5 ms·

Phantom Vibrations of a Lost Smartphone

48 points by HR01 2y ago

Liquix 2y ago
interesting work, but not sure how truthful it is - a cigarette habit does not make one an unstoppable NicotiNator, a smartphone addiction does not make one a cyborg.
- mouse_ 2y ago
  > a cigarette habit does not make one an unstoppable NicotiNator I have to disagree with you there.
- Modified3019 2y ago
  Cigarette addiction is the only thing powerful enough to ensure my elderly housemates get exercise (up and down the stairs) and sunlight, all while they do that deep wheezing smokers cough proclaiming that they should quit one of these days. The are definitely some kind of human hybrid, with basic brain functions hijacked by something else. Though perhaps an analogy to an insect zombifying fungus would be more apt than to a cyborg.
  - Vampiero 2y ago
    Meanwhile, the Hackernews proceeds to spend the rest of his day taking amphetamines and mindlessly scrolling like the dopamine junkie he is, all while feeling smugly superior to the lowly nicotine addict, which he compares to an insect that was infested by a parasitic fungus and turned into a mindless zombie. The microplastics in both users' brains and testes breathe a sigh of relief.
devin 2y ago
I have stopped wearing my Apple watch other than for workouts and occasionally get phantom vibrations.
lexicality 2y ago
I do occasionally get twinges in the exact place on my leg that my phone vibrates against when it's in my pocket, even when my phone is in my hand. It's quite unsettling.
INTPenis 2y ago
Observationally people are truly addicted to them. I sometimes forget to bring mine but I'm an older millennial so I still remember our rotary phone lol. A few days ago at the bakery I just walked in because the door was open and they were like "we don't open until 9" oh sorry I forgot both my phone and my watch.
stronglikedan 2y ago
I used to get this with pagers. I think it was originally coined as "phantom paging", but that could just be how I remember it. I don't think I've ever had the sensation since I started using cellphones.
Syonyk 2y ago
> It’s a widely acknowledged but often underappreciated fact that in less than two decades, smartphones have revolutionized most aspects of everyday human life. Not all revolutions are good... but, yes, this is an entirely fair statement. > While many readers—and devoted smartphone users—may find this influence troubling, abandoning our devices isn’t the solution. Yes. It really, really is a perfectly good solution, that needs to be far more heavily used than it is. Don't carry your smartphone. Power it off. Carry a flip phone if you must. Change the default expectation of everyone that you, of course, have a little pocket tracker and will install whatever tracking Apps(TM) you're asked to. It's utterly absurd that I'm now asked at a gas station, when paying cash, if I'm "using the App." We (the more-tech-aware sorts likely posting here) know what sort of nasty things these devices are up to. Anything that has your location data is constantly streaming it through SDKs up to shady vendors who will package and resell it to anyone with a checkbook, to be able to retroactively root through people's lives for some reason or another. We know how the products are designed to be addictive ("Engaging!") - I guarantee more than a few people around here have "A/B tested engagement modifications." Yes, in an ideal world, none of this would be a problem. But that's not the world we have right now, and I don't believe that minor modifications of this concept of device can improve the state of it. I've been trying for years to figure out how to make digital consumer tech less-toxic, and the only conclusions I've come to are, "You can't." So I'm happy to be one of those people who clacks a flip phone when someone asks me to install an app to do something inane - or, better, simply states "I don't have a phone on me." It reminds people that there was life before smartphones - and, experimentally, the reaction I get now, post-Covid, from a flip phone is almost universally, "Wow, I didn't know you could still get those!" - people are very much interested in them now.
- pelario 2y ago
  > Power it off This has been the real game changer for me. As instant gratification is not so instant, I can go way larger stretches of time without checking the phone. Also, as nowadays most people message, and calls are not so common (at least in my circles), there is no "harm".
- lm28469 2y ago
  No notifications of any kind + airplane mode unless I actively need to use it is my way to go for the last few years. gmaps is the last useful thing that tech came up with so I'm not going to entirely give up smartphones, the rest can die I don't care much
neilv 2y ago
FWIW, people were reporting phantom cellphone-like vibration perceptions well before smartphones, and before using them heavily. I think I felt it at least a couple times when not carrying my circa 2000 Ericsson dumbphone (maybe "https://www.gsmarena.com/ericsson_t18s-116.php https://www.gsmarena.com/ericsson_t18s-116.php"), though I'd hardly used it, probably most days had zero received calls or SMS. I don't know how much that's like phantom limb. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome
- XorNot 2y ago
  I remember thinking I heard the ICQ "uh oh" message sound.
JohnMakin 2y ago
In a similar vein, I feel like a part of me is missing since google doesn't really work the way it used to anymore. Never in my adult life very often have I needed the answer to something trivial and been unable to find it very quickly. It's extremely unsettling.
- gkmcd 2y ago
  Have you tried Kagi? It's not "peak Google", but at least I don't miss it so much anymore.
- throwaway657656 2y ago
  Before the days of Google, I used "Ask Jeeves" which recommended search queries be submitted in the form of a question. Even after switching to Google decades ago, I have kept that approach. But despite so many saying that Google isn't as good as search as it once was, that isn't my experience. Curious, do you enter your searches as a question ?
  - Vampiero 2y ago
    If you enter your searches as a question all you get are Quora and WikiHow links, which are two of the worst websites in existence when it comes to finding useful information. Besides that's not how search term indexing works.
jessekv 2y ago
I recommend disabling all notifications, except maybe calls from immediate family. I just don't see why I should be at the beck and call of some gadget. It should be the other way around.

