It seems like our species is becoming weaker and meeker and softer prey.

The machines won't put us in the Matrix pods. We are going to put ourselves there.

Tiny houses will shrink to something barely bigger than a coffin, providing all of our physical and psychological needs. Everything machine built, machine delivered, machine controlled. All we have to do is lay there, consume, be monitored, be medicated, and be happy (or else).

Remember the good old days when you had to call the operator to place a call to the house next door?

probably a party line to boot!!

"smart phones for everyone" initiative, your shrug is duly noted.

Talk and text only.

when I got my cell phone it only cost a little more than the landline cost and I was able to take it with me and not miss calls. If I remember correctly I was paying about $45 a month for my landline and I paid about $50 per month for my cell phone so I decided to get rid of my landline and get a cellphone.

Currently, I have 4 lines (mine, my husbands, my daughters and one that a friend pays me $40 a month for) for $100. Cell phones lines have gotten cheaper and if you are willing to settle for a cheap phone you can get a go phone at the store for about $25 and then go have it activated on your line. By the way, my provider is T-mobile.

and the point of the OP was that you need a particular device plus Internet in order to access many services.

My service includes internet access for this price and you can get a cheap Smartphone for less than $100. I think you can get them cheaper. I have a more expensive one but that's my choice.

If you qualify for many government programs like SNAP, you can get a free phone with free minutes and texting. Many of the participating vendors are now distributing basic smartphones.

Apps need data plans to work, and the associated location-service, contact list, calendar, etc. data mining, so that you and your behaviors can be sold to targeted advertisers.

Convenience exclusive to some while making life harder for others isn't good.

Think of it this way. Prepackaged, pre-prepared meals are convenient. Now, let's remove the meat and vegetable sections of the grocery store because we need the space for more prepackaged meals. If people want fresh vegetables and raw meat, hey, they can go out of their way to find one of the stores that still provide it or simply grow their own, because, well, "God forbid things become more convenient."


On the other hand, much of this isn't a government action. It's just free market and consumer demand driving things for the most part. However, some government services are going more app-driven with alternative (paper, phone) modalities coming along later. Note that the people behind these are typically educated, reasonably well paid, and urban, and, sadly, probably think everything is or really should be like them, "real" people.

We just got a new car. Our former car from was 2005. The difference is profound, and the new car is going to be very high maintenance because of all the crap that can break, can be hacked. This adds thousands of dollars to the cost of the vehicle and then places a kind of maintenance tax on ownership. Then there are all the subscription services for being able to use the tech that's default in the vehicle. Some of this, much of this, was consumer driven. But some of it is also industry response to CAFE and safety standards. Yes, it increases the sticker price and the maintenance cost, but bureaucrat and politician is claiming victory because they've pushed some number in the right direction "for free."

and trains and planes and every other innovation that made life easier for humans. Sorry not willing to hold back inovation because some can't take advantage of it.

Or perhaps you think we should all live in huts because there are tribes in Africa still doing so and they have no other options...

Cell phones are not that expensive. A washing machine costs far more.

Windows Phone? Blackberry? Firefox OS? Fuck off, no Uber for you. Want to use Amazon Video on your iPad? Fuck off, that physical port belongs to Apple even though you paid $600 for the device. Let's not even talk about trying to work on your own car.

which is it? They are horrible or you want the service?

Seems very conflicting.

Stick with android. It can be had open sourced and you can find it in a multitude of flavors to suit your tastes. or install the flavor of your own choosing.

If you choose to go with apple or the other proprietary systems you are making a choice to put yourself into that walled garden.

Amazon wants you to buy their devices so they restrict their streaming apps. That is not the devices fault that is amazon.

Windows can't figure out what they hell they are doing and have all but abandoned their phones. buying one of them is not wise. Blackberry has not been relevant for over a decade. Firefox was an experiment.

Apple well apple is the evilest frigging company on the planet. They make great hardware but their desire for total control ensures that they will only fall further and further behind as you cant out innovate the entire planet. Already Iphone users are falling behind in features, Siri is nearly worthless. Apple maps don't come close to google maps the list goes on and on.


