But ask me about legalized weed ;]
If you don’t find value in smartphones I can respect that
You’d have to pry my own from my cold, dead hands. I have a map of the entire world (mostly) in my pocket! That in itself I find invaluable. I use Google Maps all the time. To find places and to navigate to them. On foot, public transit, and car. Here and in other countries.
Sure, I used to manage before Maps was a thing but do I ever want to go back? Nope.
That is one killer feature for me
And yeah I definitely see how life changed for the worse because of them. I actively moderate my own behavior.
I’m not going back that’s for sure. I do feel kinda of dragged along though, I didn’t have a cell phone until my early 20s and only became a full adopter when smart phones were ubiquitous. I just can imagine a life that would be just as fulfilling without the existence of the “smart” phone, or more so.
I hear ya. I too was a late cell and smart- phone adopter.
If I couldn’t use them anymore I would be annoyed at first. But I would adjust and yes, would certainly lead a fulfilling life regardless.
I myself am in between both extremes. Here are some ways I remain old school even though I’ve bought into the smartphone era:
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I remain in a real sense anti-app and keep them to a minimum on my phone. I keep their permissions as locked down as I can and I review every update pretty extensively. It’s ridiculous how everyone and their brother wants me to install their app. No thank you. I’m quite content getting up to adjust the thermostat and don’t need a fully automated smart home.
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If I’m socializing with someone they get my full attention. If I need to look something up, respond to a text, etc I excuse myself.
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When I’m out and about I’m present in my environment. “Smartphone zombie” behavior is foreign to me.
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I take full advantage of the digital well being and bedtime features of my phone. I set timers for my addicting apps.
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Oh, when I do drive I am hands off with my phone. If I really do need to use it then I pull over.
Etc
Sometimes u just wonder if we, as a people, will set down the phone and say, “that was interesting.” And kinda move on. Not like throwing them away but maybe just realizing, this isn’t everything.
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You mean portable GPS devices that have been around for a decade before smart phones?
Do portable GPS also have a list of every single business near my location?
I was content and managed just fine with paper maps and directions before smartphones. When I got my first one it rendered those devices obsolete for me.
I had those. They were much worse.
Seriously. Much much worse.
First you had to pay a fortune for a device, with which you may or may not get very limited map updates. Then after that you had to pay quite a bit to update. Even then it could take a year for permanent road changes to make it to the map updates, and temporary changes were never shown. Road construction, wrecks, and temporary closures were your problem. And God forbid your route took you through a closed area because there was no way to route around it. You had to find a place to park so you could look over the tiny little map to figure out your own way around the blockage, or else you could pick a direction and then yolo your route until you were far enough away from the problem area that the gps would finally choose a route that didn’t go through the problem area.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, all the above assumes that it accepted the address you were going to as a valid address. There was nothing like the joy of typing in an address and having the device tell you that it doesn’t exist.I rented a car at some point where you had to input the address letter by letter using a little scrollwheel kinda thing.
Smartphones have issues, but the map thing is a killer feature in itself.
Holy sweet baby Jesus! You need to put a trigger warning on your post. The traumatic memories that you brought to the surface are enough to send me back to therapy all over again.
Yeah you’re full of shit dude. You’re telling me you’ve never used the GPS on your phone at the VERY least? Even for walking in the city or something?
yeah, shit post.
To be totally fair, with my older phone the GPS never worked properly (it was very cheap), so I’d usually look up the directions to a place beforehand and text them to myself for use later. Did get lost a lot but you can usually just ask somebody where to go
Well, it’s a whole lot easier to get from point A to point B than it used to be.
And I can instantly find out what that actor’s name is or what song I’m currently hearing.
But yeah, they’re also pretty goddamn annoying at times.
All I want to say is, knowing an actors name or a song name isn’t really meaningful change. I guess if I really liked a song and listened non stop.
I like podcasts and I like apple music. The thing is, these both predate smart phones. Hence "pod"cast. Who knows though if they would have gotten as popular if everyone didn’t have easy access as they do today.
Look, are there downsides? Absolutely.
