5 ms·

This particular kind of novelty is kind of appealing to people who want to be conspicuously, obstreperously Luddite, while still carrying a mobile phone. I adm

This particular kind of novelty is kind of appealing to people who want to be conspicuously, obstreperously Luddite, while still carrying a mobile phone. I admit I kind of want one of these novel bits of tech just to show off how Luddite I am.

kwhitefoot 4y ago
I know this is off topic and it's not a criticism of your comment but I think it's a shame that Luddite has become so watered down. The real life Luddites put their lives on the line in the fight against industrial weaving. The didn't just avoid using a steam loom while drinking an almond latte.
- dylan604 4y ago
  first definition in a dictionary says Luddite is someone opposed to new technology. your definition has been moved to the second definition of the word. so the world has moved past you and you now seem to be a Luddite (of sorts) hanging on to a definition of the word the world has found less useful.
  - kwhitefoot 4y ago
    I still think it's a shame. But, HN needs to add emojis to the upvote so I can say that you made me smile without the effort of actually writing a comment!
- JasonFruit 4y ago
  I'm more bothered when "Luddite" is used as a slur against people who refuse certain technologies in a principled way. That is, when it's used in a historically-knowledgeable way, but still deployed as an insult.
ydlr 4y ago
I had to lookup "obstreperously." Thank you for teaching me a new word.
Syonyk 4y ago
Indeed... I want one too! Pocketable rotary dial phone? Just, $400 can cover a lot of other things. I consider carrying something like this (I carry an AT&T Flip IV at the moment if I remember the thing) to serve as a reminder to other people that not everyone has, nor wants, smartphone-type capabilities. At the local farmer's market last weekend, a number of various political booths (on all sides of the spectrum) had "Sign our petition!" type signs - as QR codes only. My device doesn't decode QR codes easily, nor will the browser handle a standard website very well. I typically carry a laptop, but they don't print the URLs... Of course, then there's the problem of being on the fringe and the absurdity of "And therefore follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and a bunch of other big tech platforms!" - I point that one out often enough too. I'm at a position in my life where there's really no downside to carrying "the weird alternative" and showing people that, yes, I do in fact continue to exist, can have phone calls, SMS text, and basic maps, while not feeding into the horribly human-toxic ecosystem that modern smartphones have become. I mean, I can even use Bluetooth to the car for making phone calls, or play music from my SD card to a Bluetooth speaker! But I don't have email on it, I don't have any social medias, the games are crap and I don't bother with them, etc. It's a minimally functional device that I end up leaving home a lot because I just forget about it - and that, coming from the smartphone world, is a huge improvement. I get a lot of positive reactions, too - most people simply haven't thought about the fact that the smartphone is really only 10-15 years old for most people. We lived before it. We will live after it. And life is objectively better without one now.
- stavros 4y ago
  This is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love my phone, even though I don't use social media, or play predatory games, or whatever. It lets me talk to my friends all day, doesn't distract me unless I want to be distracted (all notifications are off), and entertains me when I'm bored. Your post seems a bit "I couldn't use my phone responsibly so I got rid of it", which is fine (I can't have sweets in the house, as I'll eat them too often), but you shouldn't generalize your lack of self-control to everyone. Some people have a perfectly fine relationship with their smartphone.
  - 4y ago
hoffspot 4y ago
I think there are shades of gray to be recognized between obstreperously "Retro" and obstreperously Luddite. There are still a significant cohort of people alive that grew up in the era where the rotary phone interface was the only phone interface. Using this device in public could be merely a nod and a wink to others in the same cohort and a nice conversation starter rather than a position against the advancement of technology. You will pry my smartphone out of my cold, dead hands but I think it would be fun to have this device around to occasionally sport out in public for the laughs. And in a nod to yourself and the other comment, thank you for teaching me a new word (obstreperously).
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  Curious - Why "obstreperously "? I would've assumed something like "Ostentatiously" would've been the word; but I've seen "obstreperously" couple of times in this thread now, and had to look it up (it's a new word to me:) - seems to be "noisy and difficult to control", and that gives it a whole different, perhaps more negative slant? P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives :-)
  - Syonyk 4y ago
    > P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives Oh, absolutely! Part of it is the enjoyment and skill to make something like that work (it's a non-trivial bit of programming to interface modern electronics with a rotary dialer, cell modem, audio codec, etc, and to have it all more or less work reliably). The other part, though, I think is that people in those spaces see just how wrong everything has gone - the piles of complexity that never quite work, the constant data leaks, the invasion of privacy for surveillance profits, the fight for attention based on what's good for the company and not good for the users, etc. And a lot of us, myself included, want no part of that. My wife and I spent last night on the couch listening through a wonderful recording of Handel's Messiah, on 4 quite heavy vinyl LPs. It was a great evening!

