Smartphones: C or D?

But the reality is, when you have a block of time such as a Subway ride in which it's not realistic to perform certain tasks, you're freed to do other things. When you are able to do more "pressing" things during that time, however, it's sort of the natural flow of things that you do the more pressing things. I think a lot of people ITT overestimate how deliberately every moment of life can be lived. We have limited amounts of willpower, we develop habits, we have demands placed on us, etc.

I don't see it as all that different from the fact that I don't keep certain foods in the house, because I know I'll eat too much of them. Sure I could "control myself" but that takes a lot more mental energy every time I see the box of whatever thing. So I just don't buy them. Similarly, I think what I'd really like is just an hour or two a day when my smartphone was completely inaccessible.

I generally deplore what seems to me to be the over-use of smartphones by those I see around me. For my own part, I had a Blackberry for about five years and resisted upgrading it to a touchscreen phone because I was convinced I would dislike the lack of a real keyboard. I have been surprised to find that I really quite enjoy the sensation of tapping on the virtual keyboard when typing on my new phone.

I also find having the fast internet connection available at all times to be very handy when I'm out and need to look up train times or find pubs and other places, as well as look up things on Wikipedia if I'm particularly curious about something.

I wouldn't want to switch to using the maps on the phone for general purposes as I prefer, when hiking, or even just walking around town, to use a paper map (Ordnance Survey map, or London A-Z atlas) and work out from it where to go, rather than simply going where the phone map and Google directions tell me to go.

When I'm on a bus or train, I do now find myself 'checking' emails and other notifications from time to time, but not to the extent that I feel it's an addiction. I have much more of a problem with that kind of addiction when using my computer at home.

A few things that do annoy me about my new (Android) phone are the constant updates (virtually every day or so) to installed apps; how heavily Google services and data collection are built into the thing; and the fact that apps are constantly running in the background unless you expressly log out or force stop them.

i went to molasses books last night without my phone. i wrote some things in a journal, i read a short story by flannery o'connor, and i had some conversations with people at the bar area. all in all a success.

you're like a person who decides to start writing real letters to people, like that person on that day i mean

i might do that who knows.

added Jeff on miitomo as requested

Can't wait for the next time you visit and we can go get a beer and interact through Miitomo exclusively.

funny i just sent a letter to my cousin who lives in the next city over

it read

"Dearest cousin,

I hope this letter finds you well. It would seem as though curiosity got the best of me and so I rummaged through the desk drawer, grasped a pen, and am now writing to you in hopes that I may discover what, in Heaven's name, you are up to at time of receiving.

I am, Madame, your most humble and obedient servant,

Infinity"

i let out a chuckle at the end

heck yeah xxp

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/480240/adventures-in-grayscale/

cool to learn that f sharp has amorous designs upon a blood relative

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

we're all blood relatives in some way right

can i get yr sister's number?

sure

strangely, even though I spend every second I'm at home or in work F5ing the internet constantly instead of whatever I should be doing in a horrible compulsion which makes me hate myself, I mostly find the lure of internet-in-pocket quite resistable when I'm out and about

I know this prob sounds a bit of a sanctimonious "I don't even own a TV!" answer but seriously I would like to bottle whatever I find relatively non-addictive about internet in phone form and sprinkle it over my laptop (plus sell it for profit share it for the good of humanity)

PS I will take all this back tomorrow as I'll be at my parents' house and when they spend the evening slumped in front of 5 hours of TV I will be twitching and craving my internet dose in any form it's available to me in, i.e. the phone, and no amount of trying to be polite or even reading a book will do

strangely, even though I spend every second I'm at home or in work F5ing the internet constantly instead of whatever I should be doing in a horrible compulsion which makes me hate myself, I mostly find the lure of internet-in-pocket quite resistable when I'm out and about

this is me as well. occasionally i remember to look at instagram. but the smartphone era happened a hair too late to break me of the compulsion to be carrying a book everywhere so that's still usually the way i avoid living in the moment. at home yeah f5 zombie.