There are tons of things more convenient. Maps alone make a difference for me almost every single day. paying bills, keeping track of appointments, hell even a dinner reservation. All of those things are far more convenient in your pocket 24/7 than being tied to a physical computer or worse a phone book and a paper map.

The idea they don't make a multitude of things more convenient is silly.

Hell when I have to call for service on something in my house I take a picture of the serial number tag with my phone so I can read it when I am talking to the service people. The things it brings more convenience to are endless.

I get that it can be very confusing even overwhelming for people to figure out but so were VHS I doubt you will find very many people these days who cant operate a VHS or a DVD player. Smart phones are not that difficult. My 5 year old can get around on one quite well.

It's just wrong and I disagree with it. But thanks for the condescension.

With limited service...(yes, places like that exist)...not sure what the point is here.

I am starting to get a bit tired and scared of the whole universal immersion into technology thing we have going here.

If you try to have a conversation nowadays, you will never get eye contact - the screen has them under its power.

And while I have a very strong skill set in technology, I know or serve a lot of other people who don't. More and more, these people are finding life more difficult.

Hell, the only way to even get people out into the increasingly deserted streets to walk around is to make a video game out of it.

No computer, either.
He has a tendency to not want to go outside and he says if he had a computer he would never leave his house. He does have a hotmail account at the public library.
No credit card either.
Plus, although he has a landline he doesn't answer it.
When I need to talk to him about something I have to write him a letter.

from Better Call Saul mean anything to you?

It's possible I wouldn't be interested in computers except that I was in a university computer lab as BSD 2&3 were released and those were magical times. The Atari 800 was a very similar sort of magic. I've had computers and an internet connection ever since.

Every computer I've ever owned or used is emulated on my desktop. I have files and scripts and programs I created forty years ago, ready to go. It's the best kind of hoarding; the capacity of hard drives (and now solid state memory) increases faster than I can fill it. When I build a new computer all my old computers are reincarnated. If I want to play Pengo on my Atari 800, I can. If I want to browse the World Wide Web on my Macintosh SE/30, I can. I don't have to retrieve the original hardware from storage.

Nevertheless, in spite of my computer obsessions, I pretty much ignore my email, texts, and voice mail. The most reliable way to contact me is to knock on my front door. If I'm not doing something mad-scientist in my garden or lab, then I'm probably posting something here on DU.

Or none at all. Just from my own experience, I've been in the radio quiet zone in West Virginia and in Ohio Amish country--both areas where cell phones are utterly useless.

At my house - well, my husband can get one bar with his 4G phone. I have a very basic model cell phone because of that. I am so seldom any where I would need more than the ability to call for emergencies, it has not been worth it to get a smart phone.

That may change soon. My husband is very happy with his new smartphone and while he has trouble making and receiving calls when at home he can get texts and email with our WiFi. I've been thinking of getting one for when we travel so will probably get an identical one to make life easier.

Since we will be traveling more over the next few years, the ability to text back and forth, navigate and use other internet aspects will be convenient - at least we hope so!

We have Tracfone - I've been paying $150 every two years for basic service and keep accumulating minutes even with the lowest rates. My husband has to buy additional minutes, but he still is not spending very much more a month for his service.

Reading became more essential to daily life, and some folks got left behind. Being techno-literate, at least to a degree, is part of modern life. You're on the Internet posting about it right now, so presumably you're ok with at least some of it. Maybe you don't like it, but it's the natural evolution of life and technology.

I hate the fact that I love technology when the bad parts of it are becoming so profound.

It has both the power to liberate and to oppress us. It is disconnecting us from our neighbors even as it connects us to the world around us.

It has great abilities to inform, and to misinform.

Yes, it is here, and it is not going away. But I hope there remains some parts of carbon-based biological existence that are not dependent, and even controlled, by our silicon servants.

Why can't I send a telegraph for a cab-- fuck it, a horse-drawn carriage?

I would like to request a palanquin hefted by turkish eunuchs, which I shall summon forthwith by carrier pigeon.

My ancestors didn't wear pants, why do I have to?

The Turkish eunuchs just got a 3.7x surge. Would some Romanian World Of Warcraft players be OK?

As for the whole pants thing, that's not MY restriction.

The world needs more people with your attitude.

Very refreshing.