But, just thinking about the few days for Christmas:
Buddy and I were out and making plans to swim. Using our phones we found out what time the pool was open, then found out whether there was bbq nearby. We then added this to our calendars. All at thr same time without having to go home, look it up, coordinate then write it down.
The next day, I got groceries. I used my grocery app which also contains a couple hundred recipes I’ve collected. The grocery store had a great deal on something I hadn’t expected so I pivoted, used my phone to look through my recipes, found an appropriate one and adjusted.
Later, running errands on my bike and finished a bit early. On a whim, I checked to see if a movie I wanted to catch was anywhere near. It was but not in an area I bike often. Booked my tickets on the phone, navigated there and streamed music to listen to as I rode.
Heck, when I visited for Christmas, a friend sent a message warning the ferries to come home were getting cancelled. I checked while we were out at dinner, found the last ferry was still running and had space so was able to make it home instead of getting stranded.
Outside of this week, I’ve dated a bunch of girls whom I’d have never met were it not for “the apps.” Say what you will, it expands the network of dateable folks well outside your own social networks.
In summary: streaming music everywhere, all sorts of apps making things easier (in this case, recipes etc) navigation, making plans on the fly, dating all sorts of folks, booking things without having to find a computer and way more.
Smartphones have saved my ass.
I’m really bad at remembering things, and when something pops in my head, it needs to be dealt with immediately, or it’ll be lost forever. Credit cards due tomorrow? Open app, and done. Oh shit. My credit card IS due tomorrow. Gotta go!
I probably could do better time management. Remember those daily organizers, lol?
You’ve obviously never had to read a shampoo bottle to keep you entertained while taking a dump before.
Oh man where to start.
No tertiary devices. No GPS or iPod in my car. Just my phone. For so many useless gadgets. Cameras, video cameras…CALCULATORS, All in one place. That’s number 1.
2 would be that these devices are all a part of an ecosystem that grew so fast… Not only did our phones suddenly all have GPS, but it’d tell us about traffic. That used to be someone’s news beat. Gone, overnight
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Mobile browser. What?! You mean every time that annoying know it all friend starts confidently talking about something they know nothing about You can just Google it right in front of them instead if having it be some annoying thing.
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For better or worse, I am never bored.
That’s just the first few that come to mind…
What if i liked my ipod?
What if knowing about traffic didn’t stop me from driving straight into it 99% of the time?
What if me and my friends were never far from a browser and any disagreement could have waited the 10 minutes it took to get to a computer?
I always feel fucking bored.
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You’d have paid more for basic services like insurance as you couldn’t compare the market. You’d have to trust that clever guy in the pub since you couldn’t Google anything. You’d get lost driving to a new place and have to ask for directions, of course getting the village idiot.
I desperately hate how my I’m addicted to my phone and I’m praying that when the next generation of Garmin watches come out it will be able to talk to ChatGPT and make phone calls from it, so I could ditch my iPhone forever!
You’d have paid more for basic services like insurance as you couldn’t compare the market.
Computers are a thing. My wife does all that stuff anyway.
You’d have to trust that clever guy in the pub since you couldn’t Google anything.
Striking up a conversation with a stranger a bar sounds like fun, even if they were trying to take the piss out of me. Most people are just hovering over their phones when they go out, theses days.
You’d get lost driving to a new place and have to ask for directions, of course getting the village idiot.
Maps always existed and mapquest was fine.
Sucks to be you, bro, but that’s not a universal experience.
I grew up when cell phones weren’t common, then flip phones were the thing. I didn’t get my first smartphone until I was already out of high school. My life was improved immensely. Not just the connection that allows me multiple vectors of communication to the people who matter to me, and the ability to plausibly ignore communications from those who don’t, but the absolute plethora of utilities now at my fingertips.
Do you even know how to balance a checkbook? Have you ever had to do it? In less than a minute I can see not only my bank balance, but all transactions going back months.
My teachers all told me I wouldn’t have a calculator with me all the time. Turns out that was not to be.
If I need to know something, anything, ever, I have a device on my person that allows me immediate access to the sum total of human knowledge. Whether it’s a question of what time the hardware store opens, how to fix a cracked pipe, or what rocket fuel the Saturn V used, the information is right at my fingertips.