forgot my phone at home when I went to dinner last night, didn't care at all

I can't think of a scenario where I wouldn't go back and get my phone.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I finally had to have my work phone replaced this week. The touch ID sensor and the lock button were shot. After I had to resort to using the Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network "soft boot" trick to power it down so they could switch the number & service package over to my new phone's SIM and IMEI, it went into a reboot loop which it was no longer able to complete. Just every 20 seconds or so, the boot screen would appear and then fade away as the startup sequence failed, again and again. Finally I killed it dead by just popping the SIM out.

I used to hate smartphones, hate hate hate, went without a personal phone for like 5 years because I refused to get one other than whatever the job deigned to issue me. Now I'm all sentimental.

http://i.imgur.com/TePqnHV.png

https://np.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/4i36z9/how_you_use_your_android_to_the_maximum/d2uq24i?context=3

9:00pm: brush my teeth and log it because I'm trying to make a habit of doing so every day (Loop Habit Tracker).

9:30pm: open random apps over and over thinking "I could be reading my Kindle right now".

http://i.imgur.com/O2jIop1.png

i'm crying

I hate this fucking thing

today i saw a guy, crossing a busy intersection w smartphone in one hand, head staring down reading the phone, the other hand cupped over it to shadow it from the sun all while ON A SKATEBOARD

i've seen the same except he was 'walking' his dog too

Found out i can trade in my nefarious iphone for a flip phone for $1. Told the dude I'd think it over but my plan now is to go back there and pull the trigger. It won't fix everything but I think it eill be a step in the right direction.

If I back out someone please beat me up or email me a computer virus.

Is this iPhone at all recent? I mean, even a couple generations old one will get you a few dollars, and most flip phones are either given away or insanely cheap

It's a 5 but i think the earpiece is messed up. Everyone sounds muffled.

the deal the dude offered for the flip phone -- $1 -- seemed pretty good. He said "one person every three days" comes in to that midtown Verizon store and asks to downgrade, citing distraction. This seemed oddly specific.

Youll find something else.

Keep yr awesome technology and learn boundaries

Typing this in bed btw

Nooo technology is awful... Or at least it is evolving faster than I am able to keep up with

have you considered working in a retirement home

please do this and report to us on how it goes!

I thought about downgrading not long ago. I remember back in 2009-2011 or so I ilx'd quite successfully from a slider phone. So I stepped into a Verizon store and checked out their selection of low-tech phones and I decided the technology really didn't work for me anymore. The keyboards were so annoying for me! I was a little bummed, because I thought it would be a good step toward solving my problems. Anyway, I removed some of the worse time-sucking apps like facebook and twitter. I've also been bringing paper books with me on my commute and getting sucked into them instead of my phone.

If you do this and pull it off though, let me know!

I recommend the Nokia 100 - costs around 10 euros and works very well, good menus, battery +1 week

my friend thought he was getting too addicted to his phone so he got a flip phone
now he texts himself all the things he wants to look up, and it's kind of sad, I wish he could just look them up
and he can't date really because he doesn't get emojis in texts
every time I am hanging out with him he gets a text and says "I don't know what she means, it's just two boxes"

also everyone gives him shit all the time about being a drug dealer or a terrorist especially me

haha I do get a lot of boxes

if you get a flip phone you will be mad every time you see something cute or incongruous or funny and you can't take a picture of it
i am pretty inconsistent about bringing my phone out with me and i experience this a lot
there are just too many cute things and weird things not to photograph

also how the fuck are you gonna get directions??

i held out on not getting a smartphone, did not get one until 2012 and i would never go back, ever
you can translate languages with them! text to speech! it is like the greatest classroom tool for working with ell/exed kids

AND in my experience NOT just with phones if you are really addicted to something you will find a way to still do it...even if you have to take the hard way...

I mean, Treeship drafts his ilx posts in a little notebook so this isn't much of a change