kwhitefoot 4y ago

I know this is off topic and it's not a criticism of your comment but I think it's a shame that Luddite has become so watered down. The real life Luddites put their lives on the line in the fight against industrial weaving. The didn't just avoid using a steam loom while drinking an almond latte.

dylan604 4y ago
first definition in a dictionary says Luddite is someone opposed to new technology. your definition has been moved to the second definition of the word. so the world has moved past you and you now seem to be a Luddite (of sorts) hanging on to a definition of the word the world has found less useful.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  I still think it's a shame. But, HN needs to add emojis to the upvote so I can say that you made me smile without the effort of actually writing a comment!
JasonFruit 4y ago
I'm more bothered when "Luddite" is used as a slur against people who refuse certain technologies in a principled way. That is, when it's used in a historically-knowledgeable way, but still deployed as an insult.

ydlr 4y ago

I had to lookup "obstreperously." Thank you for teaching me a new word.

Syonyk 4y ago

Indeed... I want one too! Pocketable rotary dial phone? Just, $400 can cover a lot of other things. I consider carrying something like this (I carry an AT&T Flip IV at the moment if I remember the thing) to serve as a reminder to other people that not everyone has, nor wants, smartphone-type capabilities. At the local farmer's market last weekend, a number of various political booths (on all sides of the spectrum) had "Sign our petition!" type signs - as QR codes only. My device doesn't decode QR codes easily, nor will the browser handle a standard website very well. I typically carry a laptop, but they don't print the URLs... Of course, then there's the problem of being on the fringe and the absurdity of "And therefore follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and a bunch of other big tech platforms!" - I point that one out often enough too. I'm at a position in my life where there's really no downside to carrying "the weird alternative" and showing people that, yes, I do in fact continue to exist, can have phone calls, SMS text, and basic maps, while not feeding into the horribly human-toxic ecosystem that modern smartphones have become. I mean, I can even use Bluetooth to the car for making phone calls, or play music from my SD card to a Bluetooth speaker! But I don't have email on it, I don't have any social medias, the games are crap and I don't bother with them, etc. It's a minimally functional device that I end up leaving home a lot because I just forget about it - and that, coming from the smartphone world, is a huge improvement. I get a lot of positive reactions, too - most people simply haven't thought about the fact that the smartphone is really only 10-15 years old for most people. We lived before it. We will live after it. And life is objectively better without one now.

stavros 4y ago
This is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love my phone, even though I don't use social media, or play predatory games, or whatever. It lets me talk to my friends all day, doesn't distract me unless I want to be distracted (all notifications are off), and entertains me when I'm bored. Your post seems a bit "I couldn't use my phone responsibly so I got rid of it", which is fine (I can't have sweets in the house, as I'll eat them too often), but you shouldn't generalize your lack of self-control to everyone. Some people have a perfectly fine relationship with their smartphone.
- 4y ago

hoffspot 4y ago

I think there are shades of gray to be recognized between obstreperously "Retro" and obstreperously Luddite. There are still a significant cohort of people alive that grew up in the era where the rotary phone interface was the only phone interface. Using this device in public could be merely a nod and a wink to others in the same cohort and a nice conversation starter rather than a position against the advancement of technology. You will pry my smartphone out of my cold, dead hands but I think it would be fun to have this device around to occasionally sport out in public for the laughs. And in a nod to yourself and the other comment, thank you for teaching me a new word (obstreperously).

NikolaNovak 4y ago
Curious - Why "obstreperously "? I would've assumed something like "Ostentatiously" would've been the word; but I've seen "obstreperously" couple of times in this thread now, and had to look it up (it's a new word to me:) - seems to be "noisy and difficult to control", and that gives it a whole different, perhaps more negative slant? P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives :-)
- Syonyk 4y ago
  > P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives Oh, absolutely! Part of it is the enjoyment and skill to make something like that work (it's a non-trivial bit of programming to interface modern electronics with a rotary dialer, cell modem, audio codec, etc, and to have it all more or less work reliably). The other part, though, I think is that people in those spaces see just how wrong everything has gone - the piles of complexity that never quite work, the constant data leaks, the invasion of privacy for surveillance profits, the fight for attention based on what's good for the company and not good for the users, etc. And a lot of us, myself included, want no part of that. My wife and I spent last night on the couch listening through a wonderful recording of Handel's Messiah, on 4 quite heavy vinyl LPs. It was a great evening!