NY teens going flip phone only

[Pluperfect]

I didn't read the article (sounds stupid to me anyway*), but remember, a 'flip-phone' today is not their Father's 'flip-phone', they have touch screens now:

If you'd read the article, or even looked at the pictures, you'd know they're not engaging in semantic games. They carry "real" flip phones.

I really like Logan, the one who started the Luddite club. She said, "We’re not expecting everyone to have a flip phone. We just see a problem with mental health and screen use." Everyone sees a problem with mental health and screen use, particularly social media screen use, but these kids are actually doing something about it. Good for them. Literally, good for them.

Logan wonders what leaving high school will mean for her Luddite ways, although she may have an inkling: "If now is the only time I get do this in my life, then I’m going to make it count," she said. "But I really hope it won’t end."

As an adult with a flip phone, I can attest to how much harder life is without a smart phone. The other day, I couldn't pay for parking because the kiosk thing wouldn't read my credit card, and the only other alternative was an app. On one block, there was no kiosk at all and an app was the ONLY way to pay for parking.

And I imagine going to college without a smartphone will be very difficult. I'm guessing, for example, that they don't give you a key tag with a number on it to get your cafeteria meals these days.

I just hope that after this experience, when they have to have a smartphone in order to function in society, they're able to keep away from the worst aspects of it, because they've seen life on both sides. And if they are, a HUGE round of applause because it's not a fair fight between us and the social media companies.

 

[ERD50]

added bold mine:

If you'd read the article, or even looked at the pictures, you'd know they're not engaging in semantic games. They carry "real" flip phones.

I really like Logan, the one who started the Luddite club. She said, "We’re not expecting everyone to have a flip phone. We just see a problem with mental health and screen use." Everyone sees a problem with mental health and screen use, particularly social media screen use, but these kids are actually doing something about it. Good for them. Literally, good for them.

Logan wonders what leaving high school will mean for her Luddite ways, although she may have an inkling: "If now is the only time I get do this in my life, then I’m going to make it count," she said. "But I really hope it won’t end." ....

I just hope that after this experience, when they have to have a smartphone in order to function in society, they're able to keep away from the worst aspects of it, because they've seen life on both sides. And if they are, a HUGE round of applause because it's not a fair fight between us and the social media companies.

I still think it's silly and unproductive. Just 'feel good virtue signalling', IMO. As I said, things like this generally take behavioral changes.

I'll use your "fair fight between us and the social media companies" as an example. I can say the same thing about advertising. Every company wants us to buy a new something at every turn. Just blocking commercials/ads isn't the answer. The answer is coming to an understanding, to evaluate what you really need/want, and what is of real value to you, not what someone else is telling you what you need/want.

Once you do that, the ads and comments from the "Joneses" just bounce off you. You don't need to 'hide' from them.

-ERD50

 

[jazz4cash]

I did 4 years of Mechanical Engineering studies with ONLY a slide rule. Boy, was I peeved when calculators came out after I graduated.

My Intro to Engineering class was the last one that required mastering the Pickett slide rule. I think I paid ~$100 for that thing in ‘74. I never used it after my 1st semester.

 

[6miths]

I still have a couple of working Motorola Razrs. Guess I should check out what they are going for on Marketplace.

 

[steelyman]

Kind of a follow up. Today’s NYT has an article “The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera”.

Snippet follows. Link (paywall) is:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/digital-cameras-olympus-canon.html

Most of today’s teenagers and youngest adults were infants at the turn of the millennium. Gen Z-ers grew up with smartphones that increasingly had it all, making stand-alone cameras, mapping devices and other gadgets unnecessary. They are now in search of a break from their smartphones; last year, 36 percent of U.S. teenagers said they spent too much time on social media, according to the Pew Research Center.

That respite is coming in part through compact point-and-shoot digital cameras, uncovered by Gen Z-ers who are digging through their parents’ junk drawers and shopping secondhand. Camera lines like the Canon Powershot and Kodak EasyShare are among their finds, popping up at parties and other social events.

 

[braumeister]

The main thing I get from this thread is that apparently the NYT is getting desperate for clicks.