I can’t love a modern life without following of what’s going on in the world. Internet is the only thing that allows us to do this efficiently.
I thought I lost my phone before moving states and nearly burst into tears. It has my insurance, the map, what if something happened to me on the road, etc. It was an awful spiraling feeling. Thankfully I found it, but it was a hard reality check of how much I have tied to this little device.
I run a contracting business and have had straight panic attacks over not being able to find my phone as I’m rushing out the door for the day. I really need to set up an asterisk server and keep my sim cards there but I just don’t have time, nor am I paying a service a ridiculous monthly fee to run it.
Uhm can you explain a little more about the asterisk server and the sims cards. I thought asterisk wasn’t for mobile phones.
I’m trying to remember myself, but I remember reading about a way to feed a sim interface into a digital telephony card for use with asterisk. It was basically like a modem the fed a voip/sip line into the system. This was years ago that I read this and I could be completely misremembering it.
I know Apple is restrictive, like that other guy who commented who likes to apply customizations, but I love that apple products talk to each other seamlessly. I could have gone on through my tablet, except that I don’t pay for it to have its own wireless signal.
That’s actually how I found my phone. My neighbor let me tag on to her WiFi and I used the Find My Phone feature with my iPad. Saved me from a meltdown lol
Yup. Ive spend a lot of time with backups and screenshots of my apps/home screen in case I need to replace it, and I still get weird when I think about it. Years of settings and customization built up, no way I’d be able to get it back 100%.
Why don’t you just back things up through iCloud or Google Drive?
I do, but it doesn’t back up everything. Android just doesn’t have the backup that apple has unfortunately.
Aw, dang. That’s annoying
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
Kudos to you. I’ve tried to degoogle myself (I’d say I was moderately successful until my last company came along), although it’s been a pretty irritating ride. Now I’m still very sensitive when it comes to security and privacy but not to the extent I was before.
I misplaced my phone a few days ago and didn’t think of looking for it until just yesterday. The only reason I did was for OTP for my banking apps (browser and Paypal still asked me for them). If not for those, I think I can pretty much go without a smartphone, tbh. My PC and laptop, though? Can’t.
Running your own search engine sounds very interesting. How steep would the learning curve be? And is it feasible for only personal use?
in case you didn’t know: it’s relatively easy to write, in just a few lines, a little program to produce the OTP codes on a computer instead of a phone app.
Ye it’s the freaking bank and company login authenticator else I would have rooted and do whatever I want with MY phone
Searxng is my go to. Consider using a public instance or hosting off-site to increase anonymity.
Most of the public instances I tried stopped working often enough to be annoying. Like if you set one as your browser default and then google blocks it, it’s just frustrating.
I’ve gotten into the habit of just searching directly on specific sites rather than just searching the whole internet - really when you search for things the vast majority of the time you know what site is going to have what you’re looking for.
For everything else I’ve been using bing. The results are fine and chatgpt really is dope. I know they’re just as bad for privacy as google but at least it’s not google having all my data.
This is how I go to. Hosted on a Linode that isn’t in my actual name. Not that that helps toonmuch
Interesting - I’ve been thinking about trying to decentralize lately, and been having fun collecting my data from sites to analyze my own behaviours in data and build unique recommendation engines for myself and was recently thinking about trying to build a crawler and DIY search engine for myself. Any tips/pitfalls on getting started with that?
Just replied above you. Thought I could dm anyone on Lemmy but not outside our instances it seems…
I’m getting DMs and am on my own instance…
Ah thanks, might be the app.
I’ve heard the single most important purchase incredibly low income people can make is a phone, because without it they can’t apply to new jobs or network with people because all applications are done online these days
I’ve seen homeless people with smart phones. There’s definitely affordable ones out there
You can buy a Xiaomi phone that will last you for 4 years for less than $99, and there’s some “functional” phones for much less than that but they will be unusably slow for casual use and more like emergency devices. Then there’s the 2nd hand market…
Fortunately smart phone access is not that difficult
Then you have to work out a data plan. At least in the US, free wifi is t as ubiquitous as it is in Europe (at least in my experience).
Maybe not ubiquitous, but it’s in a lot of places like fast food restaurants and libraries where they are okay letting people spend long amounts of time loitering on their device.