It seems that there's a discrimination against those who don't enthusiastically embrace the newest technology.

I don't, at least so far, have a smart phone, and I find it utterly discriminatory that I don't get a discount at a store because I can't download the discount on my "smart" phone.

How about a physical coupon? How about realizing that not every person on the planet embraces the latest in technology?

The first smartphone to see wide sucuess was released in 99 in Japan. Primitive compared to todays phones, but it was the first the get widespread adoption.

The first of what many would call a 'modern' smartphone was released in 07.

17 years or 9 years. Either way though, smartphones are hardly the latest technology.

Smartphones are a decade old at this point. Kids in slums in India have them.

And, equally oddly, I still hear people referring to their smart phones. What exactly am I missing? And why would kids in slums in India having smart phones make them obsolete at this point?

I think I finally got an iphone in 2012, and I was about the last person I knew to do it. Until then I remember I had some sort of weird pride in holding onto my Motorola RAZR for as long as I possibly could.

Now, I can't effin' remember why. There's a reason people like smartphones, they make a whole ton of things more convenient. It's not discrimination, it's just simple reality.

If it's any consolation, though, the frequency with which I would remember to use a coupon on my phone at the store is about equivalent to the frequency with which I would actually remember to bring a physical coupon to the store and then remember to use it, which is basically never.

A lot of things aren't intentionally discriminatory, they just turn out to have a disparate impact on some groups.

HRC in yesterday's speech talked about the "achievement" gap where a lot of kids don't have access to computers at home. That's not discriminatory. It just is.

Some of what "just is" is due to income, either of the community (yielding insufficient broadband infrastructure build-out) or of the household. Some is poor decision making.

But there's enough research into how low SES versus high SES kids tend to use the hardware that they're given in different ways.

The real problem is that the achievement gap starts early and continues without continued intervention that remediates the job the parents (don't) do, but we see correlation and think it's causation. You can spot the achievement gap by age 5, before the kids learn the alphabet or have any significant tech. However, that's damned hard for self-proclaimed social saviors to fix, nobody but "victims" can be blamed for it, and so we find somebody we can blame and something that "we" can do to fix the problem. If a politician got up and said, "The primary cause of the achievement gap is bad parenting practices and low parent education levels" it would be accurate but that politician wouldn't get elected. So misdirection is a job skill. (It's worth saying that all the previous fixes for the problems have come up seriously short, boosting achievement by a few points at best. Some research shows painting school walls a better color can produce the same results. If we had the engineering fail rate that we have with education and spent a few trillion of dollars on upgrading engineering education and design skills and materials with the same results we got for education it would be considered a huge boondoggle. Instead, we get calls for even more money to be spent on more get-smart-quick schemes.)

IMHO one of the largest problems the school system has is promoting children even though they haven't mastered a subject. to the point that you have seniors in high school reading at a fourth grade level.

That situation alone creates a ton of problems for everyone in the school system. A class with several children reading at a low level is unable to reach its learning potential because time must be spent trying to bring the children who are not at the same level into the lesson or worse they are ignored and the problem is passed down the line.

Currently I see that as a much larger problem than any issues with access to computers.

There are a multitude of problems in the school system. One thing schools should absolutely be focusing on is getting some sort of device into every students hands instead of continuing to purchase textbooks that become outdated almost as soon as they land on the shelves. The opportunity for children to educate themselves given access to the internet far outweighs any learning they get from a single textbook and the costs are nearly equivalent if done right.

I agree that far too many parents do not emphasize the importance of education and do little or nothing to be involved in their child's learning. That is likely the number one reason for many children's failure. That said many school systems have been dragging their feet when it comes to computer literacy and that is doing a huge disservice to our children.

There is certainly a digital divide but the answer is not to reject technology it is to work to get it into the hands of more students.

We have land-line infrastructure that cost a pretty penny to put in. But if your choice is cell phone or having to pay to put in the land-lines, you go with cell phones. They can be pretty cheap if the government's subsidizing build-out, if land and right of ways are cheap, and if you offer basic service for a "basic" price that you can pre-pay.

I used to have a phone that was like that. Peer pressure helped push me to a smart phone. That tool is gradually finding uses, but what's happening is that it's just replacing other tools.