I don’t ever have to be lost again. First time in a city? I can get directions to anywhere, from anywhere, any time I want.
I even have a freakin flashlight at all times.
Yeah, it sucks that some people get stuck in a narcissistic spiral on facebook or obsessively doomscroll to the detriment of their own health, but that’s not the smartphone’s fault any more than it is just the invention of electricity’s fault.
Does it suck? To not be reliant on something like a “smart” phone?
I don’t think it sucks for you to not be reliant on it, but it also seems like you don’t know how to use it for your advantage.
Never install social media on it and go figure out what it can do for you.
Please, let me know what else I can do to get more value from my smart phone. I’m open to it.
Fair enough. My life would be quite a bit worse without it personally. Nobody is forcing you to have one though, if it’s genuinely not doing it for you you can always get a dumb phone.
Hey, to each their own.
Do you never leave your house?
I wish
People who hate smartphones are luddites. There’s so much these devices bring to the table that it’s hard to summarize. From instantly connecting to anyone in the world with audio as well as video to knowing exactly where we are at any point in time. Enabling us to handle almost any situation. As long as my phone can connect to a cell network or Wi-Fi you could drop me anywhere in the world and I’d be fine.
The people who think smartphones have made the world worse are barking up the wrong tree. It’s not the concept of the smartphone that did that, it’s apps and capitalism that did. Exploiting psychology to wring any possible profit out of humanity is the problem, not these wonderful fruits of miniaturization.
There’s so much these devices bring to the table that it’s hard to summarize. From instantly connecting to anyone in the world with audio as well as video to knowing exactly where we are at any point in time. Enabling us to handle almost any situation. As long as my phone can connect to a cell network or Wi-Fi you could drop me anywhere in the world and I’d be fine.
What problems are you actually solving, though?
Why do I need to connect to anyone in the world with audio and video? Why does any one need to know exactly where I am at all times? Why are you being dropped anywhere in the world with only a wifi connection?
At first they were really cool and seemingly had unlimited potential with a wild and unknown future as numerous brands competed intensely with their own take on the formula.
These days, they are ultra expensive glass rectangles that exist to serve you endless ads and harvest every piece of info about every facet of your life. You also have to pay enormous subscription fees to get half the functionality they used to have. I just got an iPhone on a deep discount from my carrier and I stopped giving a shit about phone tech. Processor speed, camera specs, “AI”, whatever. It’s all trash to me now and the technology doesn’t excite me in the slightest. Carriers and manufacturers have choked all the life and enjoyment out of smart phones.
I love how they are very robust and can handle just about any video game I’ve played in the last 30 years except the smart phone gaming industry is completely cooked and when titles do get released for mobile you have to wade through an ocean of shit to find them.
Congrats on having a low-effort life?
Don’t come at me like that’s some sort of insult, brah.
Edit: ok wft? Isn’t having a smart phone marketed as a “low-effort” life?
No. Being overly hostile against smartphones because you don’t do much in your life is having a low-effort life. You’re basically saying soap is useless because you don’t shower.
Was i being hostile?
Yes.
I saw no hostility except from you toward OP. Don’t take it as a personal insult if someone isn’t into smartphones as much as you are. Let’s not treat attitudes towards phones as if they are attitudes towards the people who do or don’t use them.
Hostility doesn’t have to be rude, just antagonistic. OP is dismissing everybody’s valid points and just flat-out ignoring a bunch of them when it doesn’t suit his preconceived point of view. That’s literally the definition of antagonistic.
I guess it depends on how you take it, could be vice versa. I see a lot of posts that could be taken as other people dismissing OP’s valid points that don’t suit their preconceived points of view. Downvotes on most of OP’s posts that aren’t saying anything offensive, just expressing their POV.
Have we gotten to where everyone has to agree with the majority or they get piled on? Even if the opinions seem antagonistic to you, could that you be feeling personally attacked because you do like smartphones. They’re just opinions of phones, not opinions of people who use them. It just seems weird how strongly people are reacting to someone who hasn’t done anything wrong or insulted anyone, but is just not conforming to the norm.
The trick is to get someone to pay you to make the smartphones
