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A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

nytimes.com

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Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#151

Post by rrr_oh_man »

jkepler wrote: post #146
TeMPOraL wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> maybe someday I can evolve to look at the smartphone as a utilitarian device without the addictive qualities. Good luck. You won't though, "because sekhurity" - the trend points at everything using your phone as a second factor, and not even via the authenticator app, but vendor-specific push notifications, on a remotely attested phone. Banks and media companies are pushing hard for it.

And this in spite of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US strongly recommending against using SMS as a 2nd factor authentication since 2016!

Nobody said anything about SMS

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#152

Post by TeMPOraL »

jkepler wrote: post #146
TeMPOraL wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> maybe someday I can evolve to look at the smartphone as a utilitarian device without the addictive qualities. Good luck. You won't though, "because sekhurity" - the trend points at everything using your phone as a second factor, and not even via the authenticator app, but vendor-specific push notifications, on a remotely attested phone. Banks and media companies are pushing hard for it.

And this in spite of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US strongly recommending against using SMS as a 2nd factor authentication since 2016!

Why yes. Because SMS isn't good enough, the sekhurity industry decided everyone needs to use apps instead, since they can communicate over SSL and are harder to spoof, and then threw in remote attestastion for extra sekhurity.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#153

Post by Broken_Hippo »

Syonyk wrote: post #83

I am so glad to see this backlash. It's been a long time coming. We've tried smartphones out for the past... oh, decade and change. They've been around longer, but were niche enough that they didn't dominate society, and even around the start of the iPhone era, "Crackberry" and such were common enough terms (with "Put all your devices in the center, whoever picks theirs up first buys the next round" being a fun game…

My smartphone has replaced things that I used to carry. It is a tool. And as a bonus, I can pass time while waiting - doctors office, etc - which makes me more pleasant.

My smartphone functions as a watch, notetaking device, and communication device. I rarely get lost now that I almost always have a map. It is a music device, which is really helpful considering I walk and take busses for most of my transportation.

The sole reason I've not had to carry around a wordbook is because I have a translation app on my phone.

It is much easier to choose to not carry a purse or bag, which sometimes makes me safer.

Not to mention that I have internet on my phone, which is better than phone books ever were. Looking stuff up saves money and time if you use it correctly.

You shouldn't expect folks to talk to you at the grocery store: That wasn't exactly a universal thing everywhere. Seems like this is just you missing something that others don't - and not everyone needs this stuff to fill their social interaction quotas.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#154

Post by maccard »

BeetleB wrote: post #80
vel0city wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but in a similar place for the phone somewhat dominating on the go stuff. Its just incredibly freeing leaving the house with only my phone. These days it can handle payment most places. It is my library card. My bus pass. My car key. My camera. My paperback novel. My guide. My gym pass. It lets me know when my bus or train is running late. It lets me know when that store is going to close, or if its even open…

And what do you do if you run out of batteries? Or lose the phone? Or it gets wet and won't turn on? You can't even drive your car? My phones have failed me on multiple occasions over the years.

Not OP but

> And what do you do if you run out of batteries?

My battery lasts 2 days. If I'm away for a night I pack a charger along with my toothbrush and clothes. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I was caught off guard by this.

> Or lose the phone?

Short term - same as if I lose my keys or my wallet. It's a giant pain in the ass. longer term, doesn't matter, new phone + restore from backup. I don't need to phone my bank and cancel my cards, or change the locks on my doors in case my keys were pickpocketed and I'm targeted.

> Or it gets wet and won't turn on?

Many smartphones have been ip68 rated for the best part of a decade. Note that to not turn on, you're realistically talking about submerging it, not just being out in the rain. Maybe I live a more sheltered life than you, but finding myself unexpectedly submerged is about as extreme a situation as I'm going to find myself in, and not one I plan for other than being able to swim.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#155

Post by jkepler »

darth_avocado wrote: post #72
XorNot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your smartphone is in absolutely no way like smoking a physically addictive hard narcotic. Again: learned helplessness. You've picked a comparison to ensure that you have maximally separated any notion of your own culpability. Drug addicts who get clean start by recognizing that they made the choice to start, and need to be mindful of the choice to quit, outside the physical addictions which drive it. The answer for…

Addiction to smartphones, porn, shopping, eating, coffee, gambling etc. all work on the same neurological pathways. While it’s not the same as a drug addiction, “just don’t do it” isn’t that straightforward. People have to go to therapy and rehab to get rid of some of these, but somehow when it comes to smartphones, the opinion is that “it’s not that hard”.

The language of addiction is psychological language that may leave people feeling hopeless, particularly if they view themselves as biologically-chemically determinative beings.

Perhaps the language of idolatry as used in the Bible (reflecting thousands of years in the Jewish and Christian traditions) may be more helpful. What many see as addictions may in fact be an underlying spiritual condition of serving something as an idol, or a God-substitute. The only way to break that is repentance, turning from the idolatry to the living God. But this gives hope, because as people we are able to do exactly that.

We are more that a bag of matter and energy. We can exercise responsibility over our actions.

The doctrine if sin and the language if idolatry actually can give hope, as the possibility of repentance and belief is always there.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#156

Post by bandie91 »

ryandrake wrote: post #125
dorkwood wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I DONT WANT TO TALK to people in grocery line, especially when I don't have a phone. I perfectly ok to just stand quietly. I do! My day is almost always made better by a random encounter with a stranger. I wish I was confident enough to start those interactions myself, but I always inevitably think back to messages such as yours, and my anxiety gets the better of me.

I used to value a random encounter with a stranger. Now, the median person is likely to be 1. Disturbed, 2. Obsessed with politics, 3. Belligerent for no reason, 4. Ready to whip out their phone camera looking for “content” or 5. Generally offended/Scared of the idea of talking to a random stranger. The last 3 or so years have turned America into a giant mental asylum and it’s starting to be not worth it to talk to a…

maybe it's a genuine human-to-human interaction which helps healing these...

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#157

Post by [deleted] »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #139
reacharavindh wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is most things in life, the balance is the hardest thing to achieve. I’d think of giving up my smartphone, but that’d mean I’d not be able to use WhatsApp to communicate with family and friends that are on it. Heck the parents group at my kids school is on WhatsApp. I’m not going to make everyone switch to “this other special” app. I gotta be where others are in this context. Another is Maps - it is modern conveni…

Dumbphones have cameras, so if you can't or don't want to remember a map, you can take its photo. My short term memory if good enough for that. Random installable apps are really the only edge smartphones have.

[deleted]

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#158

Post by Stranger43 »

It's not the smartphone as much as the negative synergy between many to many shortform social media and the always there smartphone that is creating all of the damage.

If you uninstall every social media app from the smartphone and configure every one to one communication app to silent mode most if not all of the negative impact that your smartphone have on your life will probably go away or become trivial issues. But then again that's kind of like turning your smartphone into an dumpphone, and decrease the need for a big new expensive one every 18-24 months.

The problem with smartphone centric asocial media is that they discourage one to one and longform messages so what you get is the equivalent of a crowd of people shouting slogans at each other and while that can be tremendeusly entertaining it's mentally draining and rarely lead to closer relationships or constructive dialogue.

Add to this is the fact that.there is indications that being bored is actually beneficial to long term mental health.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#160

Post by system2 »

There is nothing wrong with smartphones, it is what people use them for. Remove social media from your phones and you are good. If you are unable to delete social media apps then you have an addiction problem. Consult a doctor or just simply become a responsible adult.
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