The indigent folk's phones aren't necessarily smart phones, but increasingly are as the choice becomes cell phone + computer or phablet (or the mini-phablets that smart phones are). By "increasingly", though, you have to recognize that we're starting from a very small base.

But the travel situations like Uber and flight snafus are pushing me hard to upgrade. Plus, my kids only text. Email and real phone calls seem to be dead to them.

Still refuse to pay more than $100 a year or live constantly connected.

Same for my husband. I have to be online/on a computer enough for my work. I need some separation from it for my own sanity and also we want to model good lifestyle choices for our children. I have two flip phones. One is a personal tracfone, the other one is a work phone. I can send/receive texts and get phone calls/voice messages. That's all I need. I feel the smart phones are overkill for most people. I do not need constant internet access everywhere I go. Uber is also something I don't need so I don't care if it you can only have access to it via smart phone. I also don't care about coupons. I don't feel the world is pushing me to own a smartphone. I choose not to own one. If my work sent me a smart phone in place of the flip phone, I'd deal with it. I wouldn't be messing around on it too much though because it would be a work phone.

a laptop, a tablet, and four good cameras. I have no need for a smart phone as well. My cell phone is for phone calls and text messages.

I actually love technology, but watching people sitting around staring at their phones all day is rather disturbing. I think it has become addictive and is a good excuse not to communicate with real people.

Can't afford one. There are a few things that would make having a smart phone nice, but they really don't justify the added expense of owning one. If I had the money, I would probably own one, although I would probably get a tablet before I got a smart phone.

I also still have a landline. The cell phone is only for emergencies. I like having a landline, because I like being able to hold a conversation without the worry of losing reception, or of my call being dropped.

And, yes. Seeing people constantly staring at their phones is disturbing. I am always seeing people who paid hundeds of dollars for tickets to a sporting event staring down at their phones, rather than watching the game. Or, constantly checking them during spinning class. Or, worse, while they are operating a motor vehicle. It's disturbing and dangerous.

I might consider buying a smart phone, but I'm retired so don't see a lot of use for one.

Here is one thing I've noticed about conversations, even among close friends and family - Whenever there is a lull in the conversation, people pick up their smart phones, rather than trying to move things forward or maybe in a different direction. These are skills that are part of life, skills that I think younger generations may never learn. This leads right into observing younger people especially, with extremely short attention spans, barely able to even sit through an entire movie or students who cannot sit through a class or lecture.

I got a good deal on a Kindle Fire over a year ago, but I have to say, I rarely use it. My daughter uses hers a lot for watching movies and television shows.

Once again, I am concerned that smart phones are addictive for some people. Our brains can be rewired rather easily, if we do the same things over and over again. It is not always easy to undo that conditioning. I am quite sure I would be just as vulnerable as anyone else.

P.S. I take it you're from Chicago!

I feel sorry for those people, because they're missing out on life. And, being an introvert, I also can't understand why people make themselves available 24/7. I want people to leave me alone at times. No way in hell I am going to constantly check my phone for calls, e-mails, texts, IMs, whatever. I really don't get that behavior.

I wouldn't mind having a tablet. I like the ability to enlarge text. I'm at an age where my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and it would be nice to be able to read without having to pull out the reading glasses. And, a lot of the phone apps can be used on them.

P.S., I was born and raised in Chicago. I have been stuck in the hellhole that is South Carolina for going on 30 years. Trying to get out. Wish I had stayed in Chicago.

the eyesight issue is a big one for me. Having to take out my reading glasses every time I use my phone would be really tedious. The smart phones are bigger and easier to read, but I usually still need my glasses.

I remember back when I didn't have a cell phone, it was a nice escape to get in the car and away from the phone. Even once I got my first cell phone, I'd frequently let calls go to voicemail, so I'd have more control over life. Unless someone was having a baby, there was rarely anything so urgent that it couldn't wait until I was some place where talking on the phone wouldn't be rude.


So sorry you got stuck in South Carolina. I lived a short time in Mississippi decades ago and it was pretty brutal. I was born in Chicago and spent the majority of my life in and around the city. I'm in New England now which is lovely, but I really miss Chicago food, especially the pizza or pretty much anything Italian!

