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Living without a SIM card

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Re: Living without a SIM card

#221

Post by filoleg »

wolfgke wrote: post #158
hdkwowjdj wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a social cost question, I guess. Your signal: I don't care enough about our communication to use WhatsApp, because of reasons that are obscure to 99% outside a tech community. Similarly, they don't bother to reach out to you on other communication channels, because they don't bother enough. The important thing to understand is, from your communication partners point of view, you create a burden without reason, s…

> The important thing to understand is, from your communication partners point of view, you create a burden without reason They create a burden without reason.

I think that both sides create a burden. In my opinion, the difference is that, it is a one-to-many kind of matching scenario. One person (the one opting out of using the preferred messaging method of all their friends) creates a burden to many people, while all those people create a burden just for one person.

If it helps, you can try visualizing it as a fully connected graph that initially has equally weighted edges between all nodes. But then the weight of all edges connected to one specific node goes up by multiple factors. That node loses out much more than all the other nodes.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#222

Post by peterburkimsher »

llampx wrote: post #33
peterburkimsher wrote: post #12

I live without 3G on my phone, though I still have a SIM card for receiving "emergency" calls. I haven't topped it up though, so I can't call out. It's been wonderful to make me focus on face to face conversations with people, rather than checking notifications all the time. I ask them to add me on Facebook, or make a note of their email address. If I can get online, I use mbasic.facebook.com with no ads, which loads…

> I live without 3G on my phone > My phone wakes me up with an alarm, but I'm not flooded with depressing Apple News first thing in the morning. So you turn off wi-fi before going to bed?

No, I just disabled notifications for most apps, because I'm using iOS 6. Several apps have stopped working entirely (WhatsApp, WeChat, KakaoTalk), so I just use them through an Android emulator on my laptop.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#223

Post by selectodude »

guidance wrote: post #191
madeofpalk wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others. The implication here isn't that they're being judged for not having a phone (with a SIM card), and that they're constantly relying and leaching from others. That can be annoying, and people tend to not like annoying people?

> 'But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others.' But I haven't imposed anything on anyone. It's society--or rather, a certain loud, vocal, and extremely selfish segment of society--which is attempting to impose something on me. It speaks volumes about the mentality of such people that they somehow think I'm imposing on them , because they're 'forced' to think and plan ahead a little bit if/when they d…

If you have friends that like you enough to chase you around to try and make plans, that's awesome. I'm thrilled for you and I'd have to imagine you're an awesome person.

The fact that you refer to people trying to make plans with you as an imposition on you tells me that might not be the case, but I'm not in any position to judge either way.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#224

Post by icebraining »

guidance wrote: post #191
madeofpalk wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others. The implication here isn't that they're being judged for not having a phone (with a SIM card), and that they're constantly relying and leaching from others. That can be annoying, and people tend to not like annoying people?

> 'But it's not what they own, it's what they impose on others.' But I haven't imposed anything on anyone. It's society--or rather, a certain loud, vocal, and extremely selfish segment of society--which is attempting to impose something on me. It speaks volumes about the mentality of such people that they somehow think I'm imposing on them , because they're 'forced' to think and plan ahead a little bit if/when they d…

We're talking about the author's friend, whose phone is being used by the author to communicate with third parties, and who might find that annoying.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#225

Post by peterburkimsher »

pzumk wrote: post #23
peterburkimsher wrote: post #12

I live without 3G on my phone, though I still have a SIM card for receiving "emergency" calls. I haven't topped it up though, so I can't call out. It's been wonderful to make me focus on face to face conversations with people, rather than checking notifications all the time. I ask them to add me on Facebook, or make a note of their email address. If I can get online, I use mbasic.facebook.com with no ads, which loads…

> It worries me to read that the US immigration department are using anonymised cell tower histories to trace people, It worries me to read you’re still using Facebook even though it looks like you value privacy. Why’s that? (Not trolling, serious question)

Keeping in touch with friends in other countries. Rarely, there's even targeted ads that I actually want (e.g. bands that are playing concerts nearby). I try to avoid the news feed, and usually just use messages and events. Unlike most other chat apps, Facebook has backwards compatibility for old phones. There's a limited sense of control: I choose when to update my location, employer info, Liked pages, etc. Yes, they know about me, but I also use it to analyse myself [1]. I have no expectation of privacy for the things I post, but I'm therefore more careful about what I post, which Lists I share content with, and what metadata is hidden in that content.

[1] https://github.com/peterburk/sortlikes

Re: Living without a SIM card

#227

Post by icebraining »

guidance wrote: post #202
detaro wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are arguing against something completely different than the subthread is about, while being condescending about it.

My comment fits perfectly well into the discussion, and into the subthread, up to and including said 'condescension'--which literally radiates from many of the 'cell phone junkie' types.

We're not talking about people who have chosen to disconnect, such as yourself. We're talking about people who choose to keep connected, just using other people's connections.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#228

Post by justnotworthit »

goblin89 wrote: post #10

> …it's the only thing which has prevented me from having to continually make international calls from a friends phone By relying on other people it is possible to do without many things. However, unless you have other ways of signaling sufficient status or wealth (such as being a digital nomad living abroad in a lower income country), people you continuously rely on for essentials might start treating you with a lit…

And waay too many glib answers and dismissals. GPS? Just pull over and ask... while you're taking the wrong exit to the wrong freeway in the wrong direction at night. This isn't about avoiding human contact.

Need signal/whatsapp? Just get a disposable number... that everyone adds to their contact books but has to change every time you re-install because you cant get the old number back.

The world is outright hostile to not having a number. It's like not having an address. I lament this, but there aren't easy solutions to this hostility.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#229

Post by icebraining »

Aardwolf wrote: post #49
pjc50 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is .. remarkably sensible, and a good example of using the secure elements of the SIM card for the intended purpose. Makes me wonder why more places don't do this.

Why does this have to involve a SIM card though? Why not use the device itself, e.g. authenticator?

A SIM card contains a crypto module that can perform operations (signing, encrypting, etc) while not allowing the device to read the private key. Some phones include a chip like that too, but many don't.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#230

Post by IGotThroughIt »

njitbew wrote: post #11
goblin89 wrote: post #10

> …it's the only thing which has prevented me from having to continually make international calls from a friends phone By relying on other people it is possible to do without many things. However, unless you have other ways of signaling sufficient status or wealth (such as being a digital nomad living abroad in a lower income country), people you continuously rely on for essentials might start treating you with a lit…

My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.

You don't seem too impressed by those that make the choice to live off the grid...
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