Comments on Profile Post by caute

If you choose yes, you can never even use a smart phone again—you're stuck with button texting and no internet, but dat sweet, sweet $3K gets applied to your acct every single month until you peace out

you are also barred from using anything that makes the smart phone obsolete, eg AR glasses, some new big thing that will come out in 20 years

I'd be down for buying a ZMF in every wood ever released. Alas, my employer uses a 2-step authentication to log into various applications that requires the use of a smart phone. Boo.

I would use the money to deebo other phones.

Would switch for just $300 per month.

Is this just for calls and old school texting? Are we still allowed a modern tablet with LTE? Cuz I like not needing to carry around a Garmin, Zune, a camera, a laptop, a notepad, a file cabinet, etc. Can I still look things up on the internet or if the library, random stranger, or newspaper doesn't tell me what I am looking for, I am SOL?

I think the question would be fairer if it contains zero use of internet, computer, and tablets. Or reduce the compensation down to $30/month.

Yep—just smart phone or future smart phone-like deviceless, you can still have laptop, PC, etc. Just no supercomputer in your pocket at all times. Even though @Vtory makes a good point, I think even w a just no phone deal, it would radically change your life, possibly, maybe even for the better!

But like was mentioned earlier, a smart phone is even a necessity for work now, not just a laptop, but everyone is expected to have a smart phone, I think it's on the list of basic necessities by the UN now. And it's only going to get worse, as in more connected via future personal computing devices, hence the high monthly payment amount. Let's be real: we can't live without the internet these days.

Oh man, there are days I miss blind one-handed T9 texting...

Remember when texting speed competitions were a thing?

Absolutely! Although do the payments rise with inflation?

A 2G phone is still supported? I thought there's talk of getting rid of 3G and that might affect monitoring devices that the elderly use. Anyway, your cell phone these days is not actually a phone (most people don't really make more than 2-3 calls a day) but a wireless computer. But, yeah, I'd give up the "phone" to go off grid.

I'd give up my smartphone in an instant and not look back. $3k a month... $36k a year to not have people expecting instant access at all times of the day/night? Sign me up

$10,000 a month. I'd lose my current job and be unable to find work so your flip phone $ needs to be my retirement.

Yes, easily. I didn’t have a smartphone until 2014 and I think about going back to a basic voice/text phone all the time. A tablet connected to WiFi can fill in most of the smartphone features I use. The only killer app that really requires remote internet are maps, and even then I think I can get away with downloading routes beforehand

No, I would not swap my pocket computer for a /phone/ of any kind.

My pocket computer does make phone calls. I don't do that much: I don't hear very well on the phone, and I'm uncomfortable with it.

Granted, I use it for communication, both text and multimedia. But that is its only relationship to the pocket device I had (2002-ish, I think, I gave in and got one) back then.

Easily. There are alternatives.

@Walderstorn no alts, that’s the point of the $$!! Only laptops without LTE and big ass gaming PCs, if you count those as alts

@caute you’re surveying the wrong crowd. These old fogeys lived in an era without cellphones. Permanently disconnecting from the Matrix isnt so scary for them (us). But if I told my 10yo that he couldnt watch Youtube ever again in exchange for money he would say that’s ludicrous and medieval.

I would get a job doing what I actually wanted to do, fail at it and have the safety net to "fail better", instead of working as a painfully petit bourgeois digital marketing mgr & never lewk back.

f**k Steve Jobs, f**k Google, f**k Android. But you can pry my M1 Air out of my cold dead hands.

Btw, way off topic, but if you're into free eBooks/PDFs, and haven't heard, ahem: www.libgen.is. All told.

I am pretty well connected to my phone at this point, but for 3k a month. Yeah, bring on the t9 text. I often miss the days when "i couldnt find a phone" and couldnt be reached for a few days. Put that 36k a year right into retirement and hurry that along!

Things you will lose that are for granted: ability to send and receive pictures, group text, video sharing, having email anytime, GPS and driving directions. Large list.

Connectivity vs engagement. Convenience vs purpose-ness. Alertness vs awareness. There’s always something lost and something gained.

@roshambo123 - “having email anytime” is sooo not a feature to me. I don’t like bosses and co-workers or even certain family members thinking they can access me at anytime. Waiting to read something until I got home or in the office is a feature

GPS doesn’t need the internet at all.

Wait, you guys aren't printing directions off mapquest anymore?

@Armaegis - I remember printing them from a CD-ROM map

@Cspirou Good point, GPS could be a 3rd party device and a flip phone could in theory have GPS.