I fee the same about having to pull out the reading glasses all the time.

I only use my cell phone in emergencies, or if I want to make a long distance call. Other than that, it stays off. And, few people have the number to it. If someone wants to speak with me that badly, they can call my landline.

Decent Italian food is hard to come by here, too. I just make my own. Most Italian food is not that difficult to make, especially if one has cookbooks by Marcella Hazan and Marianne Esposito, and aunts who will give up the family recipes. Not much good pizza here, either, although we do have the Mellow Mushroom. They are pretty good. I think I miss Polish food the most, however. Mrs. T's pierogis just don't cut it, and forget feeding any cravings I might get for kizhka...

that is through the computer. I use it for the most part because we don't get good cell reception here. Verizon is the only service that works here, but it isn't great.

I always took Chicago restaurants for granted, as for years, it was all I knew. Most of the restaurants I remember were owned either by Greeks or Italians and no one tops them. In 2001 we moved to Sacramento and the food and service was very disappointing. My son learned how to make Chicago style pizza as a result. I think because the climate was so mild there, that eating out wasn't as big a pastime. Like I said, we're in New England now and the food is better than California, but still not quite as good as Chicago. That's okay, Chicago winters were brutal!

They Internet is faster, and the phone reception is better. But, the main reason I kept the landline was because it was not affected by power outages. That's not the case with the digital phone. Now one has to buy an extra emergency power pack if one wants to be able to use the phone when a storm knocks out the power for days on end. Or, else buy some sort of solar charger, or car charger for your cell phone. I would ditch it, if it weren't for the cheaper Internet/phone bundle I get from my provider.

We have a few Greek restaurants in my town, and they are some of the best restaurants here, although that's not really saying much. It's mostly chain crap. But, they are about as good as any of the Greek food I had in Chicago. The one saving grace for this region is the barbecue, and the seafood, if you are near the coast. Still doesn't come close to Chicago eats, though. And, yeah. Chicago winters are brutal. And, so are South Carolina summers--unless you like living in a perpetual steam bath that is infested with all sorts of nasty, biting insects. Bleech.

but my landline phones need electricity to work, so I still wouldn't be able to use them when the power goes out.

I lived on the Gulf Coast for a couple of years when I was young and the seafood was amazing, probably because it was caught and served the same day. Any seafood I had after that was a major disappointment. I know what you mean about the hot summers in the south - bugs the size of mice, sauna like humidity, and swarms of mosquitoes that were known to kill dogs and cats. None of that, however, was as bad as the evangelicals and southern Baptists trying to save my wretched soul. Fortunately, they failed and I moved back to Chicago relatively unscathed.

I have all of those things on my smart phone. Why bother with multiple devices when the phone does it all?

And people "staring at their phones" is not always a situation where people are tuned out of reality. My grocery list is on my phone so you will see me staring at it in the store. I no longer wear a watch so I check my phone for the time, etc etc. I'm not really doing anything I wasn't doing before. I just do a lot of it on my phone now. I still make eye contact when I converse.

I used to feel the way you do but was forced to upgrade to a smartphone. Turns out it made life a lot easier for me. It would be nice if they were more accessible to everyone though.

and if I was still working, I most certainly would have one. I do see different people using them differently and unfortunately not all of them make eye contact when they converse. Some don't even hear when someone is talking to them.

Obviously, the fault is not with the phones, which are brilliant pieces of technology that can certainly make people's lives better. The fault lies with how people use them, how often they use them, and where they use them.

In the late 1990s, I worked for Sprint PCS and I remember how excited we all were whenever a new phone came out. I am still in awe of new technology, but unlike my son, I don't need to own it all!

As for other devices, there are things I do on my PC that I cannot do on a phone or tablet, and of course, I wouldn't stop using my numerous digital cameras. I did stop wearing a watch a long time ago, as I also rely on my cell phone for that.

So yeah I guess there are a few things I can't do on my phone. But not too many.

My daughter has one too and she is probably more guilty of always having her face in it than I am. She face times her friends a lot. And she does still make eye contact, it's just aimed at the phone a lot now, lol. Staring at your phone in a real life social situation is just rude. She knows that but yeah a lot of people are guilty of that.

that technology has accelerated so fast, that social norms have not been able to keep pace with it. I remember in the 1990s when so many people were getting their first cell phones, there was no established etiquette for their use in public or social situations. There weren't even laws about using them while driving.

