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My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

artmatsak.com

41–50 of 140 posts

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#41
post #3

I switched from an iPhone to Nokia 515 two years ago and vowed never to go back. If I wrote a blog post like this it would probably just be, "Living smartphone-free in the 2020's is like having a superpower, it's utter joy and freedom and and everyone still with a smartphone is a total sucker." Then a couple of weeks ago I felt the social pressure and lack of a good camera so I bought an iPhone 12 mini. It was awful.…

How do you deal with getting around (public transit timing, driving directions/traffic, uber/lyft) without a smartphone?

Figuring out directions (driving, walking, transit) is actually quite easy in most cities. My approach is to just lump specific places into general "areas", get familiar with how to get between areas (transit/driving options) by thinking about their absolute positions and connections that exist, and then for unfamiliar places, look it up on a map before leaving.

The only thing I miss with navigation is real-time traffic. Which, all things considered, is just a "nice to have".

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#42
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Correct me if I’m wrong but you can do BankID with a chip and pin device from the major banks? You’re right, but there’s no way I’m lugging an additional widget everywhere I go. Now, the Apple Watch doesn’t have it either (yet) but it’s a good enough compromise where I can take a walk or run an errand without needing to take my phone with me.

Are you using BankID on the go? I use it mostly to sign contracts, view kivra (IE; check payslips and official mail from companies), sign automatic payments and check my bank account. I don’t need to do those things on the go, but maybe I’m missing something, since currently I have an iPhone with BankID and I could be forgetting a time when I use it.

Almost every single time I’m at the store to sign in to my bank and transfer funds to my debit card :)

(Getting a credit card with Apple Pay fixed this)

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#43
post #34
post #30

I tried moving to a proper dumb phone, a Nokia 105, a few years back. I found out that it’s a massive social disadvantage, very isolating and means you have to carry more crap around all the time and keep more context in your head. It’s ten times more difficult to adapt to changes without information at hand. Experiment ended after three months and I’m glad it did. I get the ideological thing here but realistically s…

Ouch. I do have smartphone but do not have data plan. Use it strictly as a phone, camera and offline GPS. It has close to zero social value to me. If I want to socialize I either talk to my friends on Skype from my PC or just visiting in person.

[deleted]

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#44
Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my desire to use it for more. Rue the day that GSM is shut down. I also have some text alerts set up from a script running at home to let me know about urgent things.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#45
post #31

As the author points out, buying a simple a android phone and disabling most of the "smartness" is a much better option. This is what I did and it works surprising well. I still have a decent camera and can use my banking app etc. You could say that I actually have a pretty decent phone I just disciplined myself to use it as little as possible. Edit: the part I am really missing is the compactness of a dumb phone. Ye…

This is akin to adding types to dynamic languages. It just doesn't work.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#46

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Can you share more advice for a 23 year old who wants to dump the "social internet?"

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#47

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Did you never get a smartphone (in a way most people do) or have you gone back to good ol days ?

If former, what other ways you've adapted for essential stuff that need a smart device.

If later, do you ever plan on getting a smartphone again ?

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#48
post #46

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Can you share more advice for a 23 year old who wants to dump the "social internet?"

Personally I use an app/domain blocker on my android phone, and I block social networks from /etc/hosts on my laptop, I also use the command "chattr +i /etc/hosts" to make it harder to unblock the social networks I blocked.

Now the only social network I still use is Linkedin.

But I also "waste" my time on other stuff now, so I don't know if it's better, the brain always find new ways to procrastinate I guess.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#49
Knew immediately it was the 2720. It's all around a fantastic phone. The wifi tethering helps also if you carry around a laptop and spotify/whatsapp/google maps built in is also great.

Imagine a 3g, pre 4g phone. Basically that's what it is.

they're just hard to find for a good reason. :)

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#50

Life is too short to waste distracted by a smartphone. I prefer to use a the large screen and keyboard of a laptop for communication. I am still using a 2G phone with a B&W display for emergencies, for example if I get lost or held up meeting friends. Even then I'll have discussed a contingency with them - the old-fashioned way. I pay next to nothing to keep the account open, and the tap-texting naturally limits my d…

Did you never get a smartphone (in a way most people do) or have you gone back to good ol days ? If former, what other ways you've adapted for essential stuff that need a smart device. If later, do you ever plan on getting a smartphone again ?

I've never bought smartphone because felt no need

but the only things that make me really, really strongly consider getting smartphone is some form of Maps - let it be Google or something

and ability to send&receive pictures (MMS suck)

It's definitely possible to live with dumb phone, but stuff like maps, sending pictures and maybe access to email are sometimes incredibly handy

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