Comment by sgt
4 days ago
> 1. That person owns a smartphone (which is at least a couple hundred dollars).
I live in South Africa, and even the poor townships are full of smartphones these days. My gardener has a fairly recent Samsung. They literally borrow money to buy these things. So if they can afford it, so can you.
It's not that I don't get your point though - it could easily be seen as unnecessary spending when you have all kinds of expenses. But sooner or later, smartphones have become a necessity to get on with life.
Affordability is not the OP's point.
I don't disagree with you main point but thought this was funny:
> They literally borrow money to buy these things. So if they can afford it,
Borrowing money would indicate they can't afford it. But I think you mean "afford the risk in order to achieve a societal norm".
Not achieve a societal norm but facilitate everyday tasks with the many, MANY things that are THAT much easier with a smartphone.
Now I get the author’s point, but there’s preferring to be off-grid (which I also tend to be), and there’s purposefully handicapping yourself then complaining about it later.
Look, if you run a blog, post your articles on places like HN and actually interact with the World Wide Web on a frequent basis you don’t get to preach about smartphones being evil devices that “society” imposes on you. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
This is like a biker complaining there’s too many cars on the street. A motorcycle is a smaller vehicle but it’s still very much part of that class of problem they’re so proudly rising against.
It’s theatre. Pure and simple theatre.
Where is the logical tie between interacting with the web in general, running a server or whatever and not being allowed to complain about being pushed into the Google/Apple-duopoloy, remote attestation and similar things? o_O
1 reply →
Thank you for your reply, and so true. This is an electronic medium after all, and the smartphone, the greatest electronic device ever invented, makes participating in it so easy. Tonight I ate in a restaurant with a paper menu (I avoid QR menus because I’m old) but was able to send photos to my family & meet my wife for dessert by sending iMessages during dinner. I have over 50 years of film, DSLR, and iPhone photos and all are on my iPhone to look at any time I wish. Restricting yourself by not taking advantage of such devices is fine, but don’t pretend you’re not missing out on some of life’s greatest moments.
It's not about the money, it's about time.
Requiring an app to do things often is more time consuming (and unpleasant) than doing it without the app. Other times, the app is so poorly written that it's not worth using.
Once the novelty of "the new toy" (smartphone) wears off, using a smartphone when it's not needed becomes a burden.
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For example, in the case of restaurants, I do not want to pull out my phone when I am having a conversation with people, therefore, I am greatly insulted when a restaurant requires a QR code to see a menu. I flat out ask for a menu, it's part of the joy of eating out.
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Edit: I can certainly understand the need to tell someone, "get with the program, get a smart phone." Back when they were getting popular in the US, a stranger asked me for directions on a busy street. I told her where to go, but she "clung" to me and wanted me to show her. This was when I point blank told her that it's time to get a smartphone.