Comment by CAPSLOCKSSTUCK
1 month ago
I know it goes beyond cell phones, but as someone who agrees with you and has the means and know-how, I find opting out through personal choice impossible. If you don't carry a cell phone, how do your loved ones reach you in an emergency? etc., so the only real way to win is through regulation. And the laws and enforcement won't change anytime soon for the reasons you mention. Super frustrating.
One solution is dumb phones! It's an idea I've been toying with but haven't committed to yet.
I think it could work. You can call, text (probably hard, I remember those swipe-out keyboards) so you should be good in an emergency. But that's it - the rest you do on your desktop, where you have far greater control over the software you use and far less data available (no location, no photos, etc).
The trouble is there's some gaps. If you want decent pictures, you'll need a camera. If you want to do something simple like check your email, it's a whole thing.
I think the trouble spreads further than that. In so many cases mobile phones have become the defacto tool for people that it's functionally impossible to survive without them.
I recently graduated college and by my senior year a lot of college functionality was done over phones (and phones only, no desktop or browser options). This ranged from ordering food at an official campus store, to requesting an advisior meeting or basic administrative functionality (tracking financial aid, filing a course exemption request). Granted, for the last you still could do it via other methods like email or an in person visit, but it was heavily deincentivized. Even the LMS switched to something that was designed as mobile forward.
The other thing I've noticed is that some countries like India effectively run on the phone and a dumb phone doesn't cut it for any business deals or even purchases. It's all done on the phone. You use your phone to order groceries, pay for them, and then track the delivery.
I'm actually flying now and things like TSA digital ID and CBP's MPC make it such a massive QoL difference that I think you'd be hard pressed to find people who'd willing go back.