How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

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Alphaville
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Alphaville »

Loner wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:30 pm
I One thing I disagree would be that people aren't on their devices all the time only because of social media/reasons. Your phone will push you all sorts of notifications that have nothing to do with the social aspects: news, rebates on ACME shoes because you're beside an ACME shoe store, weather, etc. All/most apps will try to bother you and get some of your attention.
notifications are easily turned off though. the reason people are glued to their phone at a restaurant is not because they’re being offered coupons. it’s because they’re instagramming their meal and responding to likes. everyone is on tv all the time.

the other reason is that someone text them and they start a conversation. “watcha doin?” “eatin with my friends” “who is there?” “larry curly and moe” “say hello for me” “you do it” then the friend texts moe, etc

like soylent green, the distraction is people

ZAFCorrection
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by ZAFCorrection »

I use option 4. If considering a full downsize, I would confirm that you are definitely making your life better relative to moderated use of technology, or if purist points* are the major goal. Good on you if your lifestyle doesn't necessitate a phone (it's one less thing to carry around), but don't make your life more inconvenient just so you can get used to reading a paper map for that one time it will actually be necessary.

*They get you a free iPhone in heaven.

mooretrees
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by mooretrees »

I've used a dumb phone in the last year or so and am now back on to a dumbified smart phone. I went without a phone for a few weeks, it was lovely. I rarely use data on the old iphone I have now, but use a lot of time talking and texting. Even as a heavy phone user, I would give up a phone before home internet. At work I leave the phone in my locker and only check it on breaks.

The two factor identification hurdle can be a real problem without a phone. A dumb phone could still work with that, but this new trend is seriously annoying. Email is usually an acceptable substitution for a text, I've found. I found texting on a dumb phone very frustrating after years of a smart phone, and a hindrance to communication. It was an adjustment to travel without a smart phone, it actually required planning and writing down directions! I traveled with my son without a phone and felt the weirdness of that. Am I a good mom if I slightly endanger us by traveling without a cell phone I did wonder. Turns out on that trip we were fine. And since I have shitty cell service and go to the mountains, I've had the experience of two flat tires without cell service. Turns out people will still pull over to help.

I think the many positives of a smartphone that people list are very personal and not usually that important. to me How many photos do we really need? I didn't get a cell phone until I was in my 30's so I can remember a time before them. I don't think it was 'better' but I sure am glad I had a childhood/teenage years without a cell phone. I prefer a physical calendar to typing on a phone. Note taking can happen literally anywhere with any scrap of paper. I knew a guy who had a tattoo of a notepad on his non-dominant forearm. It was the only tattoo I've ever seen that was useful.

I use mint mobile, it's meh but cheap. I think however you go, it will be fun and jarring to learn to deal without the smart phone hook up. It's really more of what you want out of your experience. Do you want to be unreachable? Does that feel liberating? Do you want to have more quiet time at home without internet rabbit holes? I actually disagree that dumb phones will die out, there is a small movement of people moving back to them. But, does it matter if they are obsolete in five years if they can make your life better during that time? What is your goal, save money or change how you interact with technology?

wolf
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by wolf »

I use option 3 for over a month now

2Birds1Stone
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Similar to a few others posters, I have a smartphone but have turned off notifications for just about every single app out there, I also keep my phone on silent 99% of the time, and charge it overnight in a different room than which I sleep. While we were in Portugal I went without any cell service/data plan for 2 full months, only connecting to WiFi when I wanted to use the internet or make a WhatsApp call/txt. It was a great experience!

Hristo Botev
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Hristo Botev »

Anyone have any experience with the Light Phone? www.thelightphone.com Seems expensive for what you get, but it also seems to be about the only dumb phone I can find that has a full keyboard for texting. It's tempting.

Kriegsspiel
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Kriegsspiel »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:19 am
Anyone have any experience with the Light Phone? www.thelightphone.com Seems expensive for what you get
This is correct. The price/shittiness of the product is well into the stupid level.
but it also seems to be about the only dumb phone I can find that has a full keyboard for texting. It's tempting.
Just get an old smart phone and use it without a data plan.

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Alphaville
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Alphaville »

i want the opposite—i want a mobile with no phone calls. an ipad with a data plan i guess. i hate a ringing phone. don’t call me, i’ll call you... some day :lol:

Hristo Botev
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Hristo Botev »

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:31 am
Just get an old smart phone and use it without a data plan.
If I had the willpower to not use the smart aspects of my smart phone (whether via cellular data or via wifi), I wouldn't be asking the question.

Kriegsspiel
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Kriegsspiel »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:36 am
If I had the willpower to not use the smart aspects of my smart phone (whether via cellular data or via wifi), I wouldn't be asking the question.
If you get an old-enough smart phone, they're not capable of running the apps I assume you're talking about :D My iPhone couldn't even run Safari for the last year or so that I used it, but texting was fine.

Hristo Botev
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Hristo Botev »

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:47 am
Fair enough. I just deleted almost all of the apps on my phone, so that I've just got email, phone, messages, camera, clock, calculator, and notes. I "hid" the Safari app in a folder on the second page, along with settings and all that stuff apple won't let you delete. And I gray scaled the color filters and went "dark" appearance for the background. I also changed the wallpaper and lock screen to a plain black backdrop. So, there, I got my "Light Phone" without having to buy anything new.

Time will tell how long I'm able to go without my podcasts, audiobooks, and Google maps when I know it's as simple as re-downloading the apps.

