
Why I Still Use a Dumb Phone - acav
http://greatist.com/happiness/smartphone-dumbphone-why-off-grid
======
jdludlow
I still use a dumb phone. The front screen doesn't work, and I just added a
piece of duct tape to keep the battery cover on. One of the biggest reasons
that I haven't switched is that when I'm walking across campus at work 95% of
the people have their face buried in a screen. There is zero eye contact.

A desperate plea to phone manufacturers, even though I realize I'm in the
extreme minority. I would snap-purchase a dumb phone that had the following
feature list and a $200 price tag:

1\. Crystal clear voice quality.

2\. There is no 2.

I don't want a camera. I don't want a voice recorder. I don't want an mp3
player. I don't want a web browser. I don't want a flashlight. I don't want
text messaging or email. This might sound insane, but I actually just want a
phone.

~~~
Ilmesnkie_Jones
I would take a dumb phone that didn't call anyone but only texted if it had
the advantages of my last dumb phone: week long batter life, drop-ability, and
the ability for me to leave it in cabs and have it returned because no one
wants it.

I get/make a vanishingly small number of actual voice calls these days.

~~~
sbierwagen
Sounds like you want a Motorola T900, essentially a two way pager. It runs on
a single AA.

[http://www.superpager.net/](http://www.superpager.net/)

~~~
ams6110
Holy crap... I never knew such a thing existed. I'm dumping my mobile phone
tomorrow.

------
stephengillie
The blog post is a type of hipster humble-brag about the non-disadvantages of
old tech. It's like posting about how physical books are superior because they
don't require power sources and are easy to trade between friends without DRM.

My phone is nearly indestructible.

I've had my HTC Incredible for at least 3 years. I have an ugly case on the
back and the same scratch guard over the screen as almost everyone else. And I
built a cardholder on the back of it, so the phone is also my wallet.

I will drop it from waist height onto concrete at will, as a demonstration.
I'm clumsy and I've dropped it at least 30 times, but it's still 100%
functional. No screen cracks or case issues.

(Except for the LED melting the back a bit because I had the flashlight on
High Intensity and it turned on in my pocket)

(ps: Why are there icons and a login box covering part of the text of the blog
post? The blog was difficult to read because UI elements were in the way.)

------
danneu
As usual, it's an enumeration of things that have nothing to do with your
phone.

The author paints a picture of a life of serendipity, surprise, getting lost
in a quaint cobblestone village, giggling with strangers, discovering a hidden
coffee shop, like your life suddenly becomes a romantic comedy on the streets
of Prague because your smartphone has been keeping you from bumping into Hugh
Grant.

Transcend your phone.

~~~
Vivtek
I've often wondered why I keep bumping into Hugh Grant.

(I keep the dumb phone for the low cost and, so help me, flip phones still
make me feel like Captain Kirk asking to be beamed up.)

------
fidz
My smartphone was stolen, then i decide to buy a dumb phone. Then i felt a
better life. No waiting for notification, focus on my work. I can forget
everything and focus on what i am doing. Email, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instant
Message notification on smartphone isn't a good thing for me.

I think my stolen smartphone nearly ruin my life. Previously i really attached
to that phone, waiting for "not-yet-known" notification. Thanks God i aware
about that thing, and i am really grateful with my dumbphone.

------
kephra
I own two android devices, a Defy+ and a Nexus 7, and I have no use for them,
and instead use an old gray screen Nokia dumb phone.

The main reasons are:

\- Battery life. My Nokia holds 7-14 days, depending on how much I actively
use it.

\- Industrial customers: I can not enter factories with a phone that has a
camera.

I thought about using the Defy+ as a navigation aid for sailing, but:

\- The GPS is unable to get a lock, if there is no cell phone connection.

\- The display is not readable in sunlight.

\- The compass is a bad joke.

So the only use case remaining is: A water proof camera that shows only noise
in dim light with a display that is not readable in bright light.

I have unpacked, loaded, booted the Nexus 7 once. Since then its collecting
dust in the shelf.

------
ddoolin
I honestly don't like articles like these anymore. It's pretty much the same
things regurgitated over and over, and typically comes off as holier-than-
thou, at least a big portion of the time. Especially once you meet someone
like this in person. By "someone like this", I don't mean your grandparents
(or parents?) or relatives living out in the woods...

Being poor is about the only good reason, and another $10 - $30 a month
wouldn't really break the bank for most people...

If you can't keep a smartphone for ideological reasons, that has nearly
nothing to do with the phone, and almost everything to do with you and your
personality.

