Is ditching your smartphone a "thing"?

Never have had a smartphone, but you have to wonder: how much are they toys and enablers?

I just finished tutoring a student who said, "I never had to learn the formula, as I had an app for it on my phone."

Maybe phones on the walls were better at times...

Not a Luddite wrote:

I keep running into people who are ditching smartphones. Some are switching to dumbphones. Others delete all social media accounts. Lots of talking about "living in the now" and "mindfullness" etc. What is up with that.

Addiction to mobile devices has reached absurd levels. Some people now recognize this, and are responding accordingly. I have a stupid flip phone that's gotta be 7 years old. Fits in my jeans. Perfect.

My guess is that your have to be pretty wealthy to ditch your smart phone. Maybe it's something to strive for, LOL.

I deleted all of my Social Media accounts except for Facebook, which I mainly use to see pictures of friends and their kids. I had a ridiculous number of "friends" that I paired down to like 300 by unfriending all the whiners and political whackos (on both sides). I'm 36, I don't need that crap anymore. In my opinion, if you're my age and your whining about things on Facebook, it's time to take some control of your life. LRC is another thing altogether, though. Everyone is allowed to whine and moan here as much as they want.

As for the smart phone, well I just got the 6s... I needed a new phone and it was what I got. I'm much less interested in smart phones now than I was in, say, 2008, but I still need to have one for work. Internet is more important than voice in my line of work, at least on a day-to-day basis.

I do think that we'll see a backlash at some point, but not because we're Luddites. It'll be due to people keeling over from the stress of being on call 24 hours a day for years on end.

That's my take on it.

Hey, I'm in favor of the trend! I never did buy a smartphone--I've had the same creaky dumbphone for the past six years--and have often felt as though I were the only one. Apparently not.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/smartphones-are-the-devil#.kypO3R6N1

Same here. I've had my "dumb" phone for 7 years. I rarely use it except for the occasional text message. In a perfect world (to me) I would ditch it completely but it's pretty much required you have a phone number for jobs, school, credit cards, etc. They are nice for emergencies though.

Are you one of these people that still calls or worse yet.. leaves voice mail??? Get a phone a send a text like a normal person.

I think it's just another fake way of allowing you to think you're better than the masses. "I'm a better person because I don't have a smart phone." "I don't need a smart phone because more in touch with blah blah blah..." It's just a choice of using something or not. Don't make it a metaphysical endeavor. There is nothing more or less moral, ethical, or enlightened about your choice of using a tool or not. The phone is a tool. If it serves your needs use it. If it doesn't server your needs, don't use it.

I have everyone here beat. I still use the nokia 3210. It was my first phone and I got it in 2000. The damn thing still works as good as the day I got it. It absolutely will not break and the battery still holds a charge for 4 days. Nokia's engineers must not have heard about the concept of "planned obsolesce". I guess that's why their company is in the toilets now.

Because I have this phone, work doesn't own me with being on call 24/7. I spend afternoons and evenings with my kids instead of checking my phone every 10 seconds like those addicts out there. I am the rare millennial that goes to dinner and actually expects to talk with my friends the whole time. I regularly poke fun at other screen zombies. Oh and I have tons of Boomer family / inlaws...your addiction to smartphones is as bad as the millenials, you just don't realize it.

I think this is just the natural flow of technology. People overuse it, then realize they're better off moderating their use and back of to some reasonable equilibrium. This arc just happens faster in today's world.

You can see the same arc with automobiles over a much longer time period. My grandparents: "Cars are nice. Everyone should have one." My parents: "Cars are essential to life. Every family should have three. And let's build neighborhoods and commercial districts to be basically inaccessible by any other mode." My generation: "These things are kind of a pain. I'll keep one because I need to, but paying for gas and upkeep sucks. I'd really rather just live near where I work/shop and leave the car parked."

I never had a smart phone, but I had 2 flip phones on-and-off since 2005. My wife lost her phone a couple months ago, so I gave her my flip phone, so I don't have one at all now. It's not some religious awakening; it's because I'm cheap. That's nothing to be proud of. FYI, I'm in my early 30's.

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

The phone is a tool. If it serves your needs use it. If it doesn't server your needs, don't use it.

And thus I don't. Complete WOT.

Bullet the Blue Sky wrote:

I think it's just another fake way of allowing you to think you're better than the masses. "I'm a better person because I don't have a smart phone." "I don't need a smart phone because more in touch with blah blah blah..." It's just a choice of using something or not. Don't make it a metaphysical endeavor. There is nothing more or less moral, ethical, or enlightened about your choice of using a tool or not. The phone is a tool. If it serves your needs use it. If it doesn't server your needs, don't use it.

I think it's more than that. I use mine way too much and it's like a damn ball and chain. I'm checking client email right after weekend long runs while stretching and stuff. People texting me all the time. I just think I use mine too much and need to tone it down.

I don't think I'm better than anyone. In fact, I wouldn't want anyone to know if I got rid of it for fear that they'd think I'm lazy.

I don't think there is anything "fake" about how I feel. It's not like I'm getting pec implants or something.

No, its my best friend.

Doesn't it just depend on what you are using it for? I agree that everyone going to lunch and staring at their phone is silly, but having a smart phone and using the GPS/Google maps to find different places is great. Having a camera at the ready is cool too, not saying you need to take pix of every sandwich you eat, but....

I've heard of people leaving the phone behind for a day hiking or something, but never completely.

we have smart phones for the first time because we had to buy them in order to do this cheap wireless phone deal, which is saving us $80 a month, once the $100 phones were paid off--total cost per month after that is $25 for unlimited calls and texts and limited data. however, these phones are a pain because their charge lasts for a very short period of time in contrast to the last very toughly made non-smart phones we had, typing onscreen is much harder, slower, and less accurate than typing on keys, and they have quirks like flipping the picture to the other orientation as you rotate the phone a bit (horizontal vs. vertical) but then not getting it right. I could easily do without them entirely. And as for finding things, there are these things called maps and a sense of direction.

you sound like an old man who doesn't know how to use technology...did you just come out of the stone ages?

BigDuh wrote:

Doesn't it just depend on what you are using it for? I agree that everyone going to lunch and staring at their phone is silly, but having a smart phone and using the GPS/Google maps to find different places is great. Having a camera at the ready is cool too, not saying you need to take pix of every sandwich you eat, but....

I'm mid-20s. Social-media free for almost four years. None. Haven't experienced any negative, or "fear of missing out," type feelings. I definitely feel more positive as a result. Still connected to friends and family without all the disgusting ills of broadcasting my own life and consuming others' images.

Like you I could ditch the smartphone entirely except I admittedly do love and rely on GPS/navigation.

This isn't a crusade or a stance whatsoever. I still d!ck around on the phone daily, but do consciously limit its use.

My biggest issue is people staring at their phones in the company of other real people.

Not rooting your smartphone is being sheeple (looking at you, Appledumbles).

Having a grip on that tremendously powerful computational device is the minimum acceptable level of tech-savyyness.

The partly-illiterate folkd (like in "can read, not write") may recognize they are being milked with planned obsolescence.

They ditch their phones and never deserved them in the first place.

Stupid people everywhere.