The first 25 years of my life...
Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
71–80 of 194 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#72You could always just wipe your phone, and uninstall all possible apps.
On an iPhone don't sign into icloud, press and hold and delete anything with an X.
hmmm. crap. You can't uinstall safari. Just put it in a folder and don't use it.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#73The first 25 years of my life...
let's go ride bikes in the big blue room.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#74I'm 56, so yes. ;-) But in terms of ditching those things after getting used to them, it's only happened when my family went on overseas trips. A problem for me is that the computer is not just a connection with the outside world, but has become a medium for thinking. Take away my Jupyter, and you've removed half of my brain. But I've never used social media, so I have less to give up when I walk away from a screen.…
People forget that even pre-smartphone, people would go on trips and put themselves behind a camera instead of entering the scenery.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#75Up to a few years ago, I would take vacations where I would travel for weeks without a phone. In my day-to-day, I interacted with technology for 10-16 hours a day, and that bothered me. So I would completely unplug. I would just bring a notebook, a pen, and a DSLR camera. People were always shocked when they'd hear this. "How could you possibly travel without any electronics?" They were unfazed by my response, "This…
You can still hide behind the camera instead of entering the scenery.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#76Up to a few years ago, I would take vacations where I would travel for weeks without a phone. In my day-to-day, I interacted with technology for 10-16 hours a day, and that bothered me. So I would completely unplug. I would just bring a notebook, a pen, and a DSLR camera. People were always shocked when they'd hear this. "How could you possibly travel without any electronics?" They were unfazed by my response, "This…
You can still hide behind the camera instead of entering the scenery.
You don't invest in a good camera to leave it dangling from your neck. Finding ways to capture the experience is part of the experience for a lot of people. I don't know about jakevoytko, but photography is how I enter the scenery.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#77I was without those until 2012 when I left Cuba. I did have a computer there, an old one with Linux, Emacs, and no desktop environment where I did freelance work and got online once per week to upload the work. I lived in South America until 2016 and still was semi-disconnected due to the prices of mobile data. Here in the US has been hard for me to get disconnected and mostly do it when I travel to Cuba for 15 days or a month to visit the fam. These are great days, feels weird the first 3 days but then you forget these devices exist and start talking to people, dancing, swimming, being immersed in the community and talking about topics one normally doesn't. It's a really rewarding thing and always makes me think that we are very disconnected from our true nature.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#78You can't really give up computers without giving up driving, possibly using a thermostat, a coffee machine, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#79I've done it without a second thought. I just went on vacation for two weeks to the mountains. No coverage and no electricity. I just turned off my phone and forgot about it.
I just gave a heads up at work that I was going really offline, so I was unreachable even for emergencies.
I don't think I missed it at all.
You just need to focus on other activities.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?
#80You can't really give up computers without giving up driving, possibly using a thermostat, a coffee machine, etc.
Come on. You know what OP meant, and it wasn't "anything with a microcontroller". What benefit, if any, could such pedantry bring?