Do you not have purchase-once prepaid cards? Internet access is expensive on them but they could work for emergencies when there’s no free wifi
Same goes with reading skills, which at some point weren’t needed in society I bet.
Interesting perspective but then I think of the data on this phone as an extension of my privacy/private life; literacy doesn’t track.
Yeah, phones such, literacy doesn’t. But phones could have better software and hardware, then it would be fine.
I guess privacy is getting more and more popular nowadays. Hopefully private smartphones will become easier to get
Except that skills aren’t at risk of being stolen, lost or stop working. Phones are tools, not skills.
Makes me think of restaurants with QR code menus (been to a couple bars where you have to order through that menu too).
I hate that crap. At least post it on the wall or something. Don’t even get me started on people demanding a tip at places where you have to do everything yourself.
Had that at a restaurant recently. It took me to a scanned image of their menu that I had to zoom around on to see everything. And it was multiple pages of that crap. What the hell is the point of that? At least format it for phones if you’re going to make people do that. And this was not some mom and pop business.
Experience this myself super annoying in general.
Mildly annoying, but when I order on my phone, I don’t need to wait for a waiter. Not so bad tbh
Ordering online removes all communication errors, you see and know exactly what you’re ordering.
Teach them the hard way: replace some of their QR codes to open porn sites
In Brazil, some places also accept payment and offer a QR code on the table to speed up some data input. Some miscreants replaced said QR so the payment would go to their accounts instead.
I hate this.
Loads of places just have very poor implementation.
A few weeks ago I was waiting at a counter to order like an idiot for 15 minutes while everyone ignored me until I realised other customers were just ordering with their phones. Just a simple sign saying “please order with your phone” would have done the trick.
Another place I couldn’t figure out what time the kitchen actually opened. Like you could order but the kitchen wasn’t open yet. They just assume you would know something so obvious but it’s not obvious if you don’t know.
This was what made me push my mom to go out and get a smartphone to replace her old flip phone. (That, and the fact that she had no idea how to send or receive text messages, or check voice mail.)
I hate this so much. There were 2 times where I forgot to bring my phone with me:
One of them, they literally had to go next door to FedEx to print me a menu because they didn’t have a physical menu.
The other place, they just couldn’t serve me because everything is done online. You scan your table QR, do all of your ordering on there, and pay on there too at the end of your meal.
Yeah. If calling/sms was all I used my phone for, I would probably still use my old Lumia Windows phone even as the app builders stopped supporting it.
But because its for public transport tickets, accessing the local library, accessing the gym center, ordering at restaurants or food delivery, sending money to family, car navigation, syncing my exercise watch, being invited to social events, streaming my cloud saved music library, rent a city-bike, check my medicine prescriptions…
I need a phone that is up to date. How is people living without a smart phone today?
computers can do most of the checking/ordering/sending via websites, and if you live outside of a city those phone-connected infrastructure things don’t exist.
This is Norway. You’ll have to be inside a mountain to not get a signal here. Phone-connected infrastructure is everywhere. I’ve climbed the highest mountain in Telemark and paid with my phone at the kiosk at the top.
It would be fine if you had a computer, like a lot of us did before smartphones were popular.
On your list of activities, most of those are not things I use a smartphone for. I do use it to play music sometimes, and I use an open source maps app for long drives where I’m traveling to somewhere new. Otherwise I do all of that with a normal phone call or a website on the computer.
I don’t install anybody’s app. Fuck everybody’s store apps, I won’t do it. An app is not necessary for most of life’s activities, and I prove it on a daily basis by not using them.
Last time I went to a nice restaurant, they wanted me to check in at the front on a tablet. I went through the motions until it wanted my cell phone number to alert me when a table was ready. I canceled the process and refused to give them my cell phone number. The host / receptionist was not happy but was able to accommodate our simple request of getting a table anyway.
All you have to do is just not participate in the data collection by saying “no” to that stuff. It’s easy when you get used to that as a default stance. I’m still able to do everything I want to without all that invasive bullshit.
All you have to do is just not participate in the data collection by saying “no” to that stuff.
But honestly, I love to use my phone for everything. Love not having to talk to people to get stuff done. Not deal with queues. Not wait for the server to be ready for me to pay before I leave. Not carry around paper tickets, or printed maps. Not having to find a seven-eleven to buy bus tickets.