Someone mentioned "owning" their dumb phone as a pro. Pretty sure I own my
smartphones. All of them that I've ever had have been mine. I can do whatever
I want with it, no questions asked. I don't even have to pay for it if I don't
feel like it, with no repercussions other than having my service turned off
and a credit ding, just like any other phone. Technologically, I own it even
more, as I can do much more with a smartphone in regards to customization than
I can with a dumb phone.

~~~
coolnow
I hope you don't "own" an iPhone (after Jan 2013) because aren't they supposed
to be illegal to unlock unless with carrier permission?

------
fsck--off
I'm surprised the author didn't mention battery life. My dumb phone can go
several days without needed a recharge, it isn't unusual for the battery to
last one week or more if I'm in an area with good reception.

~~~
eksith
Indeed. I bought a "dumb" GSM Nokia before flying to Sri Lanka and * _gasp_ *
not only was I able to have 2 lines, even two different carriers on the same
phone, without too much hassle (something nearly unheard of the U.S.) I just
drop a bit of cash at any ol' cell shop and I'm good to go.

Furthermore, I actually _own_ my bloody phone!

------
taeric
Just because you have a smart phone, does not mean you automatically have to
hook it up to all of your email or "hangouts." It is quite possible to have a
phone and use it for your own purposes. To think that the only way to "get
lost" is to avoid a smart phone is akin to saying you refuse to ever buy a map
of where you are going because that would be too easy.

That said, we avoided them for a time simply because of the cost. Paying
upwards of $100 a month is insane for a phone bill. We are currently trying
out republic wireless. They've been rather nice so far.

------
clarky07
These articles seem like bizarre humble brags to me. You want to get lost?
Really? That seems absurd, but you can totally just not use the map feature if
you want.

Battery life. My phone lasts all day easily. Is it really hard to plug it in
next to the bed at night? Not something I have trouble with.

My dumb phone helps me know myself because I don't have angry birds? What does
that even mean? Just don't play angry birds?

Waiting for not yet known notification? Really, you just stop living your life
and stare at your phone waiting for it to buzz? Sounds like you have bigger
issues than your phone.

------
pure_narcotic
I have a dumb phone, it was the cheapest phone I could buy. I sit behind a
computer all day for work; I program at home as a hobby. The ability to
contact people is essential, however I don't see the need to insert yet
another computer into my life in order to do so.

------
jeza
Sometimed I wish I still had a dumb phone. I used to charge my phone once or
twice a week, when it was just a basic GSM phone with voice and SMS. Now I
have to charge my iPhone pretty much every night. I could probably get away
with charging it every 1.5-2 days though running out of battery on the second
day could be rather inconvenient. The biggest challenge is when I'm away from
electricity for a few days. The irony is that I sometimes have to keep my
phone switched off when I'm away on camping trips, so I end up being less
connected than in the past.

------
toble
I seem to be giving up on modern technology after being totally enveloped in
it for the past decade. Fountain pen, vinyl, feature phone, automatic watch
etc.

Maybe it's a side effect of the recession, maybe I don't like what the
internet/technology is becoming, but I'm realising that these older products
are in many ways better.

A watch that doesn't run on a battery and is a work of art; an album that's
collectable and real; a phone that lasts weeks on the same charge; a pen that
feels more like I'm using some sort of artistic tool and so on.

------
PavlovsCat
You know what I miss? Landlines. For a lot of reasons, probably most of them
nostalgia.. still, when I'm rich I will only be reachable by landline or
letter, that's kind of my goal in life.

------
zanny
I have a tablet and a dumb phone. One is for media consumption on the go, I
have a keyword in case I want to do something on it, and if I want to make a
phone call I use the dumb phone.

The tradeoffs to get a good interactive experience in your pocket (screen
size, mainly) negatively impact the functional behavior of a smartphone as an
earpiece (for phone calls). I think my preferred all in one device would be a
tablet with a headset jack. Keeping the screen on the thing that goes next to
the ear makes one end of the deal suffer.

------
mkhalil
Or you could get a smart phone, and not suscribe to social networks on it. If
you like getting lost, maybe you should just a) not check your GPS on the
phone b) take trips to go to places you've never heard of. The internet can
help, but doesn't need to me your source. I respect your decision, but at the
end it's all a matter of self-discipline. In H.S. people were face in dumb
phones as well...

------
free652
Smart phones can go days without recharge if you disable the data (edge or
3g/4g). I was traveling with my iphone 3gs in France without data and didnt
have to recharge for over a week. Only light SMS usage, may be 1 txt a day.

I use my smartphone as an iPod/Audio Books reader, occasional snap of
whiteboarding/documents.

