maybe we should all go back to simple gsm phones.

sevenELIXIR · Post by **sevenELIXIR** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:55 pm

I have a simple cell phone. I've had it for over 2 years now. It is not a smart phone. The cheapest smartphone plan that I would be able to get is around $80 a month. Not worth it. I can do everything and more on my computer at home. I don't know what instagram is, nor do I give a shit.

I despise the smartphone trend, mostly because it seems more than half the people who have them obviously don't need them, it's just a mental pacifier, a luxury. Pisses me off and makes me sad to see friends or couples who sit down in a restaurant at a 2 person table, facing each other, and they won't even look at each other. they just look at their phones. oh yeah, and I charge my phone once a week, if that. and the battery is as old as the phone.

THE BOB · Post by **THE BOB** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:42 pm

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:15 pm

solsafari wrote:
Rodheh wrote:It's not the tech. It's the software.

I.E. it isn't your phone, it's instagram
I.E. it isn't your television, it's the superbowl

Fuck being docile, denounce these things. Pay attention to what's actually happening. I should state that technology has allowed us to actually infer a lot of what's really going on, so blame the bullshit only.

As for being tracked, I agree, it's disgusting. I have things to circumvent it on my desktop where I do most things that might potentially be self-incriminating, and I DO exercise usage of these things (unlike people who complain a whole lot but haven't even touched Tor, haven't even replaced Chrome with Chromium and checked the source to make sure it's clean, etc. With the phones it's pretty much impossible to avoid this, so I say keep your conversations quick and save the real shit for VOIP or face to face conversations. In fact, that's really what a phone call should be in most cases: quick, to the point.
What are the perks of Chromium compared to Chrome privacy-wise? And what do you mean by "checked the source to make sure it's clean"? I'm asking because I'm thinking about switching to another web-browser.

Search for Chrome with "botnet" in the query. Default Chrome has various options via extentions with the "keep my opt-outs" thing but it doesn't cover all privacy related concerns. Chromium is open source and there are clear lines pertaining to Google's, for lack of a better term, "tracking" of the end user. It's also not a binary by default and so depending on where you got it from you'll have no idea just how safe you are unless you compile the program yourself.

As for all the other comments it's just too much to address with this shit already going on in my life: a piece of tech is a piece of tech is a piece of tech. Unless it's explicitly designed to do all of the negative things people do with it, then it can't be blamed for those things - people can (and should). Phones are very neutral devices (not in terms of privacy and whatnot though that's a totally different story) but when it comes to the "life sucking" thing - that's all on the user. All on the user. All on the user. All on the user. Period. It's not the phone, I've owned a smartphone since 2009 and it is less than 1% of my life.

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 9:07 pm

this is one of the most hilarious things i've seen in a while:

also relevant: http://www.freedom-mobiles.com/blog/love-nokia-3310/

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 3:24 am

i was reminded of this thread recently and i wanted to come back and apologize...i know the simple-phone route isn't for everyone. this thread was poorly worded on my part, and i'm sorry for anyone i offended.

mechanismj · Post by **mechanismj** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 3:36 pm

I've been rocking this piece of crap for almost 5 years now. All it does is call and text and it's too old for the newer network my phone company is now using.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382826,00.asp

mechanismj · Post by **mechanismj** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 3:40 pm

After extensive research, this might be the way to go.

That's some kick ass gel...

Headphase · Post by **Headphase** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:58 pm

I have an Iphone 4. I don't have any stupid socialising facebook apps at all. I just use my phone to phone people, play a few games and to listen to all my music while travelling.

untitled · Post by **untitled** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:36 am

cheapo motorola clamshell +

(yes the display whistles! apart from that it can save to a compact flash card and takes ordinary AA batteries)

edit: pr0n

lankydoom · Post by **lankydoom** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 6:01 am

mechanismj wrote:After extensive research, this might be the way to go.

That's some kick ass gel...

Great Job!

And once we all convert to a cinco phone we can get a Mancierge

The cooling gel is a big selling point for me.

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 10:24 am

Headphase wrote:I have an Iphone 4. I don't have any stupid socialising facebook apps at all. I just use my phone to phone people, play a few games and to listen to all my music while travelling.

