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Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

pam-moore.com

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Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#221

Post by exegete »

Freak_NL wrote: post #58
WalterSear wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in this time in history, you will be increasingly inconvenienced without a smart phone. If you need to give it up to put it down, then your problem isn't smartphones, and you will fill it with something else in short order. Moreover, you are going to be increasingly at odds with your surroundings: the world is becoming more smartphone-like, not less.

You wouldn't tell a smoker not to bother quitting because they'll only pick up some other addiction. There are also very few people who can smoke just a cigarette every few weeks; most people who start smoking become addicted and smoke daily. Smartphones, or more specifically, the addictive patterns used by pretty much every popular 'app' (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) are hard to defeat for a lot of people. T…

You don't throw out your entire purse because it has cigarettes in it. Throw out the cigarettes and keep the purse. Uninstall the addictive apps and keep the smartphone if you want it for its utility.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#222

Post by mhd »

arrrg wrote: post #171
rpearl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't put work email on your phone

It depends on the particulars, but my preferred approach is actually to turn all work email notifications off (even unread badges). I check my mail a couple times a day during work hours, usually when I arrive in the morning, after our standup, after my lunch break, sometime during the afternoon and before I leave (but not right when I want to leave, at least a couple of minutes beforehand). I always pay close attent…

As for the German perspective: There are several big time companies around here who had to institute regulations so that you can't even access your work emails beyond your office hours (BMW, Telekom). So the employees themselves would check them more and the company had to limit that.

Granted, I don't know how much the "Betriebsrat" was prompting that, but I doubt that people themselves are that much different, despite German Gemütlichkeit.

I found that both IT workers and MBAs are IT/MBA first, nationals second.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#223

Post by Ntrails »

soziawa wrote: post #219
cortic wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>millions of man years wasted streaming mind numbing video. ..millions of man years wasted waiting. >zoning out of the real world people around you to doodle on your phone that’s sad. ..humoring pointless gossip so people will like you, that's sad. My point is that these seem very subjective and judgmental.

I mean there were books before there were phones. The point is that phones have added little value.

There were iPods before there were smartphones, and that completely revolutionised my listening habits. I don't stream music or listen to podcasts so that need was already a solved problem for me.

Except. Now I only carry one device. vOv

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#224

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

gambiting wrote: post #94
onion2k wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first question to anyone who says they can live without a smartphone: what do you use for two factor auth?

My bank issues a physical token generator, where I have to insert my card, type in my pin, and then it displays the code on a little screen.

You are lucky that your bank still issues physical tokens. My bank started to require its app for authentication a few years ago, but it still offered tokens for presumambly elderly or "luddite" clients. Now it has announced that physical tokens will be phased out in 2019.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#225

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

exodust wrote: post #191
MisterOctober wrote: post #53

Dumbphone user since 2006 here. Non-Luddite. Main reasons for avoiding the switch : 1) When not using computers for work [or chess] purposes, I want to spend as little time as practical staring at a screen. I have lots of non-computer activities to attend to [gardening, studying, home maintenance, etc etc] and a family to look after. 2) I am a strong adherent to the notion that one is well-advised to maintain awarene…

You're in a gloomy waiting room. You arrived early, so could be waiting awhile. Nothing to read except a few old Vogue magazines. You're by yourself, you didn't bring a book. Your inventory is a wallet, keys, and flip phone. What is your next move?

I would say that your example scenario isn’t necessarily an argument for having a smartphone, it is a reason to always have a Kindle with you that contains a few hundred books. (You can leave the Kindle in airplane mode at all times and get everything you want to read from pirated ebook websites, no need to deal with Amazon's ecosystem and DRM).

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#226

Post by thatfrenchguy »

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...

More likely, we all got manipulated into thinking it’s better.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#227

Post by archie35c »

exegete wrote: post #220
itsmenotyou wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree, even for those who are not addicts, we're not always perfectly aware of/or in control of our actions, and social media platforms are designed to take advantage of this. When I deleted facebook on my phone I'd often find myself in a quiet moment idly scrolling through my apps looking to open it again.

But it sounds like you identified and solved the problem without throwing out your smart phone completely.

Thus exercising self restraint. My point was not to throw away the baby with the bathwater.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#228

Post by MisterOctober »

thom wrote: post #135
MisterOctober wrote: post #53

Dumbphone user since 2006 here. Non-Luddite. Main reasons for avoiding the switch : 1) When not using computers for work [or chess] purposes, I want to spend as little time as practical staring at a screen. I have lots of non-computer activities to attend to [gardening, studying, home maintenance, etc etc] and a family to look after. 2) I am a strong adherent to the notion that one is well-advised to maintain awarene…

Ha, funny that you mention chess, because I've had to delete the Lichess app from my phone, as I realised I'd always be making correspondence moves or trying to play blitz to fill gaps in my day, playing _terribly_ because I wasn't concentrating, and feeling bad all day because I lost.

^ this rings true for me all right! I suffer from the same concentration / feels-bad-man syndrome if I don't follow my self-imposed restrictions [no chess unless I'm not working and especially no chess after 11pm!].

In fact, I did it to myself Wednesday evening, 'sneaking in' a quick game' while waiting for a long install to finish at about midnight, and WHOOPS blundered my queen. Felt like a moron the rest of the night.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#229

Post by KozmoNau7 »

skinnymuch wrote: post #175
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer provides a work phone and subscription, and I am free to use it privately. I've chosen to keep that phone work-only, so I have bought my own private phone+subscription, and never the twain shall meet. The work phone gets left in a locker at work along with my work laptop, I refuse to bring it home with me until I have agreed in advance to work from home for some specific task. I know a lot of employers ex…

Are you not friends with any work colleagues who would want to call or text you as friends?

No, not really. I do have some "favorite colleagues" who I enjoy working with and chatting about this and that over lunch, but they're colleagues, not friends.

My circle of friends is entirely separate from work, there is no overlap, which is just fine by me. I prefer keeping work and my personal life separate.

Re: Why I’m Using a Flip Phone

#230

Post by MisterOctober »

wilsonnb2 wrote: post #198
exodust wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in a gloomy waiting room. You arrived early, so could be waiting awhile. Nothing to read except a few old Vogue magazines. You're by yourself, you didn't bring a book. Your inventory is a wallet, keys, and flip phone. What is your next move?

Just sit and think. Watch other people. Read the old Vogue magazines. Listen to the conversations between employees. A lot of the time there will be a TV on or some music playing. It's really not that bad if you're not used to the constant stimulation that smartphones (and to a lesser extent, all internet connected computers) provide.

^ this is what I do in the above scenario. Also, I usually carry a notepad and pen with me, so I'll often make notes about something that's on my mind or that I'm working on. Or, you know, doodle.
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