I could live without the memes, cut pet videos, games, camera, social media, gifs and probably other junk. I couldn't do without the phone and the flashlight

One of my favourite books is Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers.

"The essential idea is simple: to lead happy, productive lives in a connected world, we need to master the art of disconnecting."

Makes me think of restaurants with QR code menus (been to a couple bars where you have to order through that menu too).

Welcome to 2010.

This is so true. I lost my iphone three hours ago and I just keep getting harder.

I need a smartphone app to:

Access mail from my government

Log into any website as 'me' (taxes, car related stuff, my net bank, etc)

Buy a damn bus ticket

In reality i dont need my phone to be smart. But society wants me to

But i do everything i can to avoid getting apps from various companies. Membership bonuses etc. I hate it so much.

I do enjoy my smartphone in the car though, for google maps, music and taking a call. But.. i would much rather, if that was just built into the cars infotainmentsystem.

Fuck society. Grr, I don't like how much we're expected to have phones. It's not just the electronic though, but the number attached to it as well.

I'm phoneless as a stand against canadian telecom companies and wow I'm basically a second-class citizen. Almost any service becomes inaccessible.

Heavens forbid I care about my own privacy and get a vpn. Now I'm locked out of even MORE services that want to ID check me with my phone.

Just let me have what I seek 😭 there's too many steps to these services now

auuuugh rant done ty.

I have been slowly setting myself up with as many alternatives as possible. We have a Garmin in the car so we don't use Gmaps, I've ditched all corps like Google or Facebook even run my own search engine. Honestly as daunting as it is once your not tied to a phone life is so much better. Don't fall into the trap

Yeah... I commented to my friend "and a smartphone is a basic human right, right?" When talking about this. Well, internet is not, either so yeah, your existence is extra gimped or based on touching ground base if you're homeless, phoneless and internet planless.

It's a good thing and a bad thing imo.

People now can keep and relive moments easier and faster than ever before, but it does suck how big companies now just use it to do anything and how ads are just thrown everywhere to make every possible penny they can.

I went from a wallet with a bunch of cards and a bit of cash to my phone. nothing else. haven't used cash or my physical card in years

I want so bad to just get a light phone II, but too many parts of my life need something from a smart phone, end to end encryption on my messages (signal or other similar apps), banking apps, even my job requires a few apps. I could maybe carry both around and use the smart phone as little as possible? But seems too much of a hassle sighs

True, but look at it the opposite way - modern life is just getting easier and easier because of mobile phones. Think of all the things that they make easier and replace. When we finally get digital licenses later this year I can officially leave my wallet behind. The only time I'll need it is when I go to the gym as unfortunately they don't have their NFC cards available via phone.