I've always been amazed by people who feel they have to be talking or texting every single minute, people who have to answer every call or text immediately because everything seems to be so urgent. Then come evening, they are so wired, they can't sleep.

I use my cellphone for phone calls and an occasional text, depending on the situation.

To be honest, I can't see well enough to make use of the "smart" features of a smartphone anyway.

that same thing about eyesight with GoCubsGo. Having better eyesight would make a smartphone more useful for me. Maybe I'll wait until they come out with a holographic phone!

... times and everything was too small for me. Magnifying stuff by spreading my fingers across the little screens was too much of a pain too.

Paying all that money for those hassles? No thanks.

that's a pretty expensive headache!

One for me and one for Miz t.
250 hrs./mo. No text, no data.
$35/mo. total.

I pay 10 cents per minute, period, end of discussion. When I need to refill minutes, I do it online with my laptop. My cable and internet is $123/mo. Why on earth do I need a smart phone and the added expense?

I understand that smart phones are a hot item among thieves, lately.

I've got all kinds of things that no one would want to steal, including my car. haha!

Of course they're both dead.


I do know 3 school aged kids that don't have smartphones...

So there really isn't any reason to not have at least a basic one to use as a tool when needed. Free wifi is so common in most places you can get by using it just like that.

I don't have it. Nor, do I have the shitpile of money it costs to have a monthly service plan that allows me to use that allegedly cheap phone. So, yes. There is a reason not to have it.

And arguably when choosing between things you can have a smart phone makes much more sense than some other choices as it can open up worlds of possibilities for you that the other choices would not.

If you pay for cable TV and not a smart phone because you can have one or the other you are making a bad choice if you chose the TV.

Last edited Fri Aug 12, 2016, 07:06 PM - Edit history (1)

No cable. Not sure why you bring it up.

And, I am more than aware of what I can and cannot afford, thank you very much.

You can use pretty much everything the phone does connected to wifi without paying for service- including making calls via phone apps.

I got one of the Verizon prepaid phones from Amazon for around $22 and never activated the service and use it like a small tablet. One time cost and as long as I can get a wifi signal- and free wifi is so many places these day- it fully functions for everything. No monthly cost.

Second, if you make under 135% of the poverty level or you qualify for any Federal assistance programs you very likely may qualify for a free lifeline phone and service.

My phone is with Net10. I can get a smart phone for $50. They want another $40-50 for a monthly data plan. I can buy the damn phone, but I can't use it on my current plan, which is just for phone service and their useless version of Internet access. I am not switching to another company just to get a cheap goddamn smart phone, especially considering that I have thousands of minutes sitting on my current plan. I don't give a shit about the wi-fi. I have a laptop for that.

Now has vendors giving out basic smartphones, so that tells you how common they are becoming. The world is changing, you can change with it or get left behind.

Last edited Fri Aug 12, 2016, 10:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Cavate enptor.

I get/transmit phone messages......I occasionally text.....why pay for a phone that has "services" I never use?

but having one can make many things you do need to do a whole lot easier.

I don't think those other 32% need professional care. Apparently most of them get along fine.

For the record, I do have a smartphone and I find it useful. But then I work in IT so lack of a smartphone wouldn't look good to potential employers. I do not use it to the exclusion of normal social interaction. It spends most of its time in my pocket or lying on a table at home. But it is enormously useful. Any piece of information I may need during the day is right there at my fingertips.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/

I don't have an American Express Black Card. I cannot therefore rely on 24/7 individualized concierge service to book my hotel rooms or restaurants for me when my plans change. I don't have network or cable TV, therefore I cannot rely on emergency broadcast signals for extreme weather. I only got a smartphone a few years ago. Until I did I couldn't use some phone-only apps. No difference at all. People make consumption choices based on circumstances. A Manhattanite can easily choose to eschew a car and live a full life. A person in rural Montana would be severely hampered most likely to the point of requiring assistance. For people who value instant access to information, remote contact, news, entertainment and convenience wherever they are, a smartphone is like that car in MT. For those who don't, it's like the car in Manhattan.

