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Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

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Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#321

Post by rnotaro »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #257
dale_glass wrote: post #155

Personally I find modern technology to be very liberating. When I was a child, even going around my own city was a stressful thing. What if I get lost? What if I run out of money for the train? How do I know I got the bus in the right direction? (the darn things didn't announce stops at all). The first times I traveled involved printing a stack of papers including names, addresses, and maps. Getting to a hotel in a c…

This pretty much nails it, though in my case I wasn't a child. In my early 20s I lived in Japan for a few years. Early on, before I had a phone of any type (let alone a smartphone), it was incredibly stressful – even though I had studied the language prior to arriving, it wasn't enough to handle more than the most basic situations and trying to meet and coordinate with others was a nightmare. If anything deviated fro…

Before the pandemic, I went to Japan for 3 weeks and my cellphone was absolutely a lifesaver.

I went to a lot of city where I would have been lost without Google Lens, Google Maps, HyperDia for trains, "Japan Official Travel App", etc.

But with it, I've traveled accross less touristic cities and I was feeling confortable visiting local places without ant knowledge of the Japanese language beside a few words.

I would never dare to do that without my phone.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#322

Post by gunfighthacksaw »

Left all my electronics at home when attending a pro-Ukraine event in my city in Feb.

My gf was incredulous at first until I explained myself, but it’s obvious: if you live and work in a city and know it well, you don’t need a phone to go 30 minutes from the house and back, except for medical reasons (eg arthritis, fatigue)

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#323

Post by nelsonenzo »

sysadm1n wrote: post #11

Well not that I live in a bad neighborhood or anything like that, but you really don't know what could happen at any given moment, and need to phone emergency services. This is not paranoia (well maybe it is), but paranoia doesn't work retroactively, you have to be proactively paranoid. If you're concerned about privacy buy one of those cheap Nokia dumbphones that old people use. Keep your smartphone at home, and swa…

Well, not to be contraversial, but you could also try living life without a 'threat model' assessment to live by. That sounds very close to living in fear, and that sounds miserable.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#324

Post by nelsonenzo »

panaffa wrote: post #72

I'm part of the new generation and I think the opposite. I am obsessed with my phone and the Internet. And I don't think it's bad. It's extremely stimulating in a way real life is orders of magnitude worse at. Point of reference, born around 2000. There's no going back for me. I want my phone at all times to have access to billions of possible thoughts, pictures, memes. It's literally a god like power.

I think it's a matter of age perspective. In 20 more years the device will have an exponentially less information that you need to thrive, because now a lot of that knowledge and wisdom is in your head. The device loses a lot of it's value to you personally then, but doesn't mean the device is useless for everyone.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#325

Post by psyc »

dale_glass wrote: post #155

Personally I find modern technology to be very liberating. When I was a child, even going around my own city was a stressful thing. What if I get lost? What if I run out of money for the train? How do I know I got the bus in the right direction? (the darn things didn't announce stops at all). The first times I traveled involved printing a stack of papers including names, addresses, and maps. Getting to a hotel in a c…

I don’t get this. I got a cel phone when I was 22. Before that, I didn’t have the faintest idea that I was missing anything. I ranged as far as I could, first by bike, then by car. I kept quarters in my car for pay phones. I had a book of paper street maps on the floor in the back seat. I knew where every amenity of every type was in every town in the eastern half of the state. I learned their locations by looking out the windshield.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#326

Post by unethical_ban »

travisporter wrote: post #276
rootusrootus wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound serious. > have access to billions of ... memes But this is where I think maybe I'm getting trolled.

I think the younger generations may actually be able to pull off sarcasm on the internet.

* I don't think trolling or Poe's Satire is really proper on HN.

* Regardless, as stated above, the parent comment is believable despite its absurdity, which is the upsetting part either way.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#327

Post by PeterisP »

Crabber wrote: post #294
manicdee wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you don’t have the problem doesn’t mean you should trivialise someone else’s experience. How rude. Try listening more, and hold back from telling people how to solve problems they didn’t ask for help solving.

And yet you are trivialising the experience of the person you are replying to. How rude.

Thing is, there's no symmetry here.

If some people genuinely have problems and some genuinely don't, then only common conclusion is that the problems do exist (for some) and so solutions to them are required, so the experiences of the people who had problems can't be trivialized (because that experience is relevant for solving the problem even if they're in the minority) and the experiences of the people who didn't have a problem should be trivialized unless there's a good argument that those experiences almost universal and the problem actually is not real.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#328

Post by jiggawatts »

delusional wrote: post #271
dale_glass wrote: post #155

Personally I find modern technology to be very liberating. When I was a child, even going around my own city was a stressful thing. What if I get lost? What if I run out of money for the train? How do I know I got the bus in the right direction? (the darn things didn't announce stops at all). The first times I traveled involved printing a stack of papers including names, addresses, and maps. Getting to a hotel in a c…

I want to just dive into a little bit of a tangent. It's interesting to me that you're liberated by having access to everything all the time. Personally I find it pretty constraining. It makes me feel like there's nothing to discover, no mystery, no journey. If I wanted to find the best restaurant, I wouldn't have to go out and explore the local options or discuss it with friends. The more efficient and correct way w…

I've had the opposite experience. Google Maps has enabled me to explore randomly with a lot more confidence than before. Now I'm much more willing to take a random side-road, knowing that I won't get lost even if there are no street name signs. I also know that I can return to my original destination as efficiently as possible instead of getting stuck unable to merge back onto a motorway.

Similarly, I'm now much more relaxed about taking random road trips to "wherever". I know I can find fuel, food, and bathrooms.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#329

Post by pronlover723 »

It is normal to feel uncomfortable without a phone and it should be!

Leaving my home without my phone means I can't easily get in contact with my friends I'm trying to meet because there is no way to coordinate. Sure we used to coordinate before phones but that's no longer the case and when it was the case it meant waiting for 20-30 minutes if someone was late because there was no way for them to tell you if and when they were actually going to arrive.

It also means I can't pay for things. My phone is now my wallet for all intents and purposes.

My phone is my car key so I can't get back into my car. I'm sure for some it's their house key.

My phone is my navigator. I know my way around the city but regardless of where I am I can search for restaurants, groceries store, and their hours. All things I do often. Without the phone what I'm supposed to do? Find a phone booth, look in the yellow pages, and then try to figure out of the address listed is close to where I am?

It's completely reasonable to feel uncomfortable without leaving your house without keys, without money, without a way to call someone in an emergency, without a way to contact your friends and family, without a way to coordinate with others.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#330

Post by alwayslikethis »

teilo wrote: post #307

Replace the word “phone” with “car” and see if this article still makes sense. Sorry, but what is considered “essential” is subject to change. History has seen these shifts in every generation, and clinging to the previous generation’s notions of what is considered essential is just romanticism.

Possibly unpopular take: it does. Cars should not be required for everyone, especially those living in a city. It's never going to be sustainable, and it wastes resources, and many people don't like driving, especially in heavy traffic.

Moreover, it is fundamentally unsustainable financially. Cars should continue to exist the same way phones and computers should, but not everyone should _have to_ own or use them _all_ the time.

https://www.strongtowns.org/

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