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To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Already some places are pushing hard to make them mandatory for certain services, li

To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Already some places are pushing hard to make them mandatory for certain services, like two-factor authentication -- several banks already do this. This makes it harder for people who want the freedom of not using a mobile phone. Mobile phones also have caused people to be less present in social situations and they provide too much information. There's less time just to think and be a person. I know we have many conveniences with smartphones and cellphones but I do not believe they are worth it and humanity would be better off without them.

MichaelZuo 3y ago
Can you list out the upsides and downsides you have so far identified?
- LelouBil 3y ago
  One upside: you can contact everyone and everything (almost) instantly One downside: everyone and everything can contact you (almost) instantly
  - tekla 3y ago
    Just block and ignore. Its not hard
    - throwaway17138 3y ago
      It's not polite either.
    - Brajeshwar 3y ago
      I believe it is -- either block or ignore.
calrain 3y ago
There are two services 'smartphones' are delivering on. Firstly, the ability to make calls remotely, and secondly to run application that can access the internet. The ability to make a phone call remotely is amazing, but the use of that phone is no different to a wired one. If you don't want to answer the call, then don't. The second issue is that people get sucked into dopamine pumping applications on their internet connect smartphone, that is a completely different issue.
- hulitu 3y ago
  > but the use of that phone is no different to a wired one. If you don't want to answer the call, then don't. If you are not at home, with a wired one, you don't answer it. With a cell phone, someone who calls you knows that you don't want to answer.
breadwinner 3y ago
> To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Only cellphones? What about the internet? It has made the world a worse place by shortening distances, not requiring you to get out of bed in order to buy something, or even to go to work. I only get out of the house once a week now. And don't get me started about social media. In fact, you could argue that the whole industrial society has made the world a lot worse. And that's what the Unabomber manifesto [1] argued. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Fut...
- jchw 3y ago
  Well, I don't know about that, but cellphones have certainly made the Internet a worse place.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - treyd 3y ago
    Cell phones are just a tool that can be used in any way. The companies that designed the software and platforms that runs on them and they connect to made the internet a worse place.
    - jchw 3y ago
      I mean if you frame things hard enough anything can be value-neutral to some degree, but I'm gradually turning on the idea of a smartphone in general. I simply do not think that every human should carry around an always-on internet-connected device everywhere they go. It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. Doesn't mean I don't want non-smartphone mobile computers to exist though. Believe me, I'd love to strap a 4G modem to my GPD MicroPC. Hell, in theory it could make a decent phone if the market for modems wasn't so awful. But even then, I don't carry around any device the way I used to compulsively carry around a smartphone. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but it really feels like there's something insidious about the way smartphones are, and I don't think it's all just that the software on them is manipulative. I honestly think that it might literally be a little too convenient.
cronix 3y ago
The first ones certainly weren't as you describe, but then again they were purely a phone, and nothing else. Not even basic texting. Certainly no data. Their only drawback was their enormous size and the high per minute voice charges.
drmpeg 3y ago
There's always unintended consequences of technology. I worked on early video compression standards starting in 1993, and now we have TikTok. :)
mongol 3y ago
This was not really the case when cellphones were not yet also smartphones. Sure, you may have checked your text messages now and then, but the phone was not a constant attentiongrabber.
- vouaobrasil 3y ago
  True, but smartphones are essentially a logical and inevitable conclusion of cellphones in a society that is not cautious towards technological devleopment.

MichaelZuo 3y ago

Can you list out the upsides and downsides you have so far identified?

LelouBil 3y ago
One upside: you can contact everyone and everything (almost) instantly One downside: everyone and everything can contact you (almost) instantly
- tekla 3y ago
  Just block and ignore. Its not hard
  - throwaway17138 3y ago
    It's not polite either.
  - Brajeshwar 3y ago
    I believe it is -- either block or ignore.

calrain 3y ago

There are two services 'smartphones' are delivering on. Firstly, the ability to make calls remotely, and secondly to run application that can access the internet. The ability to make a phone call remotely is amazing, but the use of that phone is no different to a wired one. If you don't want to answer the call, then don't. The second issue is that people get sucked into dopamine pumping applications on their internet connect smartphone, that is a completely different issue.

hulitu 3y ago
> but the use of that phone is no different to a wired one. If you don't want to answer the call, then don't. If you are not at home, with a wired one, you don't answer it. With a cell phone, someone who calls you knows that you don't want to answer.

breadwinner 3y ago

> To be honest I think cellphones have made the world an overall worse place. Only cellphones? What about the internet? It has made the world a worse place by shortening distances, not requiring you to get out of bed in order to buy something, or even to go to work. I only get out of the house once a week now. And don't get me started about social media. In fact, you could argue that the whole industrial society has made the world a lot worse. And that's what the Unabomber manifesto [1] argued. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Fut...

jchw 3y ago
Well, I don't know about that, but cellphones have certainly made the Internet a worse place.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- treyd 3y ago
  Cell phones are just a tool that can be used in any way. The companies that designed the software and platforms that runs on them and they connect to made the internet a worse place.
  - jchw 3y ago
    I mean if you frame things hard enough anything can be value-neutral to some degree, but I'm gradually turning on the idea of a smartphone in general. I simply do not think that every human should carry around an always-on internet-connected device everywhere they go. It's neat in theory, but it hasn't worked out very well. Doesn't mean I don't want non-smartphone mobile computers to exist though. Believe me, I'd love to strap a 4G modem to my GPD MicroPC. Hell, in theory it could make a decent phone if the market for modems wasn't so awful. But even then, I don't carry around any device the way I used to compulsively carry around a smartphone. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but it really feels like there's something insidious about the way smartphones are, and I don't think it's all just that the software on them is manipulative. I honestly think that it might literally be a little too convenient.

cronix 3y ago

The first ones certainly weren't as you describe, but then again they were purely a phone, and nothing else. Not even basic texting. Certainly no data. Their only drawback was their enormous size and the high per minute voice charges.

drmpeg 3y ago

There's always unintended consequences of technology. I worked on early video compression standards starting in 1993, and now we have TikTok. :)

mongol 3y ago

This was not really the case when cellphones were not yet also smartphones. Sure, you may have checked your text messages now and then, but the phone was not a constant attentiongrabber.

vouaobrasil 3y ago
True, but smartphones are essentially a logical and inevitable conclusion of cellphones in a society that is not cautious towards technological devleopment.