I have a four year old smartphone.

All its communication use boils down to calls, an occasional text message, and an occasional post online to a board such as this one or elsewhere while I'm sitting somewhere bored doing nothing, outside the house.

I enjoy that it has a camera. I occasionally take a picture. I enjoy that it records shitty HD video. I only use that when something insane happens. I enjoy Tetris and that factors into the not-at-home boredom thing.

All non-communication activities relative to it being a SMARTPHONE boil down to the following 90% of the time:

*GPS is a wonderful tool. I'll lump geocaching in here as a wonderful outdoor activity. I am never lost, ever (so long as the phone is on and functioning), because of this invention. The hundreds of hours of accumulated travel I've done on foot, cycling or in a car are heavily tied to this. It works. It isn't defective and they should keep it as it is (the actual technology).

*Internet access is nice. Occasionally it will be important. Most of the time it isn't. I'm glad the ability is there anyways. I'm glad I have access to information in my pocket anywhere.

That's it.

My thoughts on this thread still remain the same.

2020k · Post by **2020k** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 3:02 am

People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window.

also relevant

With musical references aside, I struggle with technology in my life. I've managed to cut the bulk of television out of my life because of it's lack of substance, but the internet has so much information, commentary, and interaction on it that it's really quite difficult for me to stop sometimes. My phone distracts me for the bulk of my day, some days and I find it quite disgusting. My laptop does the same thing, it's doing it right now, but there are days where I really should be working on something, but instead I'm a zombie scrolling through my Facebook feed for the millionth time in a 30 minute period.

I've tried to moderate it. I've thrown all of my social media apps into their own folder and stored it on the last page, alone, on my phone. But, I still end up running to it. Somedays it works, most days it doesn't. Ironically, I saw that Fredd-E deleted the Facebook application from his phone, which I applaud him for, but I can't bring myself to be that drastic yet.

This shows through in the art that I'm putting together as well. As a society, it's impossible to ignore that technology is integrated into our minds in such a deep rooted way that it's not going away. It can be used in positive and negative ways, and while we all know the positive effects of living in today's age, not too much emphasis is spent looking into the negative aspects of it.

Sometimes I long for the days before I had a cell phone and I'm thankful that I didn't get my first smart phone until I was 22 and didn't have high speed internet until I was 15. It allowed me to see how technology was taking a hold of other people around me, but still allowed me enough time to start and live my childhood in a way that wasn't as intense as it is now, with an overload of information from a bunch of LCD screens.

5 year olds have iPhones, iPads, and laptops now and it's almost a first world societal staple for it to be that way. How terrifying is it that we're now in a world that, in 20 years from now, there are going to be adults in this world that never had the experience of living without a smart-device in their hands? Just typing that is terrifying, in some aspects.

Cupz · Post by **Cupz** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:43 am

untitled wrote:cheapo motorola clamshell +

(yes the display whistles! apart from that it can save to a compact flash card and takes ordinary AA batteries)

edit: pr0n

Nice! I had a Revo a couple of years ago. Great stuff. Some psions actually run Debian linux, which pretty much turns them into batman-level of deus-ex machina.

I'm now looking into making my own PDA with one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

I already turned one of these into a diy softsynth booting cursynth on arch-linux (the first synth arch-linux running synth in the world?). It was really easy, Make a touchscreen, add a badass usb soundcard and voila, pocket DAW. Now I want one with a touchscreen and keyboard and portable for an ipad sized laptop so to speak. Its going to be awesome.

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:58 am

Technological self-control.

It's not difficult.

Raising a family not babysat by television.

It's not difficult - don't have a cable subscription.

If something is disgusting or wrong to someone, like oh say...television is to me, cut it out of your life like I did. Otherwise realize that it's probably just you doing something you do want to do but you're procrastinating in that moment of time. Being an adult and a real person. It's not difficult.

But I don't know...maybe we SHOULD all just get rid of everything. Burn it all. Our phones and our computers and all electronics. And our cars. And our clothing. Maybe we should all just go back to being hunter-gatherers with rocks and a vague idea of which way is north. That'd be easier, right? I mean it'd be boring, but think of the benefits!

jcnporter · Post by **jcnporter** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:00 pm

Rodheh wrote:Technological self-control.

