Thanks, nice!

Pretty much how I live. It was a bit easier in my case because I have never used smart phone with SIM card. I have one CalyxOS device without SIM for BTC and LN experiments (unfortunately for me, most of the cool new stuff is mobile-first or mobile-only) and Osmand. And people know that when I am outside, I am offline. So they do not expect immediate responses.

An unexpected but welcome advantage was that when the rulers here in Taiwan demanded entering places only after scanning QR (everybody was happy to follow), I did not have to scan anything. Instead, I wrote a name and a phone-number-looking number on a paper (I hope somebody later read all those names).

Yes. It was possible to live without smartphones and even without portable phones. But going back to that is hard. What we need instead is more open hardware phones that cannot be remotely controlled.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments, folks!

I would consider it a security risk to use old devices with unpatched operation systems.

Great article and i agree with it overall. I spent a long time without a phone, and it was great to just be disconnected and unreachable. When i came back i stopped being bothered so much by people !

Some issues however are :

This assumes others will want to contact you via SMS. People will want to send you issues via whatsapp, facebook messenger, including the employer; Photos of leaks or needed repairs, move outs.

1 minute 4 times a day (or more), times 365 = 24.33 hours. One whole day a year. Not too bad but... you should change your name to Living-Inconveniently. /s If you are a driver or deliver person, modern map on spyware is a necessity. OSM is good, but finiky sometimes. Sometimes people just send you a pin on whatapp and nothing else (further walled garden dystopia.)

I completely agree with you and your methods , but realize it's not just the choices you make, its the ones the society around you force on you. It's only going to get worst with the austerity hitting the west.

Toxic masculinity is out, friend. You are having an episode of future shock. It's ok, we are all going through it at some level. Our brain chemistry and cultural values are adapting to this technological invasion. We are daily overloaded by encroachments that would previously have started a deadly civil war. They have had a century to plan this, from Tesla's wireless onwards, we have had , what, decades ?

Tinder, tiktok are intentionally designed. I know you know this but what that means is the old school dating scene no longer exists. Dating in 2023 is very dangerous, thus , this is bad advice. Unless you are in the upper 20% to 5% of men in height and looks, you are just as likely to catch a charge for being creepy.

Even being in the top % in attractiveness and wealth is no protection from false charges and changed minds or misunderstandings. You should really educate yourself on the statistics. For a study check out The Book of numbers, ROI of persuing women OR The Menu by Aaron clarey, on what to do instead, and/or get a modern realistic sex doll.

Everything else is great ! I will be implemting some of these tips. There are fewer of us around that think this way and even fewer in the developing world, who think facebook and instagram are futuristic magic tools that ARE the internet. They got them bundled and have no experience of a "free" internet as "the west" does. It's amazing to see some of their faces when you you say you don't have facebook, it's as though you said you can't read.

Thanks for the article!!! I've been pondering life without a smartphone.

I've been using an Apple Watch with LTE for 7+ months now so I've gotten used to not having a full phone. This has helped me to be a digital minimalist. That being said, I don't love that Apple and/or my cell carrier are tracking me. I have nothing to hide, it just seems unnecessary to me. Also, I kinda want to wear a regular analogue watch since they just look nicer.

My only real hold-up now is probably that my wife needs to occasionally communicate with me about the kids or various things. I could use a walkie-talkie while nearby, but if I drive 3+ miles away then I don't have too many options. Still trying to find a solution to this.

The spying law referred to in the article (the law that allows government to turn on microphone and video) unfortunately targets poor people who have the most reasons to protest and are more likely only able to afford one device - a smartphone. So not sure how much this advice helps someone in that situation.

No smartphone -> no work -> no sats :/

Thank you for providing these wonderful insights and how it could be possible to upgrade a free smartphone life, and i enjoyed reading through thank u so much once again