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Comment by blowski | Hacker News Reader

A few years back, unstated on a farm with no electricity and I couldn’t got phone signal. As a result, I had no phone for a week.

I loved it.

The days passed more slowly, I wrote more freely, read more deeply, and spent more time being aware of what was around me.

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How about you just put your phone on silent, and leave it in backpack? I need phone for maps, accommodation booking etc.. But on hike battery lasts a week, because it is in airplane mode.

Human nature is complex. Not everyone is as able to just put their phone on silent and leave it as you are. We've all got different levels of "noise" in our heads, telling us to do things, and it's not always trivial to turn off that noise.

So it doesn't sound like phones are the issue, but what information the users choose to view on their phones.

Because I lack willpower. For those with strong willpower, I know I sound like a lily-livered idiot, but it's easier for me to impose controls I can't easily escape.

An important point for me was realizing that free will is an illusion and that conditioning myself to respond correctly is more effective than trying to be rational and have self control. Impulse will act before thought has even got a clue, so the impulse must be trained, not the mind.

I haven't had a smartphone for ~7 years.

I love it.

I have a dumb phone hardly anyone calls, so often I leave it at home.

How do you do 2FA? Bank wire confirmations?

Never need Google Maps? No whatsapp and messenger to talk to friends and family?

I'd love to be smartphone free but fail to see how I could do without those uses

Dumb mobile phones still have SMS, so 2FA still works and since it is a telephone, talking to friends and family is also possible. I suspect the reasons the OP gave up on the smart phone was to get away from all of those phone apps.

You probably shouldn't use SMS based 2fa. It's much worse than the alternatives.

While SMS-based 2FA may be worse than the alternatives, it is clear that the previous commenter has decided that having a smartphone is much worse than the alternatives.

Unless their financial institution offers a non-smartphone 2FA option, such as a PIN-based card reader[0], having to use SMS-based 2FA is a reasonable price to pay.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Authentication_Program

For wire transfer there are still alternatives although becoming more and more difficult unfortunately. Other things one can still do without a smartphone, and the benefits outweigh the cons (for me at least).

My mother has a dumbphone too. Sweden is soon shutting down the 2G and 3G networks so then it will certainly be quiet.

I don't have the full overview, but there are new "dumb" phones made that has 4G/5G, no? (Nokia 8210 seem to be one example, Punkt MP02 another)

Source for the 2G closure? 3G is getting silent in many areas but I've understood 2G usually stays to provide calls & sms in low coverage areas.

https://www.telia.se/privat/om/5g/nu-slacker-vi-3g-och-2g-na...

Interesting, thanks. How will they cover the northern Sweden, I wonde.

Me does too. The coverage looks better than expected for 4G though so we will see how it actually works in the mountains...

But is Edge still available then?

i suspect most countries will reatain 2g services as a fallback and for old infrastructure components

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