It's not difficult.

Raising a family not babysat by television.

It's not difficult - don't have a cable subscription.

If something is disgusting or wrong to someone, like oh say...television is to me, cut it out of your life like I did. Otherwise realize that it's probably just you doing something you do want to do but you're procrastinating in that moment of time. Being an adult and a real person. It's not difficult.

But I don't know...maybe we SHOULD all just get rid of everything. Burn it all. Our phones and our computers and all electronics. And our cars. And our clothing. Maybe we should all just go back to being hunter-gatherers with rocks and a vague idea of which way is north. That'd be easier, right? I mean it'd be boring, but think of the benefits!

Are you saying that people are solely responsible for what happens to them?
The thing is, I saw similar arguments made, for example, during the banking crisis, that individuals were responsible and bankers 'were just doing their job'.
My problem with that is it lets large, sociopathic, corporations with vast marketing budgets off from any social responsibility.
I know that most people, including myself, see themselves as unaffected by marketing, advertising, media and so on, but the evidence suggests we are deluding ourselves - in fact a lot of philosophers believe that 'free will' in this sense does not actually exist.

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:29 pm

Rodheh wrote:Technological self-control.

It's not difficult.

Raising a family not babysat by television.

It's not difficult - don't have a cable subscription.

If something is disgusting or wrong to someone, like oh say...television is to me, cut it out of your life like I did. Otherwise realize that it's probably just you doing something you do want to do but you're procrastinating in that moment of time. Being an adult and a real person. It's not difficult.

But I don't know...maybe we SHOULD all just get rid of everything. Burn it all. Our phones and our computers and all electronics. And our cars. And our clothing. Maybe we should all just go back to being hunter-gatherers with rocks and a vague idea of which way is north. That'd be easier, right? I mean it'd be boring, but think of the benefits!

wait till your kid is in school and is the only kid that doesnt have a cell phone or access to video games. they quickly become resentful and feel like everyone is passing them

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 6:11 am

re-phaelam-ed wrote:
Rodheh wrote:Technological self-control.

It's not difficult.

Raising a family not babysat by television.

It's not difficult - don't have a cable subscription.

If something is disgusting or wrong to someone, like oh say...television is to me, cut it out of your life like I did. Otherwise realize that it's probably just you doing something you do want to do but you're procrastinating in that moment of time. Being an adult and a real person. It's not difficult.

But I don't know...maybe we SHOULD all just get rid of everything. Burn it all. Our phones and our computers and all electronics. And our cars. And our clothing. Maybe we should all just go back to being hunter-gatherers with rocks and a vague idea of which way is north. That'd be easier, right? I mean it'd be boring, but think of the benefits!
wait till your kid is in school

Not going to have children. I wish these horrid, OCD ridden genes on nobody, and for all I know I could be stuck forever in some place where overpopulation remains a huge issue.

jcnporter wrote:Are you saying that people are solely responsible for what happens to them?

No, I'm saying that in the context of being unable to control themselves with shit like social networking and other things that might make them feel they should not own a smartphone - like it's the phone's fault - ARE responsible. That's an extremely broad statement. Someone who washes their hands is responsible for their hands being wet. Someone who is a victim of a natural disaster, like a flood, is not responsible for the flood.

As for arguments as to whether or not "free will" is a thing, I'd rather not concern myself with that circlejerk. Call it whatever you want, but the 'thing that allows me to do/not do something' works for me, whether it exists or not.

Also, I'd say it's foolish to assume someone or one's self is not affected by marketing. It's had such a large impact on myself that it's vomit inducing and reminds me why I hate a consumer culture. Doesn't make me go out and buy a smartphone to do nothing productive with it though.

2020k · Post by **2020k** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:28 pm

There's also a lot going on in your brain when you use social media programs. Our brains are already being re-programmed to release dopamine when we get likes or comments, and if I had to take a wild guess, I'd assume the same is happening when we get text messages or emails. It's an issue in its infancy that's a lot larger than "just get rid of your phone" and is going to become larger.