'cause it only cost me ~$6.50/month. Now I switched to a smartfone 'cause it only costs about $6.50/month. Why would you spend $40/month to have a flipfone?

you still pay for a landline too?

Whatever I'm getting for $25 for 4 months seems to be enough for me, with minutes left over.

Yes, I still have my landline. My emergency alert button is a no-additional- cost extension of my landline (just like another extension phone, but tiny), which would have to be replaced otherwise with a cell phone type emergency alert which costs $30-$40/month. Plus I get my Wi-Fi bundled with my otherwise no frills landline.

Living alone, and home most of the day, the landline is a good safety and it's the # I give out. I keep the rings off and the outgoing message muted, and it hardly bothers me at all, but is there if I need it.

My cell is $23 a month with unlimited talk and text. Had to get the text even though I hate texting. All the kids, you know those under 35, only text and won't pick up a call.

My phone is a slider phone with a full keyboard and costs $4 a month for a years. So I guess, with the phone, it's $28. I have only used cabs a handful of times in my life and had no problems. I don't get the Uber.

the state line in Illinois and it's Cingular who has a stranglehold on customers.

I am so ready for a month in the woods.

Alas, not any longer than that, though.

The next car up was the discussion car.

Armed discussions.

when there were concerts in central park, or just for the hell of it. It was hilarious seeing some of my friends dads getting tanked in the bar car on the way back. Awkward the time we watched 'big Gil' slobbering all over some woman all the way back to Hazlet station. Thankfully 'little Gil' wasn't with us that trip and we never did tell him. figured what goes on in the bar car, stays in the bar car.

Trains used to be kind of gross!

you are old enough to not have to worry about it much longer

When was the last time anybody used their catapult? Just sitting there in the backyard taking up space.

How do you think I get rid of my dog's crap?

Put it in a paper bag, set it on the neighbor's porch, light it on fire, ring the doorbell, run. Meanwhile, you're catapluting your dog's shit into the same neighbor's backyard. So it all comes out in the wash.

Fear life without technology!!

Please. Haven't owned one in 52 years, don't anticipate getting one. Thought about it, but just can't stand them.

Had a company radio and pager. Felt like a electronic leash. When smart phones came out carried that also. Both company and personal. So glad to get away from that. I have a land line and iphone now. But the iphone unless I'm out of the house just sits in one room. Go to the doctor or some other place and they ask for a contact number I give them my land line number, but they want my cell phone number. I tell them I don't carry my iphone around the house. Just call me on my land line phone number. If they have my cell phone number they still call me on that. I end up having to tell them to take that number off the list.

And I actually only call it that because everybody else does. Only half-jokingly between me and the kids, I call it my "texting machine." If I make a dozen phone calls a year on that thing you could color me surprised. What it actually is is my portable personal computer.

"You used to have to wait two hours for a cab." You're telling me!

Why are you complaining about not being able to use Uber without a smartphone? That's like complaining about needing water to swim.

It comes with triple minutes, which means, if you buy a $20/60-minute card you get 3 months of service, 180 minutes of call time, 180 units of text and 180 megabytes of data. It also allows you to connect to wifi. That breaks down to less than $7 a month.

Not that it doesn't work fine as a phone, but I'm getting to the point where I might like to check a map or a fact occasionally, or maybe even call an Uber, much as I object to them philosophically. (I really wish people would set up cooperatives to compete with them - the cut they take for what they provide to the drivers is highway robbery, for one example of why I don't like them.)

I keep the data feature turned off when I don't need it, which is most of the time because I have wifi at home and don't leave the house much. I'm like you, I would rather use taxis but I've been burned by them and that is precisely why I upgraded from my flip-phone to this low-end smartphone.

It doesn't take much data to open the Uber app and confirm/track a driver to your location. After they arrive, just shut off the data. I always rate my driver after I get to my destination, using my laptop.

Remember to enable your GPS when you're calling an Uber.

Keep your display brightness low and your sleep timer short to save battery life. Crank all of that up to 11 when you're waiting for an Uber so you don't miss it.

Google Maps now has an offline mode so you can save/refer to maps without using data or wifi.

