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Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#41

Post by daniellarusso »

icebraining wrote: post #22
daniellarusso wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For multi-factor, could you use an Android emulator running on your PC? Obviously, that does not work for the doorlock.

Running it on the same machine would defeat much of the purpose. A better idea is to just turn it on for 2FA, then turn it off again.

That was my point. Using a mobile phone as a second factor seems more like an inconvenience.

Other sibling mentioned IMEI pinning, but I assume the emulator can spoof IMEI.

I am all for a separate physical device, just not a phone.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#42

Post by wheels »

I've considered doing the same. Also, before I ran my own company, I used to never take a phone or laptop with me on vacation.

Here are some things I've done as a half measure to make phones more tolerable:

- Turn off notifications for almost everything. I don't let any of the current crop of messengers send audible (or vibration) notifications. I only see them if I look at my phone. I don't allow notifications from any social app, or really anything else.

- Set up "favorites" on Android, and leave my phone to only allow those through a large chunk of the time. This means the only people that I'll hear ring if they call are basically: my wife, kid's daycare and server downtime notifications.

For me that gets it into the range of tollerability most of the time. It helps that I've always been more of a laptop / desktop person than phone user for browsing. I don't tend to pick up my phone super often. Friends do complain that I'm hard to reach though.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#43

Post by omosubi »

Raed667 wrote: post #3

My work requires a smartphone for multi-factor authentication and to unlock the office door (if we ever go back to the office)

It makes me so mad that companies require phones for MFA. I get distracted by my phone easily and when I tried switching to a yubikey, they told me that my business case for switching wasn't good enough. So frustrating

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#44

Post by darrmit »

I did it for about a month a few years ago and it was really refreshing. I’ve been trending back in that direction. I got an iPhone SE and uninstalled most apps.

I still really enjoy having a few things: maps, camera, and messaging. I don’t do much of the social thing so that’s not a problem.

I’ve been checking out the Lightphone II. It’s definitely intriguing with the support for a hotspot and podcasts, music, and eventually maps. But I also don’t know that I want to spend that much.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#45

Post by lostsoul8282 »

I have black out periods. A few hours a day that I’m not accessible. Turn phone off, disable all messages in laptop , etc.

It’s really helped with mental health to the point where I take a few days off a month and completely disconnect from “networked” tech. No phones or internet. I walk, I write, I watch movies I took the time to buy instead of taking what Netflix pushes on me.

I can’t say how I’d be without it but I do think it’s improved my life by making me appreciate slowing down more and deeper involvement in anything I’m currently doing.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#46

Post by _qulr »

DamonHD wrote: post #5
LUmBULtERA wrote: post #2

Many of us were old enough to have lived during a time where smartphones did not exist. My thoughts are... it is nice to have access to a great pocket-sized camera and communication device, though it is also nice to turn it off once in a while.

Exactly so. Though life was more annoying without a mobile phone for example (failed rendezvouz?) it happened. It's not helpful to demonise the tech rather than managing it and yourself candidly IMHO.

> Though life was more annoying without a mobile phone

I disagree. My feeling is that life was much better, more "human" without mobile phones. I hate how everyone walks around staring down at their phones instead of looking at the world. It's like an addiction. It reminds me of the ST:TNG episode "The Game". People don't even acknowledge each other's existence anymore.

Face-to-face interactions (pre-pandemic) ceased to exist, attention spans dropped precipitously, laziness increased (I can't be bothered to go out anywhere when I can have it delivered to my door by a "gig worker".) It's truly become a dystopia. If you weren't alive or an adult in the years before smartphones, you may not realize what a dystopia this is in comparison. I'm not even idolizing the past — there were certainly plenty of problems in the past — but this is even worse, and none of the past problems were solved either.

One of the unacknowledged advantages of desktops computers is that you can't take them everywhere. You have to leave desktop computers on the desktop. You eventually have to get up, get away from the computer, and interact with other humans in person. I also feel that mobile phones decrease personal independence. The smartphone becomes a "crutch" that you don't know how to live without. You can't even function adequately without a smartphone in your hand or pocket.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#47

Post by RedNifre »

I can't, because I really need these apps:

- Electric scooter unlocking (you scan a QR code on the scooter)

- Car rental and unlocking

- Maps and navigation

- Grocery list (I uncheck items when I notice that I'm running out, so the list is always up to date when I go to the mall)

- Language learning app

- Music streaming

- Podcasts (includes news)

As for my experience, I tried a week without a phone and a year without social media and my conclusion was that I absolutely need a smartphone and like Twitter (after some cleanup and muting some topics). I also tried a Jelly Phone (very tiny Android phone) for a while, which was fun, but a regular sized smartphone just works best for me.

Ultimately, it's up to you, to pick the technology that best fits your life. If you can live with an old-school phone or none at all, why not? The nice thing of the "not owning one at all" option is that you can just try it immediately.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#49

Post by icebraining »

daniellarusso wrote: post #41
icebraining wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running it on the same machine would defeat much of the purpose. A better idea is to just turn it on for 2FA, then turn it off again.

That was my point. Using a mobile phone as a second factor seems more like an inconvenience. Other sibling mentioned IMEI pinning, but I assume the emulator can spoof IMEI. I am all for a separate physical device, just not a phone.

A phone is just a computer, just like any other device. What do you have specifically against it? You can just keep it turned off except when you need to use it for 2FA.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever tried to live without a phone?

#50

Post by xwdv »

I find that if I didn’t have a phone, my time would probably just be spent staring at a computer instead. Before smart phones I would sit for hours browsing the internet on my computer.

Now I still spend hours browsing the internet each day, but usually I’m also out and about because I’m doing it on my phone.

However, I’m thinking of getting a smart watch and completely leaving my phone at home. If I really need to communicate someone I find an Apple Watch is good enough, and it eliminates the other distracting apps that eat up my time. Probably the way to go tbh, and if I had kids it’d probably be the first communication device I give them instead of a phone.

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