How difficult would it be to live in a modern-day developed country without a smartphone?

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Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

Because this topic came up in c/technology and I was wondering.

Would this be feasible? How bad would it be to your social life?

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Skyrmir@lemmy.world ⁨49⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
My mother in law gets by just fine without hers. But then again, she’s in Arkansas, so I’m not sure if that counts as a modern, or developed country.

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lime@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
it’s not even about a smartphone, it’s about being allowed to access services with said smartphone.

when the ticket machine was removed from a train station in rural sweden and replaced with a note on how to buy tickets online, it instantly locked three types of people out: people who don’t have a smartphone, people who don’t have a payment card, and tourists. because it required online verification, you basically needed a swedish phone number and id to buy tickets.

this was about eight years ago, so smartphone penetration was lower, but i still think about the people i met at the train station while i desperately tried to order tickets over the phone and kept getting stuck in their automated phone tree. they were basically stuck there.

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- Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Why would they lock out tourists from public transport?
  
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  - lime@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    it wasn’t intentional. they just didn’t think about how to implement it. took them four or five years to fix.
    
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  - HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I guess it depends on how you needed to sign up to buy tickets, but I bought tickets on my phone in Sweden with my smartphone in Sweden with only a valid email address. The app even had an English mode.
    
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- Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Sweden is so backwater in it’s tries to be forward thinking.
  
  You can’t even buy a bus ticket with a visa card (nor cash ofc ofc).
  
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  - remon@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I bought a train ticket at a ticket machine with cash when I was in Sweden last year.
    
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  - lime@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    depends on the place. you can in stockholm, but not most places.
    
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Toes@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I didn’t have my first smartphone until my 20s.

I’d imagine it would be similar today. A purse full of maps, important phone numbers in my head, Skype on my computer to talk with my family and friends.

In the early days, I would go to the library to use the computer and Internet.

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- HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨25⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  The difference is that, compared to before, a lot of services have shifted from interfacing with a human to interfacing with technology in some way. The ability to interact with a human in person may not be available or will have additional costs.
  
  Same with using cash. A lot of places have become card only because it is cheaper to pay 3% processing fees than to handle the labor costs of dealing with cash, especially in a larger organization.
  
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FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Doesn’t difficult very much depend on what you think matters? You’re instantly missing out on anything app, anything QR-code related (ordering food in some restaurants, links, etc.), membership cards that no longer exist in physical form. Some places sell certain tickets online only and then you may need a printer or you’re SOL. I’m sure in missing something so that’s not extensive.

But at the same time, if you have a dumb phone, you can still stay in touch with friends and family. You’ll be missing out on images being sent that are bigger than 2 pixels. But you wouldn’t be completely out of the loop. And if you have an internet ready computer at home or at the next door library, just not on you at all times, I think that’s crucial. Without that you’re ending up in all sorts of trouble.

I would say it’s doable if you are good at not giving F’s. If at the same time you only want to use cash or just no credit cards you’ll be making your life much harder though.

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Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
More and more official / administration things in more and more countries require a smartphone.

So: outright impossible, unless you want to unplug yourself from any “normal” living, earning money etc.

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RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m kind of living the 1) life, I have a degoogled smartphone in eternal airplane mode and only free software apps. So in practice I have none of the apps “required” to live.

In large cities, transportation is getting more and more difficult without uber. Bike/escooter rentals also stopped working without an app. I use osmand on my offline smartphone to find taxi stands, so that’s cheating by your standards, but stands are empty these days and the drivers are a bit surprised and comment that “most people order a taxi by phone these days”.

I’ve lost most of my friends when I quit facebook, when we randomly meet we still have a small chat but I don’t get invited to events (birthdays etc) any more. Big respect to the few that still don’t mind sending an sms or email (and even more respect to the 2 friends who keep an xmpp client with only me as a contact)

Increasingly, I don’t know what’s going on around me because businesses, libraries etc advertise only on “spotted” on facebook, have presence only on fb, and don’t even care about telling the local news about events or openings. I only know about that because of other people who use facebook.

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unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I live in Germany. For the moment, i do not require a phone for anything in my life. I use it as an nfc card reader for my ID, but there are usb readers that could replace that. All other things also would continue working without a phone. Email, matrix, osm, music all work on a laptop or raspberrypi.

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sexy_peach@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s entirely possible, depending on what services you want to live without.

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grue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Does the US count as a “modern-day developed country?” 'Cause if so, it’s apparently still possible because my tech-illiterate Boomer parents manage it.

