Hey everyone, I was entertaining the thought of going away from owning a smart phone.
I already have a modded ipod classic that I use as my main music player.
I also know how to use a paper map.
I also have the Microsoft authentication app for work (I could just use my phone on wifi mode for this)
The last issue I have is WhatsApp where I communicate with friends and family around the world.
Is there a way to use WhatsApp on a non-smart phone? Or should I just buy a pixel and install a secure rom?
I think with 2fa, qr codes, talking with family, and emergency services itās not reasonable to not have a phone. Instead of purchasing a device why not just turn it off and put it away when youāre not using it?
Your maps and ipod have already showed you these are just tools. Continue down that route.
BTW, this post is so close to my own recent questions I thought I had posted it, lol. Share your modded ipod over at c/ipod , trying to start a little community
Is the community this one? !ipod@lemmy.ml
2fa, qr codes, talking with family, and emergency services
I might add maps to that list. Paper maps work for larger distances, but tend to be out of date for anything local
Itās really small! I am the new mod, trying to recreate the nice community that was on Reddit :)
And price.
When I go just walk my dog, I almost never take the smartphone with me. I always did that. Later I just bought a cheap dumb phone for 10 bucks, just in case. I always have that on me now.
So yeah, trying to not break something more expensive. Plus itās far more reliable than any smartphone. It just works, no stuttering, no crashes, buttons rather than touchscreen, the alarm app doesnāt get killed optimizedā¦ Though it has the same problem as every single modern phone I get: the minimum headphone jack volume is way too loud. I wanted to use it for music, but thatās a no-go. Thereās no equalizer to tune it down.
A cheap solution that might solve your volume problem is to add on an adapter that features a volume rocker dial. You can plug that into your phone and then plug your headphones into that adapter.
Something like the below screenshot. Hopefully it wonāt muddy audio quality, so check this out and see if itās something you can give a go.
Almost all of these things can be done from a computer, siting in comfort at home. And some of them, i.e. communication, are even more pleasant that way. The supposed convenience of the mobile form factor is mainly a function of habit. I speak from experience, having mostly kicked that habit.
The āemergencyā argument is particularly tiring BS IMO. Somehow we managed for all of history until basically yesterday without this functionality and got by just fine.
The fact that technology exists is not in itself a reason to adopt it. If only we would learn this lesson at last. Rant over.
I donāt know man, Iām often out and about when I need to communicate to people.
I find it rather convenient to not have to find a library or an Internet-cafe, especially seeing my city doesnāt have any anymore probably.
And I remember living without a mobile before they came along. Thereās a certain romantic novelty in agreeing to meet under x sign in y place at x hour. But it wears off fast, and if youāre running a bit late or want to reschedule something on the fly? Good luck without a mobile of any sort, smart or not.
want to reschedule something on the fly
Yeah it certainly got easier to be late and generally not keep commitments, thatās for sure.
I do agree that communication when out and about is a genuine killer feature. Itās was the original use case after all. But doomscrolling social media, or banking, or shopping, or playing dumb games, or most of the other things I watch people doing in public - personally I am never going to buy the argument that this is about āconvenienceā. To me itās pretty obvious that itās just addiction and irrational social contagion.
There are kaios phones, which are basically very weak smartphones (like 512 mb of ram weak) that run kaios, which is android. They perform poorly enough that you wouldnāt want to use for social media, and you can run whatsapp on them
Correction: KaiOS is a Linux distro that only runs web apps. It descends from the botched Firefox OS project and uses Firefoxās browser engine.
KaiOS is more like āFirefox OSā than Android, but otherwise, yes.
I did a 30 day dumbphone challenge a few months ago. Was originally going to use a Nokia with KaiOS but wanted to be able to re-purpose it afterward so I went with an Android-powered flip phone.
Android-powered flip phone
That doesnāt quite sound as a dumbphone to me.
What is your goal in not owning a smartphone?
You must not have been born in the 70s or 80s. Itās really easy. Step 1, replace your smart phone with a flip phone. This concludes all your steps.
Iām born in that era, and where I live, I must authorize bank transactions via app, pay parking tickets through an app, use an app for public transport, and need to scan a QR code thatās changing every 90 seconds to access my gym.
There is no workaround for the parking app, other than inconveniencing myself and staying at malls exclusively. The gym doesnāt have an alternative either. I could surely switch, but thatās the only option.
For banking, sure, I could do stuff over the counter like some octogenarian, wasting time getting there and waiting in line. That changes a 20 second procedure into a minimum 1h long one, provided whatever Iām trying to pay happens during service hours of my bank. No thanks.
Public transport would be the easiest, though that only applies for subways and trains where counters and vending machines exist. At bus stops we donāt have those, and drivers arenāt selling tickets anymore. You must board with a valid ticket, which usually only works through an app, unless you have a monthly ticket that can still be bought as a paper pass.
Not so easy for someone who was born and raised in a time and place where key services all rely on smartphones (especially the WhatsApp for family communications)
You could always ask for their address and use mail.
