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Could You Live Without Your Smartphone? (theglobeandmail.com)
Three-quarters of Canadians own smartphones-- and 94% of 15- to 34-year-olds. But this week the Globe and Mail profiled "digital refuseniks" who are "deliberately logging off -- and they say it's done wonders for their imaginations and peace of mind."
They are hidden among us, neither jobless nor friendless, and living quite happily. Cut off from Uber, yet somehow thriving. For example, Tony North does not live for his smartphone, because he's never had one. "I just didn't want to get into the habit of distraction," he says simply, in an interview conducted over landline from his home in Paris, Ontario. The high-school teacher spends about 20 minutes a day [on his laptop] on his one social-media platform, Facebook, which he uses to keep in touch with family back home in Australia. In fact, you could blame Australia for Mr. North's desire to be digitally unleashed: He remembers leaving home to travel overseas, and the wonderful feeling of being uncontactable that came with it. "It was such a feeling of freedom, and I guess I wanted to keep a bit of that."
As a teacher of English and drama, Mr. North, 53, is worried about the consequences of teenagers' near-constant devotion to their online lives (his own two children, 12 and 13 years old, do not have phones). In drama class, he makes his students put away their phones and engage in face-to-face exercises: "I'm basically forcing them to interact," he says. "When I ask for evaluations at the end of the semester, it's one of the things they most seem to appreciate...." Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 spend nearly five hours a day online, according to a 2017 survey from Media Technology Monitor... "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" the Atlantic magazine asked last year in a cover story designed to keep parents up at night, frozen in the blue light of further bad news.
North says in the extra time "he reads many novels and enjoys quiet moments of reflection and watching the world go by." And 18-year-old Bethany March is also severely limiting her phone use. ''I saw the way that people got so invested, not just in their phones, but in social media, and I didn't want to be that person," she says. "So many times people would be zeroed in on their phones. It was just rude, to be honest. I'd think, 'I'm here with you, talk to me.'"
71-year-old John Moir insists that living without a smartphone makes him really experience new locations, "rather than trying to be in two places at once," adding that "Whenever I tell people I don't have a phone, they say, 'Oh, that's so great. I wish I didn't have to have one.'" That's "one thing digital refuseniks never have to worry about," the article concludes: "Who is the servant in their digital relationship, and who is the master."
As a teacher of English and drama, Mr. North, 53, is worried about the consequences of teenagers' near-constant devotion to their online lives (his own two children, 12 and 13 years old, do not have phones). In drama class, he makes his students put away their phones and engage in face-to-face exercises: "I'm basically forcing them to interact," he says. "When I ask for evaluations at the end of the semester, it's one of the things they most seem to appreciate...." Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 spend nearly five hours a day online, according to a 2017 survey from Media Technology Monitor... "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" the Atlantic magazine asked last year in a cover story designed to keep parents up at night, frozen in the blue light of further bad news.
North says in the extra time "he reads many novels and enjoys quiet moments of reflection and watching the world go by." And 18-year-old Bethany March is also severely limiting her phone use. ''I saw the way that people got so invested, not just in their phones, but in social media, and I didn't want to be that person," she says. "So many times people would be zeroed in on their phones. It was just rude, to be honest. I'd think, 'I'm here with you, talk to me.'"
71-year-old John Moir insists that living without a smartphone makes him really experience new locations, "rather than trying to be in two places at once," adding that "Whenever I tell people I don't have a phone, they say, 'Oh, that's so great. I wish I didn't have to have one.'" That's "one thing digital refuseniks never have to worry about," the article concludes: "Who is the servant in their digital relationship, and who is the master."
No problem, EVERYONE can live without their smartphone. Next question.
I could live without "apps". I could live without social media. I could live without games. I could even live without a browser.
I cannot live without a map - I'd be forever lost or limited to what I could locate without getting lost.
Those who have been alive longer than smartphones, cellphones or pagers will have an easier time going without such things as they have done it before.
Those who have never known a life without them, not so much.
It would be akin to denying a heroin addict their daily fix I think.
That means 25% of Canadians are living without a smartphone. Meaning that yes, you could in fact live without a smartphone.
Next question please?
yup, same feelings here.
we control so little on the phone (the os, the hardware, the radio).
they track us, they spy on us, we can't even know if the mic and camera(s) are live. truly, we cannot know, and that's something that should scare everyone. yet, we ignore it completely.
apps are 'free' since they fucking SPY on you. you can't trust them.
the whole system is fucked up beyond fixing. needs a whole new re-do. new business model, new freedom policy, new encryption-by-design policy, new user-has-full-control policy. we NEED this. but I doubt we'll ever get it. the current broken model is too embedded in the culture. its quite sad what it could have been, but its now a spy, advertising and tracking tool for THEM.
I gave up on phones years ago. I use only the very bare minimum and even then, I feel unclean using one, knowing that each layer of hardware and software is actively working for SOMEONE ELSE, not me. bugs the crap out of me.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Exactly. There's a negative view of using smartphones regardless of how you are using them. If you are sitting quietly reading a paper book or newspaper, people think you're spending quality time. However if you are sitting quietly reading a book or newspaper on your smartphone, they think: "Oh great, he's glued to that thing again". Same if you have a few minutes at the bus stop or on the train. Use your cell phone, and older folks will shake their heads in disapproval. Whip out a book and they'll smile in approval.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...