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Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

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Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#111

Post by Broken_Hippo »

bmarquez wrote: post #16

I had a similar feeling when I removed all social media apps and games from my smart phone. Whenever there's a lull in activity (like waiting for a bus, at the doctor's office, etc) I used to mindlessly swipe and scroll away. Now I pay more attention to the physical world around me (the bus stop has a map, what kind of magazines does the doctor like, etc) But I wonder if the author could get the same benefit by cance…

See, I'm OK bringing a book or sketchbook to the doctors office. I'm also fine with mindlessly playing a game.

This sort of thing keeps me from getting irritated while waiting in a place like a doctor's office. It makes me a more agreeable person overall.

The bus stop isn't as bad - they have a schedule and are usually on-time. There is only so often I can stand to look at a bus stop map, after all. That novelty wears off after using buses as primary transportation.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#112

Post by oblio »

paavoova wrote: post #105
squiggleblaz wrote: post #10

Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. It's hard to realise how recently they came around. I've probably only had the internet on my phone for five years (I've had a smart phone for longer, but I couldn't get the data to work and data was expensive enough at the time I didn't care). I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail). I ca…

> Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. But at what cost? The software and OS is a locked-down ecosystem for most consumers. The hardware even more so. Such mass adoption forces one to conform in order to participate, meaning even for the privacy-conscious, consumer trends dictate all. Just a couple months ago US carriers were found to be selling realtime customer location data. Wh…

If the average person doesn't care enough to:

* vote into power people that actually care about privacy

* or to only buy products that protect their privacy

what makes you think all this matters?

The average person has decided that life is better for him like this...

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#113

Post by paavoova »

andai wrote: post #109
paavoova wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. But at what cost? The software and OS is a locked-down ecosystem for most consumers. The hardware even more so. Such mass adoption forces one to conform in order to participate, meaning even for the privacy-conscious, consumer trends dictate all. Just a couple months ago US carriers were found to be selling realtime customer location data. Wh…

What are you doing to combat this?

Nothing, besides refusing to succumb to the idea that a mobile device is a necessity of modern life. The benefits don't outweigh the immediate concerns, but of course many disagree.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#114

Post by DoreenMichele »

I have read that women with children, whether working at a paid job or not, tend to be chronically short of sleep. They do studies and women with small kids talk about sleep the way starving people talk about food.

I piddle on my phone when I'm exhausted. They used to do studies and find that lots of TV watching correlated to being too exhausted after work to do anything else. I think checking nonsense online when tired is the new TV watching when tired. We often do that on our phone because it's super convenient.

Women also tend to be more at everyone's beck and call than men. So presumably the phone facilitates the access of people who expect her to be at their beck and call and she can't figure out how to ditch that expectation without ditching the phone.

I have arranged my life where this is no longer true. I just cannot relate to a lot of the articles complaining about what a burden their phone is. I fairly often read articles or comments about what a burden it is and the subtext I hear is "My phone is the leash that my social circle has on me and I can't not reply." That's an alien concept for me at this point.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#115

Post by dmortin »

penthi wrote: post #24
lfender6445 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'physical world around me has expanded' care to elaborate?

Taking a walk to the park without the iPhone takes longer, because you are forced to spend attention on everything but the phone. Distance = speed x time. If perceived time goes up; distances are greater. Ergo - world around you expands.

You can have a smart phone and not use it all the time. It's a matter of self control.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#116

Post by worble »

krageon wrote: post #71
koolba wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not a Luddite by any stretch and I’ve had smart phones since they were quite dumb, but your reasons don’t ring for me: > I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail). It facilitates instant communications. Email across the planet has been around since day one. > I can have a fiancee who's in another country. I can assure you this was possible pre-smart phone. > W…

> Email across the planet has been around since day one. It has been present around the globe for ages, if you could find an internet cafe on holiday. Reading email on your phone also needs a smartphone. > Mass transit has had posted schedules for many years. It is nice to see an updated one with up to the minute tracking but it wasn’t that inconvenient either. You must be one of the blessed multitudes that live in a…

>Reading email on your phone also needs a smartphone.