AxelHeyst
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by AxelHeyst »

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:59 pm
You could also go without home internet, especially if you have a smartphone with a data plan. Do most of your internet stuff somewhere with internet. That's been my situation for almost half my adult life, it's not bad. You definitely waste less time fucking around on the internet, so if you're concerned about social media addiction that might be a consideration for you.
+1... because I lack a house. Work pays for my smartphone+data, and I only have "home internet" if I happen to be moochdocking at someone's house who has internet. When work stops paying for my phone plan, my intent is to end my contract, keep the smartphone as a wifi-only device, and get a dumb phone for necessary calls/texts. This plan works less well when the world is locked down because covid and it's harder to access wifi.

Hristo Botev
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Hristo Botev »

It didn't take but a couple of hours before I re-installed apple podcasts; but otherwise the experiment of dumb-ing down my iphone is going well. I had to get in the car yesterday to do the soccer dad stuff, with a sidetrip thrown in to the sporting goods store with my son, and normally, I'd have reflexively just put the address in the phone so it could tell me the "best" route; but this time I was forced to actually think for a second before pulling out of the parking spot, to use my actual brain to figure out the best route on my own. Baby steps, I suppose.

I do keep reaching for my phone reflexively, only to be disappointed when I remember there's not much I can do with it; so I put it back down and grab the newspaper, or a book, or actually look at my wife or my kids as I'm talking to them. It's also helpful to turn off the "raise to wake" function; so when I pick up my iphone I'm just greeted with a black, dead screen--not even the time (that's why I wear a watch).

ETA: I hope they don't get rid of the pay-by-the-gig data plans, as I like having the incentive to just keep data turned off except for those times when it really is helpful (e.g., yesterday at the sporting goods store I needed to look up what size baseball bat and glove is recommended for an 8-yr-old). But putting my tin foil hat on I suspect soon unlimited options is going to be pretty much all that's out there, in the same way that it's surprisingly difficult to find a feature phone that works on the 4G network that doesn't cost an outrageous amount of money.

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Alphaville
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Alphaville »

Hristo Botev wrote:
Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:10 am
or actually look at my wife or my kids as I'm talking to them.
oh damn, i had no idea you weren’t doing that. i’ve seen that happen to people. now i feel like contributing. maybe too little too late, but i support your cause.

i assume you have turned off all notifications already & all auto-downloads? those will pop on your screen and fill it with red dots with numbers telling you how many emails phone calls etc you’ve missed.

back in my satellite days i used a text-only browser. i see it’s still in the app store. check if it might work for you.

the other thing i saw is you could forward calls to a landline? *72 i believe.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I just turned on an android feature where you can set the number of hours per day you can use an app. I am slowly incrementing down my hours for chrome. After you run out of time the app won't open. I'm sure there are ways to get around it but so far it is a good reminder.

It also reports the number of hours each app is used. I was shocked at how much time I spend reading forums, news, reddit, etc.

Crusader
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Re: How much and which telecommunications technology to use? (Home internet, home phone, smartphone, etc)

Post by Crusader »

I recently made a change that I hope will allow me to pay around $25 per year (mandatory yearly topup for the number to remain active) for a smartphone. The idea is to use a prepaid phone plan with a long expiry period. In Canada, this is the one:
https://www.speakout7eleven.ca/why-prepaid-phones
It is only to be used for SMS verification (incoming messages are free) and any time I have a real emergency (I had to call 911 only two times in my life so very unlikely). Most of the time, the phone will be connected to Wifi, which can then be used for pretty much everything, including phone calls, since I got a free Voip number (these virtual numbers often don't work for SMS verification, which is why I still need a real phone number):
https://www.fongo.com/fongo-mobile/

If I end up not being able to live without data in the long run (I just made this change last week), I have a plan. I have 2 options:
1a) I have another old phone that I can use as a wireless data hotspot. I will load it up with another prepaid SIM card from Serbia (that works in roaming in Canada), which, surprisingly, has lower roaming data 30-day package costs than if I were to buy them from a Canadian provider (they start at $4 for 30 days). If I really need data, I can just turn on that phone and my primary phone can use the Wifi to connect to its Internet (with Data Saver mode turned on and that connection set up to be treated as a metered connection).
1b) Option 1a above, but using only one dual SIM phone (when my current phone dies, I know what to look for).
2) Get the cheapest 30 day package from the Canadian prepaid provider, which starts at $10, with Data Saver mode turned on.

However, the only time I can ever envision absolutely needing data is:
a) when I am traveling, for Uber and Lyft, in which case it would be cheaper to use the Serbian SIM in roaming anyway, or
b) if I need Uber or Lyft in my home city in some kind of an emergency, but in this case, I can just call a normal cab using the phone and pay by the minute, or
c) I am meeting with friends somewhere and they are messaging me on FB Messanger/WhatsUp/Viber to tell me a change of plans AND I am not near a Starbucks or McDonalds or any business from which I can steal WiFi AND my friends don't figure out (or I forget to tell them the protocol) that I am not seeing their messages and so they don't send me an SMS, or
d) some app appears that I need to use and it requires data when I am outside with no alternative (currently there is no such app).

Btw, for 2 factor authentication, companies are starting to use apps instead of SMS, so there will be even less need for an actual phone number in the future (compared to only a data-enabled smartphone or tablet). And for 911 emergencies, I believe by law any phone can be used even if it doesn't have a plan or SIM card.

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