Smartphones: C or D?

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

flip phones (can) have cameras, if not very good ones

smartphones are worth it for the ease of texting alone imo, fuck texting on a flip phone that shit was horrible

i am totally distracted by my phone and i spend way too much time on it but i 100% feel that my life is easier now that i have one

especially if you are in an unfamiliar place!!!!

Is any place really unfamiliar with gps-enabled maps

If you want to get lost, put it in your pocket

If you just want to get notified when someone wants to contact you, you can get a little watch or something that notifies you when something important comes through and keep your actual phone in your bag, pocket, or next room

getting lost pretty much sucks imo

happens when you take a literal approach to détournement when you didn't finish reading the literature

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"

i get this all the time on facebook now bc my computer is old : /

Korea does not support granular phone mapping for walking or driving directions, apparently on purpose? You can get decent public transit directions but trying to coordinate directions on foot in Seoul is a scavenger hunt + orienteering challenge. Fun though

Anybody else checked out "Pinpoint" by Greg Milner? I loved the "Death by GPS" excerpt I read somewhere, and his previous book on recording technology was really good too imo

and he can't date really because he doesn't get emojis in texts

rip

thus was ended the house of flip phone

I switched back and forth between regular, non-internet capable phone and smartphones. But the past couple years I've been using a crappy flip phone. I love the internet (and technology in general), but I'd rather use that $50 data plan somewhere else in my life. There are specific moments in my life where I miss having a smartphone. But those moments add up to like an hour or so a week.

My thought process usually goes like this:

If only there were a limited feature smartphone that just had like texting and email...and uh, directions. Definitely would want the directions. And a really good camera, snaps of the kids, priceless. But no facebook. Oh except then how would I share the pics of the kids with family. But no browser. Except maybe a limited one that could look up the answers to questions. And some sort of restaurant finder app. Would need a way to hail Ubers once in a while....

Actually one of the surprising things about smartphones though, I think, is how few different apps I really use on a regular basis. It's almost like when I go over some certain number (maybe 10?) I just forget they're there or have a purpose.

even if I gave up a personal smartphone my office has started issuing the iphone 6 as standard gear, so y'know

My thinking is, I never asked for all that stuff. I never wanted a computer in my pocket before it existed. In fact, in the pre-smartphone days I still desperately wished I used the Internet less. So I feel like I was dragged into this era against my will.

I understand how you feel. People who say it's all up to your choice underestimate the ways norms limit the parameters of our choices. Report back on how it goes. Sometimes the internet is my alcohol, so I guess a smartphone is like a pocket flask.

fucking hate that i can't permanently remove all this android shit. cant even move it to the sd card, so my phone's always running out of space and periodically i learn i've been signed into some fucking chat service against my will

yes i've tried rooting it etc

Can't choose the era you were born into, just have to accept it and be glad you don't have polio

So true

You can choose everything. I am the curator of my life.

new on ios10

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204221

remove builtin apps

time to upgrade

"The apps built into iOS are designed to be very space efficient, so all of them together use less than 150MB. "

lol this is part of why companies are so deranged about letting you remove them -- they're thin wrappers on top of system frameworks that everything uses so it makes no sense to them that you'd want to "remove" "notes"

like yeah buddy let me wipe that lil' icon right off there

hell, I'm fine with removing the app store icon even, as long as there's some way to bring it back. maybe an "install app store" link in settings

Dude at the williamsburg verizon store wouldn't do the deal I had made with a midtown Verizon salesperson yesterday - a $1 downgrade, using the upgrade on this device called a "jetpack" that's fallen out of use. He said I couldn't upgrade that and so would need to pay full retail for a flip phone, which seemed insane. Headed back to midtown tomorrow to see if I can find that salesman again.

Should have pulled the trigger on this yesterday but was too afraid of never recognizing emojis or being part of group chats.

Foolish.