Why I Ditched My Smartphone And You Should Too

Thomas Dishaw ^ | 6-4-15 | Thomas Dishaw

[thomasryan]

(Thomas Dishaw) As a blogger and concerned citizen I try to put my money where my mouth is. I believe voting with my dollars is a way of life, therefore I do my best to only support companies, products, and people who I truly stand behind morally and politically. I came to an understanding long ago that the only way to get a point across criminal corporations is to affect their bottom line.

Over the last few months I have been having discussions with friends and family about getting rid of my smartphone and downgrading to a cheaper, less traceable flip phone. Sounds crazy, right? Most people think so, but at these critical times when everybody is distracted by their smartphones, a major social breakdown in society is happening . What used to be sounds of conversation, laughter and happiness surrounding us has been replaced by an eerie silence only filled with email and text alerts. We have become slaves to our devices, almost never looking up in fear of missing something from our glowing screens that continues to sell us propaganda and unhappiness for pennies on the dollar. Most acknowledgements like “Hello” or “How are you” are returned with dirty stares and confusion from people forced to look up from their personal enslavement devices.

So this really got me to start thinking “why am I paying a AT&T to spy on me?” I give them $110.00 a month for access to my own personal information, but what am I getting out of this deal? This is the question I often asked myself. I carry around a big brother tracking device that sends everything I do to EVERY alphabet agency on the planet, and ANY corporation that would pay a dime for my psychological profile and buying habits. You may be thinking, like a lot of people, “well if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t care.” Well I have everything to hide and I do care, and so should you.

smartphone-collection

PEOPLE LIKE ME ARE DANGEROUS

I decided I needed to make a change. As most continue to go high-tech, I made the unpopular decision of going lo-tech. After weeks of toying with the idea of ditching my smartphone I finally did it. Called AT&T, dumped my $110 a month service and switched to NET 10 for $35 a month unlimited phone & text (no internet). With that move alone I am already saving $75 per month and almost $1,000 per year. But more importantly I’m proving to myself and others that you don’t just have to put up with these phone companies because it’s the status quot. There are other options that allow you to still be connected but without giving up your freedom of privacy. I know I can’t stop 100% of the unconstitutional spying but I can start by controlling who I support.

In a weird way I actually enjoy the stares I get from people when my Nintendo sounding ring tone signals an incoming call when I forget to turn the vibrate on. I know people are secretly judging me, but I don’t care. “He must be a drug dealer, a criminal, or that’s a second phone for his mistress.” “He must have bad credit, or even worse he’s poor.” The main stream media wants us to think this way. They used the same narrative when attacking Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who was caught talking on a flip phone. The media made fun of Jones, attacking his lack of style and financial stature as a reason for using such an “outdated” device. I’m sure Jerry’s having the last laugh as he is making million dollar phone calls from his secure satellite phone.

Over the last month I’ve noticed that I need my phone less and less. Prior to this my cell phone used to follow me in trips to the bathroom, at the dinner table, and in the bedroom. Now I find it easy to abandon on the kitchen table and barely use a full battery. The biggest shock to me is that I don’t even miss it. I’m getting more accomplished everyday, I’m not wasting time on Facebook or getting sucked into the smart phone trance that often distracts us.

Some things are taking a little while to get used to though. I don’t have the luxury of taking a quality photo with my flip phone. I can’t get driving directions with my navigation app. I can’t look up a business or phone number on the fly. Texting is really tough compared to ease of my old “big brother tracking device”. And yes people will notice the difference. I recently got a text from a friend saying we don’t talk as much, and I found that it was too much to type a whole explanation on my flip phone. I guess I’ll just have to explain in person.