------
jpatokal
Unfortunately voice quality is almost entirely a function of the network
you're on, which is obviously outside the phone's control. Regardless of how
awesome the phone is, call quality will be terrible if it can only suck bits
through a straw one at a time.

~~~
Scaevolus
Phone (and network) support for wideband audio (marketed as HD Audio) improves
call quality dramatically.

------
webwanderings
I don't have smart phone mainly because I think their recurring costs are a
rip off. Besides, I have no need to carry computer in my pocket for just a few
hours when I'm away from the desk computer.

------
marcosdumay
Just because you phone does email, instant messaging, facebook, twitter, or
whatever, you are not required to use them. You can even go out and let the
phone home if you want.

------
lightcatcher
I also still use a dumb phone (flip phone, no internet, no apps). Here's my
logic for not getting a smartphone:

1\. similar to the author of the blog post, I appreciate the idealistic
benefits of not having a smartphone. I already spend too much time on the
internet, and I feel no desire to spend more time online. Additionally, I've
somewhat come to enjoy asking people for directions in cities when I'm lost
(particularly when I don't speak the language of the city).

2\. Cost. As of now, the only times when I think "A smartphone would be
convenient" is when I'm in a new city and I don't know my way around. I figure
this only happens for a couple of weeks per year for me, and the small amount
of convenience a smartphone would add is not worth the cost of a phone. I
recognize that I would probably get more hooked on
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/whatever and that I might view that as utility if I
owned a smartphone, but right now I view that as a time/productivity cost to
avoid.

3\. Shit like
[http://www.beneaththewaves.net/Projects/Motorola_Is_Listenin...](http://www.beneaththewaves.net/Projects/Motorola_Is_Listening.html)
. I have much less idea what sort of things are happening on a smartphone
compared to a desktop/laptop, and I don't think I'm satisfied with the current
state of mobile security. Also, having a smart phone is essentially moving the
sensors closer to yourself (front facing camera, GPS, accelerometer, etc) and
leads to a much more intimate form of computing. This just makes the eventual
privacy violations even more damaging.

On the other hand, here are some things that made me wish I had a smartphone:

1\. Currently, I wish I could use Simple (formerly Bank Simple) for my
banking. However, "to be eligible (for Simple), you must: Own an iOS device
with iOS 5.0 or higher, or an Android phone running Android OS 2.3.3
(Gingerbread) or higher.". :(

2\. I'm in the process of writing an application that needs to know if I've
completely tasks (real world offline tasks) at given times. Without a
smartphone, I can push requests no further than email, which I only see when I
check my laptop. Being able to push requests into my pocket would be very
useful.

3\. I'm somewhat interested in gathering personal data throughout the day
(such as heart rate, how many steps I've walked, etc). A smartphone is pretty
much necessary to use any products like Jawbone UP that allow this.

I realize some of my reasons against getting a smartphone directly contradict
some of my reasons for wanting a smartphone, but I think that's actually very
representative of the mixed bag smartphones are.