Not everyone can quit things cold turkey. Also, using myself as an example, as much as I would love to bash my phone with a sledgehammer (and I've thought about it many times), I'm essentially running a small business through it and would hinder my ability to carry out a lot of tasks without it. Not only are our brains being re-programmed, but the way the world works in general is being re-routed as well.

Huffington Post has a whole sub-section on this issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/soci ... addiction/

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 8:06 pm

Rodheh wrote:Not going to have children.

good call!

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:23 am

re-phaelam-ed wrote:
Rodheh wrote:Not going to have children.
good call!

Yup. Might consider doing the same, bud!

2020k wrote:There's also a lot going on in your brain when you use social media programs. Our brains are already being re-programmed to release dopamine when we get likes or comments,

No, your brain is ALREADY prone to release dopamine when you receive positive stimuli of any kind. You're obviously going to get that when someone "likes" your comments if it means something to you. It doesn't mean anything. I never partook in "likes" for years, but ultimately the idea is to show approval, however so it is abused by people who just "like" everything.

You use your phone/social media for business. That's a legitimate use to me. I would just question why you do not have a computer to use for business if that's the case.

If anyone feels they're "addicted" to social media, then they can sort out their "addiction" just as long as they don't go around acting like it's anyone's fault but theirs. I say this having actually been what most people would consider an addict to an actual, chemical substance that requires not just the will power not to take it but sustenance for brain's receptors it binds to, on a regular basis so that I do not die. The fact that I wanted off the shit wasn't enough, otherwise I would have been off the shit three years ago and not two years ago (just about, to this date).

So, now addiction has been brought into what was beforehand pretty much just a simple, silly statement, which I can respect the sentiment of if it appeals to that individual and others, but not the concept of technological regression on a societal level.

That's what it WAS.

Now addiction is brought into the matter. Juxtaposed with the topic, that's highly offensive. I'm positive that many of you have smartphones, and that many of you are capable of putting them down instead of letting them ruin your life, somehow. If you're concerned about kids having them to do things like take "selfies", STOP them from doing it.

I seem to recall Nicole commenting on this subject matter. It might have been in another thread, and it was something as simple as "uhh, I have a smartphone and I love mine" - something to that effect. Anyone who knows her, even peripherally, needs simply to take a glance at her life and how extraordinarily it has changed. How much progress she's made. How she probably settled, found new friends that were great, released new music and then took a picture on her smartphone to let everyone know how well things were doing.

You know, the whole thing would be different if the idea were "I can't handle a smartphone without it consuming me" - or if that's less applicable for you and you're not "addicted" to taking "selfies" while you play some mobile game on it in your own room and get nothing done whatsoever:

"I don't WANT a smartphone because I dislike that tech, for whatever reason, and do not need it. Therefore, I am switching back to a 3310."

That statement could be for various reasons. Perhaps you don't want to contribute to the success of the big companies selling and producing the phones. Fine. Perhaps you don't feel it constitutes some sort of unnatural device. Fine - so does your Nokia. Perhaps you feel it is "ruining human interaction". Fine.

It's not fine when it's "oh, but I mean...that's EVERYONE, not just me, that's how these things are as a whole" - and all that constitutes the attitude that line of thought brings with it, in example:

maybe it's time to say 'fuck you' to coveted disposable disconnection-from-real-life devices and return to circa-2000 high-tech simple do-nothing gsm phones

thoughts?

The thought is "no thank you" from myself. Though it is apparent that if you don't agree with the idea, you need not respond, because even if you happen to concur with something like this:

mostly because it seems more than half the people who have them (smartphones) obviously don't need them

You are not permitted to acknowledge that the "two people sitting at a restaurant not even looking at each other" situation was not caused by the phones alone. Enough with the "white people/first world problems".

TL;DR: My smartphone has been dead for three days. The last time I used it was on monday, for about a minute. That's because I chose that it wasn't more important than my life. Choose whether you want to look down at your phone or up at the world. Just a reminder. Also, imagine a newspaper headline that reads Problem: Survey shows most [nationality demonym] are addicted to smartphones and social media. What are we going to do? Imagine you're really seeing that. Just think about it.