Not smart but clever? The return of 'dumbphones'

... Ms West's decision to ditch her former smartphone two years ago was a spur of the moment thing. While looking for a replacement handset in a second-hand shop she was lured by the low price of a "brick phone".

Her current handset, from French firm MobiWire, cost her just £8. And because it has no smartphone functionality she doesn't have an expensive monthly data bill to worry about.

"I didn't notice until I bought a brick phone how much a smartphone was taking over my life," she says. "I had a lot of social media apps on it, and I didn't get as much work done as I was always on my phone." ...

And on cue, another article on the re-emergence of the dumb phone. I'd been engaged in a discussion with @tom grzyb and @Wayne Radinsky on the topic in this thread. The argument I made there was that various vendors are strongly incentivised to push increasingly user-hostile "smartphones" on the public for reasons which serve the vendors but not purchasers. It's nice to see some pushback.

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/cc94cba07f2b013ae85028a1592b385a

When it comes to dumb phones, my principle issue isn't the phones but the system --- I don't want a device any idiot in the world can reach, but one that only the specifici idiots I wish to be able to reach me can. Phone spam has reached levels that the entire premise of universal direct-dial access is called into strong question.

And that's before the tracking and surveillance issues --- somewhat reduced with a dumb-phone, but you're still broadcasting your location whenever the device is on.

I would like a device to run interference between any more-trusted devices and the cellular network --- I'd rather have a tethered mobile data dongle than a SIM carded tablet or laptop. But I'd also prefer that mics and cameras be separable from my devices as well.

The problem of sorting out how to filter out all but selected call traffic is a major challenge, however.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168

#phones #smartphones #dumbphones #DeathOfTelephony #Privacy #Surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #distraction #attention

Dumb Phone

Elsewhere a friend laments:

The frequency with which I need my email and a notebook while I'm on the phone makes integrated devices foolish.

I'd covered that point a few years ago in a larger essay on the tyranny of the minimum viable user:

It's also interesting to consider what the operating environment of earlier phones was -- because it exceeded the device itself.

A business-use phone of, say, the 1970s, existed in a loosely-integrated environment comprising:

• The user
• The phone itself
• A Rolodex or addressbook / contacts list
• The local PBX -- the business's dedicated internal phone switch.
• A secretary or switchboard operator, serving also as a message-taking (voice-to-text), screening, redirect, directory, interactive voice response, and/or calendaring service
• A desk calendar
• A phone book
• A diary or organiser
• Scratch paper

Critically: these components operated simultaneously and independently of the phone.

A modern business, software, or smartphone system may offer some, or even all, of these functions, but frequently:

• They aren't available whilst a call is in process
• They have vastly less capability or flexibility than the systems they replaced

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/

There's also the increasingly evident problem that having all your critical data on a communications device is a fundamental and intractable risk. The dis-integrated business telephony environment of the 1950s--1990s maintained data isolation between elements. Telephone numbers served as the reasonably-viable data-exchange-and-linking interface between components (map a name or address to a number, enter the number on a calendar or correspondence, etc.).

It's almost as if putting your filing system, personal diary, correspondence, photo album, and directory on a surveillance and exfiltration device was a Bad Idea.

And not just from a UI/UX / accessibility perspective.

It turns out that a chief affordance of the old POTS landline telephone was the air gap between it and everything else inside your office / home.

(We can talk about the solicitations, robocalls, and phishing issues separately.)

#telephony #telephones #risk #AirGap #data #DataAreLiability #UIUX #Usability #SmartPhones #DumbPhones #computers #communications #privacy #security #surveillance

A funny yet thoughtful song about addiction and human judgment:

People Were Morons, from 2019 Tapes (Cowardly & Brave & Stupid & Smart & Happy​-​Ever​-​After & Doomed) by Jeffrey Lewis

#music #smartphones #dumbphones #technology #addiction #addicts #progress #people #HumanNature #smoking #smokers