I don’t like to make bold predictions, but I don’t ever see myself going back to a smart phone. I know over the next few years the temptation will be great with all the new technology that continues to be developed. But to me the pros outweigh the cons:

PRO’S

Voting with my dollars

Saving money

More productive

Cut the surveillance drastically

Eliminate the radiation risks

Engaging in more conversation

I’m not texting while driving

I’m less distracted and more aware of my surroundings

CON’S

Cant take a good picture

It’s a hassle to text

Can’t Email

Can’t surf the web

Can’t get driving directions

Can’t enjoy the internet from my bed

The pro’s drastically outweigh the cons, so stop being a slave. If the opportunity ever arises to ditch your cell phone try it. I guarantee it will be one of the best investments in time and quality of life that you ever make.

[Marcella]

I don’t like phones, period. They interrupt whatever I’m doing. I have a smart phone because someone else pays for it. I only use it to make appointments and no one else has the number except my family (and the government). I take it with me in case of an emergency while I’m in the car. I don’t like phones.

[AmericanExceptionalist]

I have my smartphone for free and you can too.

Can you elaborate on how to do that, please?

I have an inexpensive flip phone; which I prefer, since I do not have to pay a monthly bill for its use. (And $20 worth of minutes easily pays for a year's usage, in advance.)

But if it is possible to acquire a smartphone for free, I would certainly be interested in that...

[roadcat]

Called AT&T, dumped my $110 a month service and switched to NET 10 for $35 a month unlimited phone & text (no internet).

Author Dishaw sounds like a clueless idiot. I went with a TracFone years ago. Anonymous and cheap. Costs me about $8 a month for a $100/year service card. And I can do text and voice, and have internet access. And it takes pictures. $8 a month. They have deals where you get double minutes or more for life, and it's plenty enough time. You need more minutes, buy a card at any drugstore and add them. For the last 5 years I haven't needed extra cards.

[Prospero]

[Greysard]

I have a flip phone, and I pay AT&T something like $30/mo for the pleasure. Text is disabled on that phone - by me, because I don't want to receive texts. (If someone needs me, they can call. If they can't be bothered to call, it's not that important.) I do not know if anyone cares what phone I have, but I certainly don't care what others think of that.

The phone's battery lasts forever (at least a week.) I have no data connection on that phone, also intentionally. I have enough computers around me all day long to worry about being away from the Internet for 15 minutes when I'm buying groceries. The Internet will have to wait.

I never had a smartphone, and I have no interest in getting one. They are just vehicles for selling overpriced data plans, along with unnecessary Web services, to the population. Services like Facebook are a modern version of Tamagotchi - a digital pet that requires constant care and feeding. Well, I have better things to do in my life; especially considering that social networks are yet another method of spying.

Any cell phone, though, can be used to monitor people. The author may be too optimistic here. Sure, he doesn't log into his Facebook - but any phone that is tied to an account is reporting its location to the towers - just so that the phone network knows how to route the incoming call. That information can be sent to authorities, and the FB login is absolutely not required.

Still, smartphones are more vulnerable to data theft by hackers. Your contact information, your photos, your browsing history and saved logins to banks - all that can be stolen and used against you. A flip phone that has no Internet access is far safer here.

In the end, of course, it all depends on what you expect from life. Someone who lives for others, someone who cannot imagine being disconnected from hundreds of friends, may not want to give up his smartphone. Someone who is perfectly comfortable with being alone may prefer to communicate when he chooses to, and only to those who he wants to talk to. Proliferation of smartphones indicates that most people crave for social contacts, even in such a primitive way as through social networks. If so, that's what humans are.

[doorgunner69]

I am so lost, forget to turn on my call-only cell most days. What is it I am missing out on?

[doorgunner69]

How do you have your smartphone for free?

Ask for an ObungaFoam?

[smokingfrog]

Works for me and the battery will last for a week most of the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-X2-Prepaid-Phone-T-Mobile/dp/B004O0U4X0

[rlmorel]

Voting with my dollars
(Good, this makes sense.)

Saving money
((Still on board here)

More productive ((Ummm...what does he mean?)

Cut the surveillance drastically
((Er...okay. Just get that license plate off your car there and make sure you don't use credit cards then, too...)

Eliminate the radiation risks
((Tin foil hats help this, but wouldn't it be BETTER, if you just didn't have your phone glued to your ear 24x7????)

