Anyone else /not/ have a smart phone? - OG Myth-Weavers

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Anyone else /not/ have a smart phone?

 
Anyone else /not/ have a smart phone?

I tried a "smart"phone for a year. Hated it. Upgraded to a "dumb" phone.

Yet everywhere I look, it seems that people assume that I have a smartphone. Installing a security camera system? "Oh, you need to scan this with your smart phone. Buying current car? Oh, you need to sync in your smartphone. (No, really)


To me, smart phones are seriously under-engineered. If you are going to treat adults like small children, you need to plan for said adults to react like a small child when said smart phone causes excessive frustration by "helping". Even with a case, it didn't stand up to a high-impact stress test against a concrete surface.

At best, you're giving off the impression that you don't know how to use a smartphone. At worst, you're coming off as a sanctimonious luddite.

Why? *slap* *slap* Here's why!

1. You're essentially complaining that current technology relies on current technology.

2. You use 'small children' like it should be a self-evident insult when it's not. Is this a complaint that having a phone that can access the internet makes people intellectually lazy? Is it a complaint that smartphones seem like toys to you? What gives?

3. You do not need to sync a car to a smartphone. The car may come with a stereo/entertainment system that has smartphone functionality, but the car itself does not require a smartphone to operate. The same applies to security systems - there's added functionality for smartphones, but you can absolutely find systems that don't require them.

4. People assume you have a smartphone because they've been around for a decade, and you can basically get them for free.

5. Congratulations and destroying a phone by throwing on the ground, I guess. People pick some weird things to be proud of, but I'll never understand being proud of one's inability to understand technology.

I do not own a smart fon s I have been on disability for 6 years and can't afford one, so all I have is a lifeline fon.

I only got one about a year ago and my best friend just got one this summer. I'm not a fan of the way many businesses now assume you have one, there are plenty of older folks who don't and even some younger ones. Still, they are ubiquitous for a reason. I mean, how can it not be useful on at least some occasions to have the internet in your pocket? (Sure, there are negatives to that and... Oh God Trump is Tweeting again) It's a weather forecaster, a map and GPS device (very useful for someone who regards a 30 mile bike ride as a nice start some days) and a functional phone and texting device. Plus it locates bus stops (useful for those days when 30 turned into 50 but not the 70 needed to get home again), tells you when the bus will come and plays games while you wait. (OK, I don't do much of that since my phone is quite basic and I'd rather read my Kindle anyhow, but I COULD if I wanted to). For that matter, I could read on my phone if I wanted to. I survived fine without it, but I can't argue that my life isn't just a little bit better with it.

I'm only 33 so I have to say that I got my first 'smart' phone after high school when the iPhone came out. The only 'android' phone I've used has been a tablet that I got through Sprint as an addition to my plan when I upgraded to the iPhone 6 Plus, though it does have call capability even if I don't use it for such. I grew up with the technology and am a rather quick learner, though each system does have a little bit of a learning curve.

Before that, I used what you refer to as 'dumb' phones. Mostly flip phones with little to no capability and you have to press each numeral several times to text (unless you were one of those people like me who got one with a keyboard). As long as a phone does what you need it to, it's fine. If you don't want to have something to sync to stuff through bluetooth or being able to use an app to control something that's fine. A lot of businesses have moved to the smartphone model because they've been available for a long time and aren't going anywhere. Not to mention they're getting more and more advanced. A lot of 'kids' nowadays don't even know how to use a non-smart phone because they've never had to. Thankfully I grew up in the progression so I had exposure to both, and I greatly prefer smart phones.

The one benefit that I can think of for 'dumb' phones is that the battery life on them is a LOT longer than a smart phone.

Quote:
Originally Posted by X51 View Post
4. People assume you have a smartphone because they've been around for a decade, and you can basically get them for free.
I'm not sure what your average yearly income is, but to me $1000 is not anywhere close to being free.

And on the topic of cost, I'd like to thank all of the millenials out there who can't shell out money up front and have gotten the phone companies to move away from discounts on actually buying the phone, instead now favoring credits on your monthly bill if you pay for it like it was a car. I still have my Note 3 because I refuse to pay 24 monthly installments on something that is outdated before I take it out of the box. If you can give me a discount if I take your stupid monthly installment plan, why can't you give me a discount when I pay you cash up front? Do you not want my cash?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarecrow71 View Post
I'm not sure what your average yearly income is, but to me $1000 is not anywhere close to being free.

And on the topic of cost, I'd like to thank all of the millenials out there who can't shell out money up front and have gotten the phone companies to move away from discounts on actually buying the phone, instead now favoring credits on your monthly bill if you pay for it like it was a car. I still have my Note 3 because I refuse to pay 24 monthly installments on something that is outdated before I take it out of the box. If you can give me a discount if I take your stupid monthly installment plan, why can't you give me a discount when I pay you cash up front? Do you not want my cash?
You are aware you can buy used phones from previous generations, yes? And that the top-of-the-line brands are not the only ones? Here's one for $40! Most carriers will also have phones that you can get for free when you buy certain plans. Crazy, right?

Anyway, I think it's really weird that you've opted to be pissy towards 'millenials' for the practices of carriers that are run by Boomers. In one post, you have simultaneously balked at the idea that phones are cheap, and then complained that the young'uns have opted to take the option that imposes less month-to-month cost. Yes, it's true that they end up paying more in the long run on those plans, but the older folks seem to not realize that most of us do, in fact, live month to month, paycheck to paycheck, and that we can't afford big upfront expenditures regardless of whether they're discounted.

Why not? Well, mostly its because wages have stagnated over the last 40 years because of the policies enacted by middle-class Boomers in the 80s, who, at the height of their political power, decided that the best thing to do for the future was to look out for themselves, and everyone else be damned. But yeah, no, it's the 'millenials' who are the problem. Sure. Sorry about ruining your phone-purchasing plans, I guess.

Myth-Weavers is not a Festivus pole. There are plenty of places you can air grievances on the internet.

Since this is basically a Worldly Talk thread that somehow ended up in light-hearted games of all places: closed.





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