You and your dumb phones!!

a reply to: DrumsRfun

Its pretty easy to turn off all tracking and spying methods on your phone...

And its nice to have anything you need to know at your fingertips as another member pointed out...

Not to mention games... a camera, various nifty tools to help your every day life...

I could live without the smart phone... but why would i...

originally posted by: wheresthebody
I've got an old flip phone, I like it.

I try to avoid contributing to the algorithms whenever I can, there's just something so depressing about all of my interests, loves and hates being reduced to binary.

if you could see what two Korean girls peeing on each other looked like in binary, you would change your tune.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: DrumsRfun

Yes, you should try you best to mitigate the personal information you allow on your phone.

But being able to carry the whole of human knowledge in your pocket is useful.

And the memes are fun too.

Son of a b.....just saw a charmin commercial, and the bears were blue

a reply to: DrumsRfun

google says

Non-GPS cell phones can be tracked by using free services, such as Google Latitude. However, if you have already lost your phone and do not have any programs or apps that help you track it, then it can't be traced. ... All you need is a phone, Google account and a computer.

so you're part of the tracked club as well. Having said that it is nauseating watching the attention span of the switched on connected to their fix.

My wife keeps bugging me to get an iphone and like you I refuse. So I'm a dinosaur, big deal. I'm a living anachronism anyway, got to keep that style going!

If your on the other side it's entertaining.

My friend is able to watch people through the phones cameras
Listen though the microphone

Browse through videos and pictures
See gps history

See internet search history

And he Is able to do this because eveyone gave consent.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

But look, you're using the internet.. they got you now.

Now these ads are gonna follow you around all over the place.

a reply to: Bloodworth

originally posted by: Bloodworth
If your on the other side it's entertaining.

My friend is able to watch people through the phones cameras
Listen though the microphone

Browse through videos and pictures
See gps history

See internet search history

And he Is able to do this because eveyone gave consent.

Oh yeah, do tell.

How is he able to look through their cameras?

Tracking my phone is similar as tracking the car of Gustavo Fring.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

I have nothing against purchasing a so-called 'smart phone', but I have never found a compelling reason to do so, and there are so many dangers.

I mean, one danger is, that I am 'naturally clumsy'. I have broken more things accidentally by bumping into them or turning around and making them fall (etc) than I have owned things, probably.

My old, sturdy 'dumb phone' has fallen so many times that I would be bankrupt, had they been smartphones. Thankfully that phone still 'ticks', because it's cheap but sturdy.

If I had a smartphone, I would lose a FORTUNE replacing it every or every other week because it fell again. I can't own a 'smart'phone. I need to own a 'sturdy'phone.

The second thing is, I have a portable game system, I have a functional mp3 player, I have a working camera (also very sturdy, and you can guess it, it has met the ground/floor with accelerating velocity more than a human's head could ever survive - miraculously, it still functions!) - I also happen to own more than a 'handful' of computers and similar electronic systems.

I have meen wracking my brain, trying to think WHAT I could need such a thing for, but I can't come up with even one reason. Ok, some flimsy ones, maybe. The GPS system would tell me where I am, but then I can't practice my hobby, which is 'getting lost'. So if someone tells me to 'get lost', I thank them for appreciating my hobby and obey (not because I obey people, but because it's fun - you really feel alive when you're lost and don't know which direction is correct! It's difficult to do in modern day, but sometimes I manage to do it).

I don't really have a use for GPS system, especially since I don't like something constantly knowing my location - heck, _I_ don't want to know where I am most of the time, so why should some device get to know it? Hmph!

Another reason is, 'constantly having camera with me' - it's true, my old camera is big and heavy, and I don't want to lug it everywhere I go. This kind of thing would be handy, being light enough to bring with me - but I would be so scared of it falling and breaking, I wouldn't dare bring it to everywhere. I would end up not taking it with me most of the time, kind of defeating the purpose. Besides, I am planning to buy a 'pocket camera' anyway, it'd be more fun to have a dedicated system for that, and better pic and video quality with proper lens and zoom and such.

I don't have those 'social media' accounts, I never wanted to use FriendFace or Instablah, Twitter doesn't seem worth it, and I can use anything like that on a computer anyway if I want.

I like to be tech-free when I am in the outside world anyway, since I use tech inside already, so that creates a nice contrast and 'holiday' from tech - any time I am out, I have 0 tech with me, and when I am inside, I have 100% tech around me. Best of both worlds. With a phone like that, I'd be constantly with 100% tech, no more holiday. I don't like that.

Besides, when I am somewhere, I want to be there. When I am waiting in some dentist's hallway, I stare at the wall and just 'exist' - you wouldn't believe the interesting ideas and meditative existential bliss that are possible in such a situation, when you don't 'strive'. But modern people would probably never understand..

People watch videos and movies from those things, but to me, that's just too SMALL. I also don't like the idea of typing with thumbs - I can do it with my old phone, but I hate touchscreens anyway, as they have no tactile feel whatsoever. I absolutely adore keyboards, they're just so fun to use, tactile feel, I can type with many styles, either barely touching the keys and seeing how fast I can go, or just really slamming the keys, having the time of my life and feeling like a barbarian. How do you do that with just glass surface that doesn't respond to you at all?

Basically, no matter how 'advanced' that tech becomes, it's always going to be a 'toy' to me, because it's just so small and touch-screeny. Give me good old keyboard and mouse ANY day. Give me good old BIG SCREEN for videos and movies any day!

I have big 4:3 screens, I have other ratios as well, I have vertical and horizontal, I have a really (too) big screen that I got for free.. how can some tiny thing outdoors where the sunlight makes the screen invisible and glints all over the place compete with that, especially compared to the peace I have at home vs. the sounds of traffic or whatnot and tiny earplugs insted of proper headphones and audio equipment that can make the whole building shake if need be?

I don't see the reason for addiction, I don't see why so many zombies just HAVE to have them out AT ALL TIMES, no matter what they're doing - pushing a kid in a stroller, running for a bus, sitting in a bus, walking on the street, jogging, shopping, eating .. no matter what they do, they have nose glued to the tiny toy. I just can't understand it.. what are they all even doing? They don't seem to be doing anything important or even interesting, and yet they can't look away for a second even if a truck is speeding towards them. I think I have saved a couple of lives just by "AHEM"ing really loud before people walked into traffic.

I think it's gonna be a Xeno's paradox.. when electric cars become more common, cell phone zombies aren't going to hear them anymore, so they WILL walk into traffic - which will win, will the Tesla break first, or will the zombie die? It's going to be an interesting future..

a reply to: network dude

there's just something so depressing about all of my interests, loves and hates being reduced to binary.

"Network dude"? How ironic.

Anyway, if ALL your 'interests, loves and hates' CAN be 'reduced to binary', then there's something wrong with you, no offence. A human being can never be digitalized, as life exists beyond the mappable. LifeFORMS may be mapped, but not life itself.