This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Ehhhh no.
I can get behind "ban spying on me."
I can even get behind "ban social media, especially the kind that makes you sell yourself, though pseudononymous link aggregators are less the issue."
But "no more torrenting at work, no more reading digitally while pooping, no more encrypted chats, now have to carry a book, a camera, an mp3 player, my GBC, and a dumb phone, just to make up for the phone?"
No.
Perhaps the actual answer is for people to learn self control.
That will never work, nobody has discipline anymore
Ok buddy Marcus Aurelius
I'm just making commentary bud. Multiple times in the city I've seen people nearly get hit by busses because they cross the street nose deep in their phone without looking up. Some people can't come unglued for 10 seconds to look both ways before crossing a busy roadway in a bus plaza, it's kind of crazy!
Is Jacobin just garbage or am I just seeing only garbage articles?
Idk why don't you go directly to the site?
Looks fine to me but they're preaching to the choir. You're certainly right that people have only been posting their shit takes here.
Like some kind of engagement or rage bait or something
No. Smartphones convicted the murderer of George Floyd. Smartphones have shown to the world the police brutality that happens at peaceful protests. Technology isn't inherently evil, it's how its used.
Smart phones are just pocket computers. Up to you how their used, good evil neutral it's all at ur fingertips.
How about no. I've been wanting a pocketable "do everything" device since I got a Tiger Electronics PokeDex as a kid. Don't take this away from me.
How about better regulations on the obscene amount of data collection going on behind our backs? I can't count how many times I've come across even just websites that have a giant "accept all cookies" button, but in order to reject any, you have to dig through layers and layers of "settings". The most I've seen was 80+. And that's just websites.
I'm about to wipe my phone and go all-in on Calyx OS.
Ban smartphones makes about as much sense as ban drugs or ban guns. It does nothing to address root causes and will do little to change anything for the better. Societal issues take more than “make X illegal”.
If USA banned guns, they might have a few less shootings.
This is obviously true in the strictest sense, but I don’t think it’s going to have the desired effect you want in the long run. How’s the War on Drugs working out? It’s been going for 54 years, so I assume it’s about wrapped up now, drugs aren’t an issue, black market is choked out, and society is better off.
Firearms restrictions will be enforced unequally; it will be used as a pretense to further persecute minorities. Those with money will simply hire private security contractors who can jump through the legal hoops to get whatever they want. The majority of shootings in the US are related to drugs and other illegal activities that have logistics channels to get guns just as easily as drugs or exploited people. Guns are durable and the demand exists. They’re not going anywhere.
The gun problem in the US is not the cause of our woes, it is the symptom. “Make X illegal” is the laziest form of government and it’s just granting them more power which will be abused eventually.
Appreciated, but do you think the authorities want to win the war on drugs?
Counting the civil war or no?
Do counts with and without the civil war.
Ban social media and advertising/marketing. Smart phones are just a small computer.
The problem is with planned obsolescence and capitalist drive to always make more. The device itself is not inherently bad, it's a glorified calculator.
Me who has a disability which prevents me from speaking and hearing people and renders me bedridden.
“Okay, guess I’ll die then”
Smartphones are fine, it's just a small computer that can make calls and is connected to the internet. You're using it wrong.
If people can't control themselves or their kids, it's not my problem.
Not your problem yet
That being said: just banning smartphones isn’t gonna cut it.
It's a lot of problems that I would never solve on my own, and both politicians and citizens don't want to change: social media and AI are destroying humans, shitty parents dont want to take care of their kids, and climate change is destroying the world. It's inevitable but the smartphone that I use is not responsible.
This is literally not a problem with smartphones, the problem is about the software you decide to run on it. A smartphone is simply a very powerful pocket computer.
I agree, except that we are legally not allowed to control the software on our phones in lots of cases. Notifications, ads, upgrades, etc. are all controlled by the manufacturer and it's illegal to override their software on the device you own.
Add to that that specific pieces of software are becoming increasingly necessary to function in society, and you start to see that it's not really a matter of individual choice, anymore than people shopping at walmart can be blamed for buying processed, sugary foods when that's 90% of what walmart stocks (And all they promote), and walmart is the only affordable option in their community.
Illegal? What jurisdiction? There are tons of Lineage OS users and I haven't heard of anyone getting arrested for using them.
Do it anyway. I use adb to modify my phone and make it suck less. I also look forward to the day (if it ever comes) where Linux phones are a viable replacement option.
I've been able to turn off notifications for anything on my phone. Only the few apps I choose to allow still give me notifications.
I am fortunate to have a job that does not require a cell phone, I can leave it behind for hours at a time without affecting my work. I know this is not the case for everyone, but it should be an option.
At the very least, a phone required for work should have a separate phone number and email account, and should turn off automatically after the employee clocks out for the day. Some countries already have laws about this stuff, we should do that more.
Hey David, can you guess how many people are reading your article from a smartphone? Convenient, isn't it.
Want to complain about smartphones? Write a book... or something that can be published on fucking paper.
Bad take.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Moscrop
Journalists tell themselves they can make their ends meet by publishing a book pretty frequently.
Turns out that's rarely true. He seems to be mainly a podcaster though? Those lines can get blurry.
Also, the Jacobin is a magazine that still sells a printed version...
So, can you guess which percentage of people prefer using an smartphone to read these kind of anti smartphone articles? Do you see the issue? The irony?
This is just trash ragebait dude.
Many of us want to disconnect, but we can’t do so alone — not without losing touch with the world around us. Disconnection, today, carries real social and economic costs. Until such time as smartphones and social media can be democratically governed or nationalized — liberated from the imperative to profit off our attention indefinitely — a ban may be the most realistic path to reclaiming our lives.
If the author can't stop using whatever website he's upset about without requiring everyone else to have their smartphones banned, that sounds like a him problem.
I'm pretty far down the luddite/makhaevist wormhole... But this is just a garbage idea.
smartphones are one of rhe hundreds o things that would probably be just fine and good if it weren't for capitalism
Idk, Smartphones under Feudalism can be just as bad, if not worse.
Author admits smartphones are ubiquitous, and doesn't at all consider, in a hypothetical situation where everyone unanimously agreed to stop using them, where all this e-waste will go?
Also, how do you disillusion the millions of people that use them religiously?
I get the sentiment, but only a significant technologically literate society would really appreciate the need for greater control over their devices and actually possess the skills needed to modify and configure them.
Current smart phones will become e-waste either way. On that front, the benefit would be forcing all manufacturers to stop creating more e-waste for the future.
Author admits smartphones are ubiquitous, and doesn’t at all consider, in a hypothetical situation where everyone unanimously agreed to stop using them, where all this e-waste will go?
Pretty much every single smartphone in use right now will be ewaste 20 years from now, and most of them will be within 10. So we have that disposal problem already regardless. Hypothetically, if everyone were to get rid of their phones, we'd at least stop creating even more future ewaste.
Smartphones make us more social, allowing us to reach each other ad hoc, not just by planning the meeting for a week. They makes us more free by providing helping tools like GPS and similar. They make us happier by helping to kill time while standing in the line or riding on the bus.
You're doing something wrong.