Engaging in more conversation
((So, about that phone glued to your ear...you are around people, but instead of interacting with them, you are one of those douchebags who has their head cocked downwards at 45 degrees when the phone isn't glued to your head?)

I’m not texting while driving
((Really? Are you such a moronic idiot that you are texting while you are driving? Really? Okay, put that phone back against your head with duct tape, and don't forget to use come kind of product to make sure that radiation is transferred efficiently to the soft tissues in your brain. For the rest of us, it will get you off the road faster.)

I’m less distracted and more aware of my surroundings
((Seriously. That means when you have your phone, you are unaware of your surroundings, while driving a one ton car in rush hour at 40 mph, texting, ignoring anyone in the car with you that you SHOULD be engaging in conversation with.)

Bottom Line: PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE TOO DAMNED STUPID AND IRRESPONSIBLE TO OWN ANY KIND OF PHONE, NEVER MIND A CAR.

Yes. I mean every single word of this.

[rlmorel]

Phones are fine.

I have one. I was the last of anyone I knew to get one, except for my wife. I like it. I can get directions. When I am stuck in the most boring of circumstances, such as being stuck in an airport for four hours, it is one more thing to distract me in a good way. I can call people if I need to. But I don’t enjoy talking on the phone with anyone, so I don’t really call much.

But if you let it rule your life, then you would be a shallow, idiotic moron like the person who wrote this article.

Phones are like anything else. They are like money, and material belongings. If it becomes the focus of your life, and you can’t put it down, you have a problem. And there are millions of fools who have this problem.

[9YearLurker]

I pay $30 a month for my smartphone with unlimited data and text.

[rlmorel]

I don’t think you are missing out on anything, doorgunner69.

It is weak-minded fools who are afraid of the radiation risk to their brain from a phone or being tracked by someone, but are oblivious to the risk of driving a one ton car at 60 mph while they have their eyes glued to their lap who are missing out on something.

Damn, I detest dumb ass phone users.

[rlmorel]

I will note with full disclosure that I DID overlook the very last line of the article...

But that said, I was talking to the same audience.

[sneakers]

Mr Sneakers and I both have tracfones as well. We got them when there was a triple minutes offer. He has 1500 or more minutes since he rarely uses his. I am down quite a bit, but I pay approx. 19.99 every three months to keep it up. Works great for us. We have a landline at home and only pay $3.85 and month for that (no cell service where we live) and both have phones on our desk at work. Who needs a fancy phone?

[greeneyes]

LOL. What a sacrifice. I remember when there was no computer, no TV, and most people had no phone either.

You were lucky if the neighbor had one so that people could call in an emergency. My Grandparents used to drive into town to the telephone office to make a phone call, and that was a rarity.

And the phones at the neighbors, and the telephone office - they weren’t smart either!

[driftless2]

I don't have a smart phone..just a cell phone which I use maybe a few times a month. To surf the internet, I have a laptop. To take pictures, I have a camera (the cell phone takes lousy pictures.) To navigate I have an atlas. My wife brings a Garvin gps along on trips. She also has a smartphone which she uses like a regular cell phone. Fancy that..

In short, you don't really need a smart phone. We, as a country, survived for more than several hundred years without them.

[bray]

When you refer 5 people to our Sprint or Verizon service your service is free. Unlimited talk, text and data.

[GreyFriar]

Perhaps smart phones should be only for those who have graduated from high school. Think of how many folks that will eliminate from owning them. It’s not ‘discrimination’ it is protection of the folks in that they may own a phone that is smarter than they are.

[Dr. Sivana]

My mom basically just needs a “Portable dial tone” old person phone, i wish they actually made them.

Try the jitterbug:

[Dr. Sivana]

Author Dishaw sounds like a clueless idiot. I went with a TracFone years ago. Anonymous and cheap.

I went twith the Verizon variation seven years ago. Anonymous and cheap, and no Obama push messages. I also carry an iPod Touch which gives me the net and e-mail when I need it, with no more tracking than I get from a desktop computer.