~~~
marcosdumay
Don't thing your phone is not spying on you just because you can't program it.
A dumb phone is still a computer, it just lacks a touchscreen and a different
OS.

~~~
lightcatcher
And all of my Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc passwords and traffic... As well
as a front facing camera, which could be used for eye tracking.

------
PaulHoule
I just bought a prepaid phone and service for about $10 a month.

I can't see how people afford data plans that cost $100+ a month.

------
ryanobjc
I can't get lost, too good sense of direction.

So I carry a smart phone anyways.

------
graycat
His phone is "dumb" but mobile. So, I'm more _old fashioned_ than he is
because my phone is "dumb" but a _wire-line_ _desk set_ and not _mobile_.

Why? Because when I use the phone, I want the rest of my relevant _stuff_
handy -- paper and pen for notes, various papers, and relevant data on my
computer.

But I can't make or receive mobile calls? Right.

To receive a call while I am traveling, my voice phone provider, also my ISP,
has a message recorder, and then I can get the message via e-mail and download
it. Really, for most calls, I would not want to receive a call while traveling
because then I would not have materials, desk, etc. to be able to handle the
call well. E.g., maybe I'm walking down an isle at a grocery store looking for
a one quart or larger jar of sweet pickle relish and get a phone call about
something important where I have no desk to take notes, note pad, background
info, privacy, etc. No thanks.

For making calls while traveling, mostly I don't want to do that either. My
work is to write my software, and I don't travel much. So, when traveling, I
would only call for car emergencies, and those are too rare to be worth having
a mobile phone, _data plan_ , keeping batteries charged, etc.

And now I'm concerned about privacy: As it is, there is no way the NSA or FBI
can track me via my smartphone signal because I have no smartphone! So, the
NSA and FBI can't use a smartphone to track me to my local convenience store
to buy gas for my car and lawn mower, milk, French vanilla ice cream, and
wheat bread, to a local pizza shop for a pickup for dinner, to Sam's Club,
Wal-Mart, and A&P for groceries, cat food, etc., to a coin laundry (until I
get my Maytag fixed), to Chinese carry-out, to a hardware store to get epoxy
resin glue to fix loose joints in wooden furniture, two cycle oil for my grass
trimmer, wet-dry sand paper to use for sharpening my French chef's kitchen
knife -- really top national security stuff like that!

Mostly my information, especially that relevant to phone calls, is on my
computer which is in a mid-tower case on a table at home and usually in front
of me and, thus, also not _mobile_. E.g., for a phone number, that's on my
computer with other relevant info and easy to find with some of my software.
And I have a little very simple software to dial phone numbers -- just write
some characters to a COM port starting with AT and have the phone wires going
into and out of an old FAX modem (also good for sending letters via FAX to my
reps in Congress).

For a mobile phone to have my collection of phone numbers, I would have to
copy over the data and, in the future, _sync_ the two locations of my data.
Also a _smart phone_ , with maybe something from Microsoft an exception, won't
run my most heavily used piece of software that, in particular I use for
managing information relevant to phone calls, my favorite text editor. If my
favorite editor were emacs, then maybe it would also run on a Linux based
smartphone. But, as it is a _smartphone_ is a _computer_ but a pain to use
instead of my main computer and, then, a sync issue.

If Microsoft wants to do something to get ahead, then they should make much
more clear how to do _syncs_ , backups, restores, including of options on
software, and the boot partition, and how to use a home computer as a _server_
for mobile devices, e.g., give good explanations of VPNs and other security
issues of opening my main computer to access from mobile devices.

Finally, if I had a smartphone, then it might get stolen, and the data on it
might be confidential.

Even worse, if the smartphone had an easy way to get a VPN connection back to
my main computer as a server, then maybe all of the data on my main computer
-- e.g., my software which should be treated as a trade secret -- could be
stolen.

Also, now police seem to like to take smartphones and look through all the
data, photographs, etc. there and strain to find excuses to start big legal
cases. Also, with my smartphone in their hands and a VPN connection back to my
main computer, they would also have my trade secret software.

If I have no smartphone, then police can't grab it and violate my Fourth
Amendment rights.

If I had a smartphone and had it visible and if there were some police doing
something or other, then the police could go wacko (they basically don't like
citizens recording or even watching what they do and know that in practice
they can get away with a lot of bullying of citizens they don't like), accuse
me of taking their pictures, rough me up, arrest me, search my car, plant
drugs in my car and then charge me with possession of drugs, take my
smartphone, etc. They could take my car. In _searching_ my car, they could
find excuses to trash my car, e.g., cut open the seats. If I had a dog, then
they could find an excuse to shoot my dog. Just having a smartphone could
trigger some not very nice police to get me into a lot of legal trouble for no
more reason than my just having a smartphone. Indeed, likely police are afraid
of smartphones.

With no smartphone, police have fewer excuses to bully me around, get their
sadistic enjoys, and get me into a lot of legal trouble for no reason at all.

~~~
stephengillie
1\. Go wifi-only. (Turn on airplane mode and also wifi). This doubled my
battery life.

2\. Text-editor app (I like TED) and Dropbox/Drobo/Async to sync it.

3\. Who still uses paper? That's such an edge-case :p

~~~
graycat
My favorite editor is KEdit. Mostly at my computer, I'm looking at a Web page
in Firefox or a text file in KEdit. I use KEdit for notes of wide variety,
phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc., any high quality word processing via
TeX, typing in source code for software, looking at the log files from my Web
site development, etc. Since I use KEdit on Windows XP (hope it works on
Windows 7 and Windows Server when I convert to them), maybe it would work on
Windows phone.

> 3\. Who still uses paper? That's such an edge-case :p

During a phone call, that's the only way I know to capture info quickly. E.g.,
if the call is for me to get some info, say, a name, phone-number, or e-mail
address, then I write it quickly on paper. Maybe I should type in the info,
but I don't use a head set on my phone so only have one hand available for
capturing the info.

~~~
stephengillie
"Shouldering" the phone is an age-old technique.

Who doesn't have notepad++ (or another text editor) autosaving to a dropbox-
synced folder these days?

~~~
ams6110
Jotting a name and phone number on paper (assuming you have pen and paper
handy) is way faster than trying to type it on a 2" x 3" keyboard.

~~~
stephengillie
I inscribe so infrequently that it takes me some concentration to actually
draw each letter with my hand. If I don't focus it becomes an illegible mess.
Typing on a full-size keyboard takes no focus at all.

I'm unusually fluent with SlideIt on my tiny 1" x 2" phone keyboard.

