get "free" phones from AT&T unless you get a data plan. At $15/month for 2 years and 2 lines, that's 720 bucks. And phones just aren't durable enough to last for 4 years.

It's probably time to start grabbing old phones off of eBay.

You can get an Android phone for a decent price if you don't care about top-of-the-line $500+ phones (e.g. the Samsung Galaxy Q here - http://mobilicity.ca/phones/). If all you're looking for a 'dumb' phone with some niceties... I'm sure you can find plenty to complain about with respect to things like browser performance, etc, but that's not necessarily a priority in this case.

Verizon won't even let you activate a smartphone without a data plan...

Wouldn't it be better to get a cheaper, wifi-less Symbian Nokia? Or is the Android software that much better?

agreed! After a LOT of deliberation about what high-end smartphone to buy, I finally ended up on a Nokia 500 (Symbian Belle, Wi-fi, good sync support, super Nokia Maps) because I realised that I didn't want to always be connected, and I had no use of a super powerful phone, other than the fact that I could brag about it. I have no data plan. For most people the level of smart-ness offered by an entry level smart-phone is more than enough. Calendar/contacts/calling/messaging is pretty much the same quality across all mobile OSes. I think the whole app craze is propagated by social media junkies and corporates who want vendor lock-in or a Silicon Valley culture that values start-up invites and social wastes of time over everything else.

You don't have to be 'connected'. I've got a smart phone, and I use it mainly as a phone. The part I love about it is the great big dial pad. Remove all the apps that revolve around 'connecting' you, and you'll be grand.