Tell that to the Japanese, or the Indians.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#117

Post by paavoova »

oblio wrote: post #112
paavoova wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. But at what cost? The software and OS is a locked-down ecosystem for most consumers. The hardware even more so. Such mass adoption forces one to conform in order to participate, meaning even for the privacy-conscious, consumer trends dictate all. Just a couple months ago US carriers were found to be selling realtime customer location data. Wh…

If the average person doesn't care enough to: * vote into power people that actually care about privacy * or to only buy products that protect their privacy what makes you think all this matters? The average person has decided that life is better for him like this...

If the trend moves towards a total societal reliance on smartphones as tools of everyday life, and a couple decades down the path it becomes impossible to opt out while still retaining a normal lifestyle and career, then it matters. It matters even more so that the average person is making this push, because, as you bring up, it's ripe for exploit (e.g. recent events in China with state-sponsored malware installed on phones).

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#118

Post by DisruptiveDave »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #10

Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. It's hard to realise how recently they came around. I've probably only had the internet on my phone for five years (I've had a smart phone for longer, but I couldn't get the data to work and data was expensive enough at the time I didn't care). I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail). I ca…

I think the challenge that people like myself see in these phones is captured in at least half of the actions you listed. They can be categorized under "my phone helps me avoid spending time with myself and whatever my immediate surroundings are presenting to me." Perhaps my biggest beef with phones is most people's instinct to avoid any slight dis-ease or innocent boredom by throwing up a screen filled with (often) nonsense. That's a real problem that will have negative impact downstream.

Boredom is good. Waiting is good. Not having what you want every second of the day is good.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#119

Post by tostadora »

WalterSear wrote: post #29

I'm mystified by the number of people who think that they've solved the fundamental problem by getting rid of their phone: being that unable to control one's immediate impulses, is worthy of attention.

People are usually able to control their impulses. But controlling an impulse is not free: it consumes energy and willpower; it's a fight. I think people getting rid of their smartphones are making that move: getting rid of the struggle against their impulses so they can use the saved energy in other things.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#120

Post by iforgotpassword »

koolba wrote: post #19
squiggleblaz wrote: post #10

Life with a smart phone is so much better than life before a smart phone. It's hard to realise how recently they came around. I've probably only had the internet on my phone for five years (I've had a smart phone for longer, but I couldn't get the data to work and data was expensive enough at the time I didn't care). I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail). I ca…

I’m not a Luddite by any stretch and I’ve had smart phones since they were quite dumb, but your reasons don’t ring for me: > I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail). It facilitates instant communications. Email across the planet has been around since day one. > I can have a fiancee who's in another country. I can assure you this was possible pre-smart phone. > W…

May I add:

>> I can communicate with my fiancee even when she's in another country (international sms = fail).

> It facilitates instant communications. Email across the planet has been around since day one.

Do you even need instant communication in that case? It's not like you're going to have a quick unexpected meetup or some "hey I'm quite busy can you go get the kids?" Not to mention time zone issues.

>> When I'm on the train I can do something meaningful to me.

People didn't die of boredom before. Read a book, magazine, work on something on your laptop if you must. Also people seem to lose the ability to just take a short timeout from everything, just to think about your life for a bit, remember some good old times with friends or family you might have lost, and so on.

>> When I'm not on the train, I can know when it's actually going to arrive so I can do something fun instead of waiting on the platform.

There will we information displayed at the platform and inside the station. Plus announcements on the speaker system, which are faster, more accurate, and I don't have to pull out my phone. Fun fact: at least in Germany, it's not that the train company is obliged to adhere to the prognosed delay. So if your smartphone tells you the train is an hour late and you decide to visit the nearest paintball establishment for an hour you might find yourself missing the train since it only arrived 45 minutes late in the end.

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