I am worried for those who for some reason can’t use a smart phone. A lot of this doesnt have a website alternative. Most of it has paper/plastic/in-person-alternatives still, true, rarely advertised though. I am worried the analog ways disappearing eventually since very few uses it.
Yeah this little thing is basically what defines every person today. It holds our bank account, government info and other more critical information.
Mine has none of that, and I get by just fine. Never have I ever installed a banking app on my phone, nor any restaurant or store app, or government app.
I’m at least happy to see some decent, really cheap (<$100 CAD) smart phones popping up that are competent enough to work with, but it’s still such a single point of failure for so many aspects of life right now. Not even not having a phone, but a dead battery (and inability to swap it out with a backup like you used to), spontaneously breaking, losing cell service at an inopportune time to access your virtual tickets and things.
I don’t mind smart phones, but the single point of failure for so much is really not good.
I think people should strive to have 2 phones in general one for backup.
Many people have older phones for that reason
I dont own a cellphone and get by through borrowing family member’s phones or asking strangers if I can make a call if I’m out on my own, it usually works out fairly well.
However whenever I run into online services that require a phone to make an account or whatever I usually get screwed- so I usually just use a family member’s phone # if I know they’ll never use the site or whatever or utilize a 10 minute/fake phone # creation site if I dont care about the site or service I’m signing up for.
To be fair you are the burden on your family here. This isn’t living without - it’s sticking everyone else with your problem.
Eh, I assure you the burden of buying a brand new 500~1000$ phone and then paying a monthly bill to provide it with service would be a far far greater burden then allowing me to use their phone to make important calls once a week if not less, and letting me use it to sign up to a site/video game maybe a couple times a year.
If you still have good computer access, you could make a Google phone number. Pretty much what it sounds like, gives you a free phone number, you can check messages / calls all on desktop
Sounds useful, albeit probably spyware ridden but what isnt these days eh?
I might look into using that for at least google’s services.
Absolutely, it’s definitely a bigger burden for you to shell out $1000 for a top of the line phone, and then pay hundreds of dollars a month for service…dude, An android phone from Dollar General is $30 and pay as you go. You’re just putting the burden off to others because you don’t want to be inconvenienced.
Well, to be honest I had no idea that cheap phones like that existed.
Besides costs though the main reason I dont decide to get a phone is just due to all the data collection they do, plus nearly every service and government/housing/job related thing connected to me uses the family phone #, switching them over would take hours if not days of calling, settings editing or paperwork to do.
I already pay for my family’s house, food and utilities so I don’t really see why its an issue to borrow the family’s # every now and then.
That’s how I read it too. It’s not “look how well I’m doing without a smart phone”, it’s more like “I don’t want a phone, but have no issues placing the burden of my actions on others”
It’s not him that gets consequences of a leaked number.
It is basically impossible in this day and age. Similar with credit cards. I have been using a LightPhone for 2 years and before that a Cosmos 3 flip phone for 5 years. Currently 7 years off smartphones and I’ll never go back, but I don’t see how a young person can do it right now. Just doesn’t seem possible and i hate that.
I leave my phone at home sometimes. There’s always something that comes up, but in the end I’ve realized it doesn’t actually matter that much.
I specifically make a point of going on a week long trip every year and leaving my phone at home. I carry an inReach for emergencies, but only give the “number” for it out to a few trusted people with very strict instructions not to contact me outside of critical, actual emergencies like someone dying.
Even government services depend on you having a cell phone or access to internet in order to access services like EI.
Yet, internet (or at least decent internet) isn’t available in most places in rural Alberta.
Yeah in Australia we have an app used to identify yourself to government websites, called mygovid. It only works on phones. You need it. You can’t even install your grandma’s id on your own phone because then you’d lose yours.
“It’ll be fine, 99% of people have phones” is a dumb idea when everyone needs it.
“Internet? You mean when your computer talks through the phone??”
Why even have a license or photo ID then, if they’re relying so heavily on phones for identifying people?
And if THATS the case, why isn’t everyone just GIVEN a government issued phone??
I license is for physical I’d. MyGovId is for digital ID.
That said, some states of Australia let you keep your drivers license on your phone now.
This is why Internet should be viewed as a utility and regulated as such.
It really should be. But the 70 year olds that make the laws barely remember how dial-up works, so it’s not at the forefront of their minds
Modern life is difficult without internet access, but yet you can live without internet, the question is, how long?
