4 ms·

> I guess I don't have "dozens of contacts", but getting a new phone/resetting a phone isn't really that common of a thing in my circle. What income bracket is

> I guess I don't have "dozens of contacts", but getting a new phone/resetting a phone isn't really that common of a thing in my circle. What income bracket is your circle? Just going to reminisce a bit here... I come from a family business that used a lot of manual labor from the local neighborhood here in south Queens, NYC. I spent a lot of time with guys in late teens and 20's, mainly black and hispanic kids looking to make some decent side money. They came from low income backgrounds and were poorly educated. This leads to a very unstable life where money really is scarce. They frequently changed phone numbers due to: "crazy" ex, owes money to scary people, owes child/alimony support, owes the government, commits crimes and uses frequent burners, did jail time, or the #1 reason; out of minutes and no money to put on the prepaid plan. They used prepaid plans as they could refill accounts using cash at physical phone stores or check cashing stores because they don't have a computer or bank account. No phone service means no internet. Most of those guys were good people who I got along with just fine. Ignorance really is a terrible thing.

el_cujo 8y ago
>What income bracket is your circle? High enough that they can afford an iPhone but low enough that they treat it like a treasure they don't want to have to replace unless they've had it at least five years. I'm surprised at your suggestion that lower income people would be more likely to go through phones. I could definitely understand this for cheap flip phones on a pre-paid plan, but it was my understanding that Signal and WhatsApp are smartphone-only apps, so I figured lower income people especially wouldn't be flying through phones that cost hundreds of dollars.
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  As someone who only reluctantly got their first smartphone in the past year (yes, I'm a computer programmer, I dunno), I can say that cheap flip phones don't really exist anymore in the US. You can generally get a cheap smartphone cheaper than a cheap fliphone, in 2019. For instance, you can get smartphones for well under $50 from Cricket, once every 90 days per account. They are locked to Cricket, but you don't actually have a contract, you can abandon them at any time with no penalty. Yes, the cheapest smartphones are gonna be _really bad_. But in the past year-ish, perfectly usable smartphones available around $100-$160 became a thing (carrier locked but no contract). (Flip phones have become _really bad_ too though. Flip phones available in 2019 have worse battery life and worse performance/UX than flip phones of 5 years ago. like press a button wait 1s+ for something to happen bad UX) Flip phones are pretty much gone, I don't think they are a thing poor people use anymore. They might be a thing old people use, or that people attempting to have an anonymous disposable phone use. They don't generally make sense any more as a cost conscious thing, plus if you're poor you don't want to be reminded that you're different from "everyone else" everytime you look at your phone. Incredibly cheap (crappy) smart phones are available, and relatively affordable reasonable ones too. (Plus, not just for poor people these days, but especially if you're poor, your phone is probably your only computer and only internet access).

el_cujo 8y ago

>What income bracket is your circle? High enough that they can afford an iPhone but low enough that they treat it like a treasure they don't want to have to replace unless they've had it at least five years. I'm surprised at your suggestion that lower income people would be more likely to go through phones. I could definitely understand this for cheap flip phones on a pre-paid plan, but it was my understanding that Signal and WhatsApp are smartphone-only apps, so I figured lower income people especially wouldn't be flying through phones that cost hundreds of dollars.

jrochkind1 8y ago
As someone who only reluctantly got their first smartphone in the past year (yes, I'm a computer programmer, I dunno), I can say that cheap flip phones don't really exist anymore in the US. You can generally get a cheap smartphone cheaper than a cheap fliphone, in 2019. For instance, you can get smartphones for well under $50 from Cricket, once every 90 days per account. They are locked to Cricket, but you don't actually have a contract, you can abandon them at any time with no penalty. Yes, the cheapest smartphones are gonna be _really bad_. But in the past year-ish, perfectly usable smartphones available around $100-$160 became a thing (carrier locked but no contract). (Flip phones have become _really bad_ too though. Flip phones available in 2019 have worse battery life and worse performance/UX than flip phones of 5 years ago. like press a button wait 1s+ for something to happen bad UX) Flip phones are pretty much gone, I don't think they are a thing poor people use anymore. They might be a thing old people use, or that people attempting to have an anonymous disposable phone use. They don't generally make sense any more as a cost conscious thing, plus if you're poor you don't want to be reminded that you're different from "everyone else" everytime you look at your phone. Incredibly cheap (crappy) smart phones are available, and relatively affordable reasonable ones too. (Plus, not just for poor people these days, but especially if you're poor, your phone is probably your only computer and only internet access).