Neko Atsume is a really cute game where you collect cats but you don't make them fight other cats. You just buy them food and treats and they give you gifts and fish.

I don't make financial transactions on my phone and I don't keep my banking info or have a banking app installed.

You have to have a Google account to use an Android phone properly.

Walking is the ideal form of transportation, followed by bicycles and sailboats and electric rail transportation.

I have a big black heavy dial telephone on my computer desk, it's connected to a landline.

My mid-eighties car doesn't have a digital computer in it. It does have fuel injection, but the fuel injection computer is analog and that's all it does -- fuel injection. Likewise I have an old flip phone. It upsets me that I feel pressured by society to own a car and a cellphone, otherwise it seems I'm not considered a functional adult.

I favor "dumb" appliances. Anything with a microprocessor inevitably becomes difficult-to-recycle garbage, always sooner than expected. When the computer in our clothes dryer inexplicably failed a replacement computer cost just as much as a used old-fashioned "stupid" dryer at the Salvation Army. (I bought the replacement computer. My wife bought our dryer years ago and she likes it.)

I frequently use the terminal interface on my computers. Linux is much the same as BSD, which I started using in the late 'seventies.

I loathe airline travel.

If someone gave me a Tesla automobile I'd give it away like a hot potato to someone who cared.

There are some things I appreciate about the modern world. I must take meds daily to stay out of the emergency room. The meds I take now are far superior to the meds I used to take as a child and young adult.

Unfortunately, the "assembly line" medicine doctors are forced to practice these days is worse. A lot of people are falling through the cracks, including myself at times. It's costing society huge amounts of money when people don't receive appropriate, generally inexpensive, mostly preventive care, and then they show up in the E.R. with multiple, very expensive, issues.

I think BIG MONEY would like to do away with most doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and other medical staff entirely and replace them with smart-phone apps. Stick a bluetooth medical probe up your ass and computers living in the "cloud" will decide what's wrong with you, nag you to quit smoking and drinking and to get more exercise, and maybe write you a prescription.

I use things until they break or don't serve my purpose anymore.

The landline phone did go several years ago, though - since the Ooma equipment was amortized (five months) all our home phone costs is $4/month in taxes.

In my professional life I need to stay on top of the latest technologies in my field to remain relevant and competitive.

In my personal life I am more than content to putt around in my 1959 Oldsmobile all day totally cut off from the digital universe. I like old things that don't break, or if they do, I can repair them myself.

So I fix computers for a living. I can fix your phone your laptop or damn near any digital device you might own yet my car goes to the shop.

I am sure you would find the idea of me not driving because I can't fix the car myself a little strange no?

I can fix almost everything on my old car. If the transmission ever needs a rebuild, I'm sending it to a repair shop.

I also have no idea how to repair a television, but I watch it all the time.

I'm just tired of cheaply made shit that falls apart well before it's time and was designed in a manner to never be fixed.

LAGS meaning "latest and greatest." If something electronic that's state of the art is too rich for your blood, wait a few years. Within two to four years you'll get it for half the cost, but is still perfectly usable. Same thing with cars.

Since then all my computers have been somebody else's electronic waste.

As a kid I'd always dreamed I'd have a supercomputer.

I didn't imagine I'd be picking supercomputers up off the curb, disposing of them for a client, or pulling them out of a dumpster.

My car cost $800 and I can repair most anything that goes wrong with it.

I am a techno-geek held in check by a wife who is as you describe resistant to technology.

She had a flip-phone until they rendered it obsolete. She uses trac-phone, just don't try to call her, she will call you when she needs you.

that no longer has to maintain pay phones anywhere. That makes it tough when you have to call a tow truck because your car just died.

But hey, all those people paying through the nose for the stupid phones and wireless service that doesn't work half the time have saved the phone company millions!

End public services! That's the ticket!

I think too many people take this stuff a little too seriously... one way or the other.

You point to mere tools superseded by more efficient tools, something humanity has been doing consistently for 10,000 years. Home phone to flip phone to smart phone is simply fire to firepit to central heating.

I realize many of us react to benign advancements rather overly-emotional and somewhat shrilly. It's most certain that among the first reactions to the firepit was righteous angst and self-justified melodrama.