Depends on what standard of living you desire and where you are- If you want to live as a hobo then as long as you survive your basic biological needs you could go indefinitely without internet, the same is true of any outsdoorsman who lives in a remote area where they can survive just based on their ability to hunt and collect water.
Maybe you should try to live in a third world country, not necessarily a hobo but a regular life without commidities you have been granted for you priviliges.
Its like living in hard difficulty
of course? I don’t see how attacking me correlates to the original question though.
I actually grew up homeless for quite a few years, and there were plenty of hungry nights & if it wasn’t due to living in a 1st world nation I probably wouldn’t be here now. It’s not exactly the same but at least I know a similar struggle.
It was a sarcastic realistic suggestion to prove my point, im not attacking you, calm down your tits
Ive never been a homeless but being a homeless in a first world country is good
It’s not. I’m from a third world country and almost everybody no matter what has at least a smartphone, a motorcycle, a TV and booze.
People from developed nations tend to not have the slightest understanding of what third world countries look like and generally just think of those pictures of subsaharan African children starving near huts in the savannah.
The reality of it is that living in a third world country doesn’t immediately mean you have no access to commodities or modern items. It’s not living in the past. Usually it means you have to work your ass harder than anybody in a first world country to afford some imported or more globalised items. Your labour rights are poorer, your working hours longer and your career growth more limited, but I’m sick of all the American (and to some extent European) exceptionalism where people think citizens of third world countries can’t even have a smartphone.
You can even enjoy relative luxury without being part of corrupt government circles or even rich. Like… most people can at least afford to go to vacation to national parks or popular destinations. And sure, they go by bus, or they have to save longer for it, but this notion that third world citizens are necessarily in a constant state of misery and extreme poverty is actually quite harmful. It prevents professionals and highly qualified workers from being taken seriously or from getting rid of negative stigma surrounding their country of origin.
Which country are you from? If you don’t mind me asking.
I remember I lost internet for months, only thing keeping me sane was a youtube downloading wbsite thats dead now, a trackphone and shit tier free wifi. If your on android, there are tools to make a (CLI) program called yt-dlp easy to use on mobile, as it converts telling the computer what to do via text into buttons and toggleswitches
But every companies and governments are dependant of Internet now
Only on first world, not the third
My relative lived in the bush with their cats for like 40 years without internet. I’m not sure they had ever used it before or even knew how to, so I think that made it easier. Just had a land line and antenna TV.
Moved back and had a hard time figuring out why the doctors wanted to contact by email. Figured out how to use GPS via Android Auto pretty quickly. Internet shopping wasn’t mastered.
Does anyone disagree with this? My city gives out smartphones to people who can’t afford them because it’s cheapest way they can get access to city services. Much more efficient then having staff in an office to enter data and make calls on their behalf.
In the US there is a federal program that does the same.
Do they also have access to public internet and public charging stations? What happens if the phone is lost or damaged??
Which country is this in?
I mean, the city handing out phones like this kind of highlights just how important it is considered to have a cellphone these days.
I regularly live with a dumbphone. All it can really do is makes calls and text. Its only difficult if you give a shit about social media and chat apps. I don’t so its easy
I can’t do online shopping without accepting a notification on my bank’s app. That’s not “social media and chat apps”.
Can’t you set it back to sending you a text with a code to input back? That’s what I’m doing with my bank, my dumbphone is on its way.
I have no actual idea, but I don’t think so as it’s an “online” bank where you set up the account on the mobile app. There’s no other way to set up an account with this bank.
Oh. Here in France, even online banks still have web apps.
Anyway the assumption that every user has a smartphone is now very prevalent and it’s going to get harder and harder to not have one, but I really want to go against the trend.
Yes, web apps, yes. But to confirm online payments you usually need the app. That’s true at least of N26.
If you use a a third party processor for payments like privacy.com or PayPal does it still need the app?
May be. I have no idea.
I dont own a computer. My whole internet access is through my phone. It’s necessary for me
That definitely makes it harder. When I was first switching I still kept my smartphone, I just had it turned off in my bag. If I ran into something that needed it, I would use it and work out a long term solution later.
Now I split my time between a dumbphone and a de-google smartphone with very restricted apps. I take the smartphone out when I know its gonna be a busy day or I have errands, but for a basic day of going to work and back home, a dumbphone is fine
