4 ms·

I didn't buy a smart phone until about five years ago. I don't like them. But, they're ubiquitous, and it's pretty hard to be without one and function in the wo

I didn't buy a smart phone until about five years ago. I don't like them. But, they're ubiquitous, and it's pretty hard to be without one and function in the world. The goal should not be to pretend they don't exist, but to reckon with your addiction or 'hyperconnectivity' issues and be able to deal with having one. They aren't going away, unfortunately, and in the future the world will continue to assume you have one, and expect you to use it.

Zambyte 3y ago
Serious question: why should I care about the world expecting me to have a smartphone?
- cannonpalms 3y ago
  An often repeated example is financial institutions. Some require the use of their app for 2FA, for example. Think further along these lines and you'll undoubtedly come up with other examples.
  - Zambyte 3y ago
    I have an OTP client and SMS on my PC, so I'm set there.
- someonehere 3y ago
  The world is getting to a point where the only way you’re going to be able to do business or any type of transaction is through a smart phone. If you don’t have a smart phone, it’s gonna be very difficult for you to function in the world at some point.
  - LinuxBender 3y ago
    I have not experienced this. I bought my first smart phone last year and I literally just use it for voice and text. Could this be a big city thing? I saw someone mention paying for parking lots but they are all free in the town not far from me. There's no public transit here. I'm very likely going back to a flip phone, probably something like a CAT unless there is a tougher one that works on T-Mobile.
  - UtopiaPunk 3y ago
    This is good argument to get a dumbphone and be a thorn in the side of techno-capitalists' vision of "progress." It's all about measuring metrics and tracking consumers in the pursuit of squeezing a few more dollars out of us
- sharkjacobs 3y ago
  - paying for parking in private lots in my area is becoming impossible without a phone app
- karaterobot 3y ago
  I can't answer why you should care. Maybe you're more tolerant than me. But I can list a few ways in which not having a smartphone can be more annoying: It's part of most multifactor authentication systems, as has already been mentioned. You could get by with SMS-based MFA, but you really should not as it is demonstrably insecure. In the future, these other methods will likely just go away as well, as they should. At some point during COVID, a lot of restaurants stopped giving you printed menus, and expect you to use a QR code to access a menu on the web. Some provide printed menus upon request, but I've been to places that just don't have them anymore. Here's a personal one: On a road trip a while ago, I stopped at a gas station to buy a map, only to discover that they don't sell them. This blew my mind: growing up, this is just what you did when you were in a state far from home, and you could count on any gas station having a folded paper map of the state in it. I don't think you can count on being able to navigate that way anymore, so you'd either have to plan ahead and buy maps, or buy a dedicated GPS unit, or use a smart phone for navigation. Later on that same road trip, I stopped in a small town and wanted to walk around for a bit. I discovered that all the parking spaces cost money (fine) but that there were no parking meters or kiosks to pay at. Just a sign with a QR code on it, presumably pointing to a website or app download where I had to pay. In theory I could have pulled my laptop out of my suitcase, connected it to wifi somehow (not via tethering, but maybe a nearby coffee shop or something), and used the webcam instead, but come on. My insurance company offers a "service" where they track your driving via a smartphone app. This is an optional service, and naturally I told them to screw off. It is not hard to imagine, however, this becoming not-optional, or being penalized for not submitting to it in the future. Oh, here's another one: my last employer bought me a smartphone on day one of my job there. Not avoidable. I did not stay at that job very long, but I don't think it's all that unusual for companies to just assume you're going to use a smartphone and be in touch with them.
  - psnehanshu 3y ago
    Thanks for pointing out these points. The people who are planning to ditch a smartphone completely, please explain how are you going to overcome these problems.
    - 3y ago
- vuln 3y ago
  You shouldn’t care if you have no use case for one. Not sure if you’re attempting to bait people into argument or if you just want to flex how much of a Luddite you are.
  - Zambyte 3y ago
    I made a top level comment before this with more context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37875311 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37875311 I asked because I wanted to know the answer.
- 000ooo000 3y ago
  My partner and I are having our first kid. We were given a sheet with a timeline of the various appointments and check-ins. Each appointment had an associated QR code where bookings could be made. No other details, e.g. contact details, were on it. Not a problem for us, having smartphones, but it did give me pause; surely there are folk who don't have a phone that can scan these, or a phone at all. What extra BS do these people have to go through to do something that would take me 5s with my smartphone? This is only one example, but still, it is an example of how disadvantaged people are even more disadvantaged because of the expectation that everyone has a smartphone. Probably just an oversight on the sheet author's part but is it one born out of their expectations around smartphone adoption? Maybe That said, maybe there was a sheet without QR codes and the nurse made a call that we looked like we had smartphones and gave us the QR code one. Can't rule that out.
  - BillyTheMage 3y ago
    Yeah I'd be totally screwed in that scenario. I've been screwed once before by QR-only things, at a restaurant whose menu was exclusively online, and they didn't know the URL because "it's in the QR code". Like... okay I guess I just won't eat today.
slowmovintarget 3y ago
Dumbphones a.k.a feature phones, are perfect for children, especially young children that need a means to call their parents, but not a means to browse the internet, engage in malformed social interaction, or game for hours at a time.

