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moylan writes:
An article from the Chicago Tribune discusses people who are changing their smartphone for a dumbphone. From the article:
When Ryan Gleeson punches out a text message or takes a call on his cellphone at parties, he prepares to hear questions from onlookers, and sometimes snickers. That's because the 24-year-old carries a $50 flip phone - the Samsung Gusto 2. There's no touch screen or apps. No Web browsing capabilities. No collection of music to enjoy through earbuds.
"Definitely it's like a black sheep in the room when I pull it out," said Gleeson, a postproduction associate at a documentary production house in Lincoln Park. "I work with a lot of Apple people - creative types. Everyone has an iPhone." Gleeson is among cellphone users who choose to be dialled out of the world of iPhones, BlackBerrys and Androids. In an increasingly connected and accessible culture, these stalwarts have chosen hand-held devices that offer only the basics, despite the social isolation and limitations that may come with them.
For Gleeson, hanging up the iPhone demonstrates no "grand realization about humanity," he said; rather, it's a way to tamp down his compulsive email checking. With the basic phone, "It's a lot easier now to just step away and say, 'I'm not going to work right now,'" he said.
[...a survey] found that 35 percent of U.S. adults carry a cellphone that is not a smartphone.
As someone who got rid of an iphone and android device and replaced them with 2 feature phones I thought I was in the minority. But I have noticed more and more folk around carrying a second dumbphone for when the battery goes on their smartphone. Anyone else doing this?"
[Editor: Yes, me!]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday March 26 2014, @03:26PM
I'm also with ATT* and have been talking shit for years about smartphone users on Slashdot. The reason why I sold out and upgraded was because ATT recently changed their pricing structure, so I'm paying the same amount (including the payments for my new phone) with a new smartphone as I was with my old dumbphone - fifty bucks a month, and that includes a data plan. Yeah, foreigners, I know we're still getting ripped off.
Dumbphones are now significantly cheaper according to the newer rules. However, there might be a time when I actually need to use some of the enhanced functionality on my new phone, and better to have it than not. I still navigate with maps and atlases and leave my phone in my car or at work on silent mode.
And most importantly, I still understand that it's rude to be fiddling with my smartphone during conversation, that it's rude to be playing music aloud in public while headphones are available, that it's annoying to show a lack of patience by constantly playing with my phone during lectures or work. This should be common fucking sense to all of you, even those of you starting your first class or job. We got 2 new people where I work and instead of seizing the opportunities they had, they sat there for 2 whole weeks thumbing their phones waiting to be told what to do. We're already looking for replacements, by the way.
* Before the NSA scandal broke, I angrily called ATT customer service to complain about a charge, and I told the manager that I demanded his helping the unconstitutional spying of the NSA stop. Must have blown his mind when the Snowden scandals broke a year later, haha