(Okay, they technically have smartphones, mainly because I’m trying to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but they basically use them for nothing but phone calls and maybe an occasional text message or email.)

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HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It depends on what part of the world you live in. At minimum, for the developed world, you’ll probably need at least #3 to maintain a job and connectivity with various government and commercial entities.

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TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Kids and elderly people are already doing all of that, so it is technically possible, but inconvenient. You would also need to outsource your smartphone activities to someone else to actually make it work.

Option 1 seems semi-feasible, but it is getting harder every year. Also, certain activities are already beyond your reach if you’re in this group. As long as you don’t want to do any of those things, you should be fine though.

Option 2 is impossible unless you outsource your phone needs to someone else.

Option 3 is hard, but possible. You would need to limit your activities quite significantly. BTW some homeless people have a dumb phone as their only electronic device. You kinda need to have a phone number in order to barely survive.

Option 4 is the most extreme one. Children and elderly are living like this, but they are also outsourcing everything, so does that count?

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remon@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
1 & 2 are no problem at all, I did that till a couple of years ago.

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nimpnin@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve done no. 1 a few times for a month or so each. Some of the biggest problems with that are:

Banking can be a bit rough without the app. You can sometimes get a separate device to log in from some banks

Digital authentication to eg. government services, and some private services as well works via a smarthphone app. Depends on the country a bit how extensive this is, Sweden has been really bad considering this.

Sometimes public transit only/mostly sells tickets through an app

Digital maps and route planners are very convenient and not having them substantially increases the time and effort you need to put into finding places

What usually won’t be a big issue

Messaging: Whatsapp, Signal and obviously Facebook Messenger work on the computer, so you won’t be fully missing out on anything. Also, SMSs and calling work well and are cheap/free

Missing out on social media and digital entertainment like youtube on a device that you carry 100% of the time is probably just a good thing

Photography, you can find all kinds of digital cameras, camcorders and DSLRs for a reasonable price

All in all, it’s feasible but quite inconvenient at times.

I find having a smartphone without a sim card at home to be a good compromise. It limits the time I spend on my phone, which in itself is nice, and subsequently decreases the amount of data that can be collected of me. Also, if you aren’t relying on your phone it doesn’t need to be nice and expensive.
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- andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The banking side I refuse to use their apps. Either they have a good website that works for a computer or I don’t bank with them. Their loss if they can’t figure out how to build a website.
  
  The authentication services. For like government services. Thank God, there’s nothing around me that does something like that. Or at least nothing that I’ve run . But I guess there is a day like that where I’m going to be screwed on that end. Again make the website work, right and allow me to authenticate somewhere else.
  
  The public transport, I could see a day and age where that might be a problem for me.
  
  Digital maps and route planners, stand on GPS is do exist, but yeah, that one without a smart phone really sucks.
  
  And yes, I do have a smart phone.
  
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  - nimpnin@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    My bank and most others here require a smartphone authentication to log in, even if you use the website on the computer.
    
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bitofarambler@crazypeople.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I did these in China.

4 first, poor had nothing, moved to teach English. It was fine, I paid for things with cash, I had a debit card to use the ATMs.

And up until that point I still didn’t have any phone, so I climbed the hills behind the apartment I was renting and just walked around town learning stuff, trying for, living life.

Then I got a dumphone, which changed little except I could hang out with close friends from the school but usually we coordinated when we work together in the school anyway, so there was very little change with a dumb phone.

Then I bought a laptop and I could study Rosetta Stone and watch TV/movies.

eventually I got a smartphone and then I could start dating in the modern world. I dated in China before that through organic meetups, but I didn’t realize how far into the digital age dating head lapped until I got a smartphone and used all the apps.

It’s very feasible and I’ll say a lot less stressful to not have a phone, but it’s not as anxious-fun, and I do like looking stuff up all the time and having gigabytes of music in my pocket.

which reminds me before I had a laptop or smartphone, I bought a mini iPod in China and used one of the school computers to load it up with music.

Shoot that was a revolution for me, I loved the little clip on the back and how late it was.

How bad would it be for your social life?

I’d say that without the tech you won’t make new connections as easily on a surface level, but whenever an unteched person does get into a conversation, their side of the conversation tends to be a bit more well thought out and significant.

You’ll also put more work into the real life relationship since you don’t have a hundred virtual relationships vying for your attention on your phone.

So it would probably help your social life, by my metrics.

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