48 points by HR01 2y ago

interesting work, but not sure how truthful it is - a cigarette habit does not make one an unstoppable NicotiNator, a smartphone addiction does not make one a cyborg.

mouse_ 2y ago
> a cigarette habit does not make one an unstoppable NicotiNator I have to disagree with you there.
Modified3019 2y ago
Cigarette addiction is the only thing powerful enough to ensure my elderly housemates get exercise (up and down the stairs) and sunlight, all while they do that deep wheezing smokers cough proclaiming that they should quit one of these days. The are definitely some kind of human hybrid, with basic brain functions hijacked by something else. Though perhaps an analogy to an insect zombifying fungus would be more apt than to a cyborg.
- Vampiero 2y ago
  Meanwhile, the Hackernews proceeds to spend the rest of his day taking amphetamines and mindlessly scrolling like the dopamine junkie he is, all while feeling smugly superior to the lowly nicotine addict, which he compares to an insect that was infested by a parasitic fungus and turned into a mindless zombie. The microplastics in both users' brains and testes breathe a sigh of relief.

devin 2y ago

I have stopped wearing my Apple watch other than for workouts and occasionally get phantom vibrations.

lexicality 2y ago

I do occasionally get twinges in the exact place on my leg that my phone vibrates against when it's in my pocket, even when my phone is in my hand. It's quite unsettling.

INTPenis 2y ago

Observationally people are truly addicted to them. I sometimes forget to bring mine but I'm an older millennial so I still remember our rotary phone lol. A few days ago at the bakery I just walked in because the door was open and they were like "we don't open until 9" oh sorry I forgot both my phone and my watch.

stronglikedan 2y ago

I used to get this with pagers. I think it was originally coined as "phantom paging", but that could just be how I remember it. I don't think I've ever had the sensation since I started using cellphones.

Syonyk 2y ago

> It’s a widely acknowledged but often underappreciated fact that in less than two decades, smartphones have revolutionized most aspects of everyday human life. Not all revolutions are good... but, yes, this is an entirely fair statement. > While many readers—and devoted smartphone users—may find this influence troubling, abandoning our devices isn’t the solution. Yes. It really, really is a perfectly good solution, that needs to be far more heavily used than it is. Don't carry your smartphone. Power it off. Carry a flip phone if you must. Change the default expectation of everyone that you, of course, have a little pocket tracker and will install whatever tracking Apps(TM) you're asked to. It's utterly absurd that I'm now asked at a gas station, when paying cash, if I'm "using the App." We (the more-tech-aware sorts likely posting here) know what sort of nasty things these devices are up to. Anything that has your location data is constantly streaming it through SDKs up to shady vendors who will package and resell it to anyone with a checkbook, to be able to retroactively root through people's lives for some reason or another. We know how the products are designed to be addictive ("Engaging!") - I guarantee more than a few people around here have "A/B tested engagement modifications." Yes, in an ideal world, none of this would be a problem. But that's not the world we have right now, and I don't believe that minor modifications of this concept of device can improve the state of it. I've been trying for years to figure out how to make digital consumer tech less-toxic, and the only conclusions I've come to are, "You can't." So I'm happy to be one of those people who clacks a flip phone when someone asks me to install an app to do something inane - or, better, simply states "I don't have a phone on me." It reminds people that there was life before smartphones - and, experimentally, the reaction I get now, post-Covid, from a flip phone is almost universally, "Wow, I didn't know you could still get those!" - people are very much interested in them now.

pelario 2y ago
> Power it off This has been the real game changer for me. As instant gratification is not so instant, I can go way larger stretches of time without checking the phone. Also, as nowadays most people message, and calls are not so common (at least in my circles), there is no "harm".
lm28469 2y ago
No notifications of any kind + airplane mode unless I actively need to use it is my way to go for the last few years. gmaps is the last useful thing that tech came up with so I'm not going to entirely give up smartphones, the rest can die I don't care much

neilv 2y ago

FWIW, people were reporting phantom cellphone-like vibration perceptions well before smartphones, and before using them heavily. I think I felt it at least a couple times when not carrying my circa 2000 Ericsson dumbphone (maybe "https://www.gsmarena.com/ericsson_t18s-116.php https://www.gsmarena.com/ericsson_t18s-116.php"), though I'd hardly used it, probably most days had zero received calls or SMS. I don't know how much that's like phantom limb. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome

XorNot 2y ago
I remember thinking I heard the ICQ "uh oh" message sound.

JohnMakin 2y ago

In a similar vein, I feel like a part of me is missing since google doesn't really work the way it used to anymore. Never in my adult life very often have I needed the answer to something trivial and been unable to find it very quickly. It's extremely unsettling.

gkmcd 2y ago
Have you tried Kagi? It's not "peak Google", but at least I don't miss it so much anymore.
throwaway657656 2y ago
Before the days of Google, I used "Ask Jeeves" which recommended search queries be submitted in the form of a question. Even after switching to Google decades ago, I have kept that approach. But despite so many saying that Google isn't as good as search as it once was, that isn't my experience. Curious, do you enter your searches as a question ?
- Vampiero 2y ago
  If you enter your searches as a question all you get are Quora and WikiHow links, which are two of the worst websites in existence when it comes to finding useful information. Besides that's not how search term indexing works.

jessekv 2y ago

I recommend disabling all notifications, except maybe calls from immediate family. I just don't see why I should be at the beck and call of some gadget. It should be the other way around.