I went from iphone 3s to a “feature phone” for about a few years.
I missed being able to look up phone numbers and addresses for businesses.
I bought an iphone 6 right before the 8 came out, and I have managed it differently.
I avoid the app store completely.
I don’t use the camera for sharing photos, but i use it for utility like my parking space number or remember this thing for next time at the hardware store.
I would like to do away with my phone completely and get a watch like device that included voice/text … but I haven’t gotten there yet.
I have the bare minimum of apps on mine, the are ones I do use often of course but I have no games, and while I do use fb I rarely post. I directly chat with two or three people I know.
I do however watch a lot of YouTube and listen to podcasts but I much prefer it to watching tv shows.
I watch TV shows, but on my own terms and (spoiler-heavy shows like GoT excepted) on my own schedule. In any given week I watch an average of 3 hours of quality episodic television, with occasional marathons of old shows I’m catching up on or missed. I’m sure that amount is way down from the time I spent watching episodic TV shows a decade ago.
I love my podcasts and also my domestic and foreign public radio news (my primary source of breaking stories and daily news recaps). YouTube is for fun and putting video to audio when it comes to the news; it can become an engagement clickhole for me sometimes so I’m very mindful about how I use it. This recent TED Talk by James Bridle on the dangers of YouTube (presented, natch in a YT video) reminds us that small children are about as apt to use YouTube safely as they are to use a firearm safely:
Yeah the camera gets used a lot. The other things are sort of unexpected side benefits, the main goal was having a phone with a good camera that can email pictures so I could throw away my SD card reader.
When I made the decision to jump from dumb to smart, I did tons of research trying to find a phone that had a good camera and was cheap. After much contemplation, I bit my lip and shelled out far too much for a used Iphone. Because in addition to having a good camera, I wanted something easy to use, something that I could get repaired if it broke, something that would retain its resale value. Which meant paying the Apple tax. Fortunately the used market for idevices, while overpriced compared to any other brand of used phones, is a lot more affordable than buying a new phone.
I have a modern, featureful phone, and I find it uniformly enhances my life. I use it to communicate with people; read books; listen to music, audiobooks, and podcasts; and look up information when I need it. I don’t know which of these things is meant to be addictive but whichever it is, it’s not an addiction I’m interested in kicking.
Judicious use of the app store seems to be a key differentiator between people who allow their phones to use them and people who use their phones.
I do not download any social media apps onto any of my devices. If I need to see something on Facebook or Instagram, I have a web browser for that. I also don’t download any games onto my phone - if I am bored on transit, I have some books on it.
I am a horrible person who does not use technology for its intended purposes. My afterlife (or rather, AfterLyfe™, sponsored by Google) may be grim, but I am enjoying my current life just fine.
I’m driven to distraction by people who treat cellphoning as compatible with other activities; especially if those involve me(most especially if they involve demanding my attention while only providing a fraction of theirs).
I definitely hit the computer harder than is advisable; but it’s a discrete thing. When I’m on it, that’s what I’m doing; when I’m not it’s asleep or locked(depending on whether it is busy with network traffic or background processing). Only exception is the computer that usurped the CD player’s place in the stereo system years ago; which is technically a computer used for background.
Cellphones, by virtue of being small and sometimes doing things you have to respond to seem to be much more adept at boundary transgression and generally sneaking out when people are supposedly doing something else.
Holy fucksocks; how messed up is it that I misread your comment initially, and now I’m actually relieved because I thought a 7-year-old’s identity had been tracked down in 3D life and she was physically attacked in person?
The actuality is unbelievably fucked up, to be sure; but it’s just a tad less horrific than what I first thought.
I’m just saying if that isn’t a sign of the fuckin’ times, that I can actually find anything about a story like that “relieving,” then I don’t know what it is…
I f*cking hate smart phones. And it amazes me that more people don’t find the idea that you can (and would want to) be contacted wherever you are whenever incredibly off putting. But I did finally cave to social norms and get one.
So if I’m meeting up with someone it is actually possible to reach me by phone “on the go” or if I am running really late I can warn folks… and I can use google translate and whatsapp to communicate with folks who don’t know English and rely on whatsapp to text… and I can pull up local Google Maps if I’m lost. There’s some utility there.
But the phone has no data plan, just wifi and prepaid cellular service that ends up costing like 40¢/min if I actually use it. And I warn everyone not to try to reach me on the phone unless I expressly tell them I’ll have it on me, because I don’t usually carry it. And so far that seems to be working.
If only limiting my at home screen time were so easy…,.
I have a flip and a GPS device. However, I’ve never been a fan of putting all my apples in one basket. This is why I still use a camera, and my scanner is separate from my printer.
what a day without the BBS?!? unpossible… I actaully like my smart phone but then I am good at using it for calling / texting people and outside of that playing sudoku or pokemon go. And I gotta say pokemon go is just fine as it gives just enough extra reason to get out side and walk a good amount of time in the giant blue roofed room with the yellow shiny light orb.
BBS and crib, for me. Outgoing calls when I do things that require phoning (making appointments and suchlike). Incoming calls are liable to go to the answering service.
I communicate on my terms. The rest is entertainment.
Just remember, you’re only “reachable anywhere” if you actually answer the phone.
So is this. The tech industry obviously doesn’t care about protecting children who use their products and parents are often clueless. Sooner or later governments are going to have to step in again with a better version of COPA.
