It seems phones once a novelty have become a necessity in our lives in just a few short years. Nearly everything requires some kind of 2FA and people can't go but a few minutes without checking for notifications on their smart phones.

Why I Dislike Smartphones:

Phones are nice-ish. It is nice that you can call your boss to let him know you'll be late. Or call your friend to see if he wants to hang out, or text him... But what isn't nice is how these 'smart phones' not 'phones' consume our lives. I've taken trips to relatively remote areas where you still can't get a signal or wifi. Crazy! right??? Anyway, I noticed that I had a lot more peace-of-mind when I simply didn't receive stupid alerts all day. For example look at the news from linkedin that nobody cares about. Or look at yet another dumb messaging app - "You received a message from a guy you don't care about." That's what computers were meant to do. And not just a few, but a lot of people admit to being addicted to their phones. They literally walk into street lamps and stuff. To top that all off, just think of all the companies sifting through your data as you bounce from one app to another.

The Solution:

Fear not! There is a solution, the dumb phone. Yes today's equivalent to yesterday's bleeding edge tech. I recently picked up this KaiOS flip-phone and it has been an absolute delight. I get calls. I get texts. That's it. The app store is a joke and I like it that way. In fact my only complaint is that there isn't one mobile authenticator app. (I'll probably write one eventually.) But the major benefit is that I don't have Apple trying to suck my data into the cloud and I don't have Google listening to the microphone. I also couldn't install linkedin, or:

• WhatsApp
• Message
• Skype
• Discord
• Telegram
• Hangouts
• Snapchat
• Line
• WeChat
• Kik
• Signal
• Facebook Messenger
• Viber
• GroupMe
• Slack

even if I so desired. I'm human, some of them would be on there if I had a smartphone. But KaiOS makes that decision for you so you don't have to battle your self-control. See no stupid notifications. The other cool thing about KaiOS is that it benefits from a concept known as security through obscurity. It could be hacked. But it is a lot less likely considering there are so many Android and Apple users out there.

"I Can Get Addicted to Just SMS:"

But surely someone out there is asking, 'What about being addicted to the phone you can still text right?' Believe me you won't want to use this for anything but necessities because KaiOS is exclusively designed for keyboards like old flip-phones. You know the ones where there are 3 letters for each number and it takes forever to peck out a message on this unbelievable annoying to type on keyboard. It's incredibly hard to just stare at this phone.

See My Phone Fly Watch IT FLY!:

But I saved the best for last. You know how people get all upset when they drop their $1200 phone. I could hurl 60 of these phones off a ledge for the same price. So you could say I wouldn't be very concerned if I accidently destroyed my phone.

Conclusion:

Obviously you don't have to switch. Sometimes smart phones are better. But you must at least admit there is some peace of mind in the fact that there are alternatives to this ongoing debate, iOS vs Android, that work. (Yes that disqualifies your barely functional Raspberry Pi phone.) Anyway that's just my thoughts on the subject. Do you have thoughts on this subject? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment or send me an email. Until next time. ;)