Zambyte 3y ago

Serious question: why should I care about the world expecting me to have a smartphone?

cannonpalms 3y ago
An often repeated example is financial institutions. Some require the use of their app for 2FA, for example. Think further along these lines and you'll undoubtedly come up with other examples.
- Zambyte 3y ago
  I have an OTP client and SMS on my PC, so I'm set there.
someonehere 3y ago
The world is getting to a point where the only way you’re going to be able to do business or any type of transaction is through a smart phone. If you don’t have a smart phone, it’s gonna be very difficult for you to function in the world at some point.
- LinuxBender 3y ago
  I have not experienced this. I bought my first smart phone last year and I literally just use it for voice and text. Could this be a big city thing? I saw someone mention paying for parking lots but they are all free in the town not far from me. There's no public transit here. I'm very likely going back to a flip phone, probably something like a CAT unless there is a tougher one that works on T-Mobile.
- UtopiaPunk 3y ago
  This is good argument to get a dumbphone and be a thorn in the side of techno-capitalists' vision of "progress." It's all about measuring metrics and tracking consumers in the pursuit of squeezing a few more dollars out of us
sharkjacobs 3y ago
- paying for parking in private lots in my area is becoming impossible without a phone app
karaterobot 3y ago
I can't answer why you should care. Maybe you're more tolerant than me. But I can list a few ways in which not having a smartphone can be more annoying: It's part of most multifactor authentication systems, as has already been mentioned. You could get by with SMS-based MFA, but you really should not as it is demonstrably insecure. In the future, these other methods will likely just go away as well, as they should. At some point during COVID, a lot of restaurants stopped giving you printed menus, and expect you to use a QR code to access a menu on the web. Some provide printed menus upon request, but I've been to places that just don't have them anymore. Here's a personal one: On a road trip a while ago, I stopped at a gas station to buy a map, only to discover that they don't sell them. This blew my mind: growing up, this is just what you did when you were in a state far from home, and you could count on any gas station having a folded paper map of the state in it. I don't think you can count on being able to navigate that way anymore, so you'd either have to plan ahead and buy maps, or buy a dedicated GPS unit, or use a smart phone for navigation. Later on that same road trip, I stopped in a small town and wanted to walk around for a bit. I discovered that all the parking spaces cost money (fine) but that there were no parking meters or kiosks to pay at. Just a sign with a QR code on it, presumably pointing to a website or app download where I had to pay. In theory I could have pulled my laptop out of my suitcase, connected it to wifi somehow (not via tethering, but maybe a nearby coffee shop or something), and used the webcam instead, but come on. My insurance company offers a "service" where they track your driving via a smartphone app. This is an optional service, and naturally I told them to screw off. It is not hard to imagine, however, this becoming not-optional, or being penalized for not submitting to it in the future. Oh, here's another one: my last employer bought me a smartphone on day one of my job there. Not avoidable. I did not stay at that job very long, but I don't think it's all that unusual for companies to just assume you're going to use a smartphone and be in touch with them.
- psnehanshu 3y ago
  Thanks for pointing out these points. The people who are planning to ditch a smartphone completely, please explain how are you going to overcome these problems.
  - 3y ago
vuln 3y ago
You shouldn’t care if you have no use case for one. Not sure if you’re attempting to bait people into argument or if you just want to flex how much of a Luddite you are.
- Zambyte 3y ago
  I made a top level comment before this with more context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37875311 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37875311 I asked because I wanted to know the answer.
000ooo000 3y ago
My partner and I are having our first kid. We were given a sheet with a timeline of the various appointments and check-ins. Each appointment had an associated QR code where bookings could be made. No other details, e.g. contact details, were on it. Not a problem for us, having smartphones, but it did give me pause; surely there are folk who don't have a phone that can scan these, or a phone at all. What extra BS do these people have to go through to do something that would take me 5s with my smartphone? This is only one example, but still, it is an example of how disadvantaged people are even more disadvantaged because of the expectation that everyone has a smartphone. Probably just an oversight on the sheet author's part but is it one born out of their expectations around smartphone adoption? Maybe That said, maybe there was a sheet without QR codes and the nurse made a call that we looked like we had smartphones and gave us the QR code one. Can't rule that out.
- BillyTheMage 3y ago
  Yeah I'd be totally screwed in that scenario. I've been screwed once before by QR-only things, at a restaurant whose menu was exclusively online, and they didn't know the URL because "it's in the QR code". Like... okay I guess I just won't eat today.

slowmovintarget 3y ago

Dumbphones a.k.a feature phones, are perfect for children, especially young children that need a means to call their parents, but not a means to browse the internet, engage in malformed social interaction, or game for hours at a time.