I was happy, sad, lost and lonely without a smartphone at the same time
ruky.me
ruky.me
I mean, I feel for the guy moving to a new country - been there, done that - but, with respect he's hyperventilating just a little bit.
Mind you, I have no plans of spending days without a smartphone, and maybe I'll never want to do that, but I don't like the way in which 2FA is making it outright impossible. It should be my own business whether I want a phone or not, and now it's becoming outright mandatory to interact with society (I can't even log into my workplace without 2FA). Another freedom that vanishes.
TOTP (the one time codes that are common methods of 2FA) don’t even need a smart phone. You can store them in most password managers, if you wanted to.
With regards to other forms of MFA, you can use email, SMS, hardware keys and I’ve seen some banks use a second password (which is dumb but probably no worse than email or SMS). Some sites just ask your for “memorable information”, which is also terrible in my opinion.
It just so happens that TOTP is the best second form of authentication because it is both secure but also cheap.
If you don’t want to store those TOTP codes on your smart phone then you can store them in your password manager or buy another physical device just for 2FA. I wouldn’t normally advocate storing your 2FA codes with your passwords, but that’s still better than not having any second factor of authentication at all.
[1]: https://www.token2.com/shop/product/molto-2-v2-multi-profile...
If the bank has to be partially responsible for your access credentials and your workplace is going to get in trouble from you reusing a password, of course they are not going to let you have much freedom here.
Firstly, before online banking existed fraud was quite common, and this dind't make banks unsustainable. And indeed, one of the key points that made people trust credit cards was that the bank had your back if someone emptied your account somehow. I once had fraudulent charges from a country thousands of kilometers away, on a card that I hadn't even used (so there was no chance it could be my fault). I just flagged them as fraudulent and the bank returned the money a few days later, no questions asked.
Secondly, even if you are a security expert with great password practices, do you really want your banking security be considered just your problem? What if one day your account is hacked through no fault of your own, because of some breach/hack of the bank's systems, and the bank denies it, giving you full responsibility? I think it's extremely dangerous to give banks the option to do that. Fraud should always be the bank's problem by default, unless they can prove that the user was negligent.
Thirdly, even if we accept the assumption that 2FA is needed for security, there are more ways to do 2FA that don't involve a smartphone - for example with a physical device, or with a coordinate card. The fact that most 2FA (at least where I live) is mobile-only, and even banks that used to offer other choices are now moving to mobile-only, is evidence that there is a motivation beyond security, they want to make smartphones mandatory.
1. paying the bills is something you do once every month for people not having setup direct payment. Sure most banks wants 2FA nowadays but you could live without a phone daily and only use one (or a tablet, a VM or an emulator) once a month (without SIM and plan). Or go to the actual bank once a month. People used to go to the post office once a month to pay the bills in Switzerland. I am pretty sure a lot of people still do it that way.
2. access to maps. Do what any tourist has done for decades. Go to the tourism office and grab a free map. If you wants more details, buy or print an actual detailed map + the public transport system map. done.
3. I have been a foreigner and have learnt languages just by living in a place. This is by interacting with the people that you start learning better and feel part of the community and culture. Asking for directions is part of it. Sure swiss people may not be on average the warmest people but you will always find people willing to help.
Your phone broke down, sorry, but you deal with it. You can even get a cheap android anywhere and a cheap prepaid plan if you can't afford a new iPhone
Yes I can understand, having to confirm transactions on a phone lacks a proper fallback plan most of the time
As with people that think their phone is a substitute for their car keys, especially when going countryside with 12% battery, you don't get a lot of sympathy from me
Biggest struggle was texting -- hard to do when you're pressing number keys -- and no Maps.
Everything else I could get around by bringing my laptop with me, or by moving / planning / scheduling better. Before I could just kinda go and figure it out on the way, get planted and read reddit on my phone, maybe see what was open near my in terms of coffee or food and roll with it. Couldn't do that with a burner.
2FA for personal stuff wasn't too bad, I had a tablet at home and that worked. Most 2FA stuff I didn't do anywhere except at home (disclaimer: also work remotely).
I could make it work, but after a while decided I didn't want to. Easier to scale down smartphone use or try to touch it less, than try to make the burner phone hacks work.
Gods, a WHOLE WEEKEND? Un-be-lie-va-ble.
> and made me realize that even though as much as I would love to live without a smartphone, unfortunately, we will never be able to escape from using a smartphone
That was kinda clear from the get go.
Your best friend is you. I'm my best friend too. We share the same views and hardly ever argue. Eat spam from the can, Watch late night C-SPAN, and Rock out to old school Duran Duran.
I guess this article is a good example of the mismatch between the intended audience and the actual audience, me.
I am totally unimpressed by someone who hasn't used a smartphone for some hours, but perhaps this is some new kind of sarcasm that I can't yet appreciate.
Somehow I expect public blogs and Twitter messages to be written for the most general audience, but this is obviously almost never the case.
I love gadgets as much as the next guy and even I find it weird and depressing that some individuals are this dependant on their electronics that they need to write about their digital fasting in the same kind of way that one might talk about a solo expedition to the South Pole.
Even in 2023, I still don’t use my phone for navigating as a tourist. I just walk and explore. It’s far more enjoyable stumbling upon cool places than it is starring at a screen while you rush somewhere.
I don't think this is sarcasm (sadly) as there really are some people living constantly glued to their phone. Screen time off the roof, like hours and hours a day.
hell, I had a flip phone in HS and while it wasn't good for much except making my parents feel like they had a line to me, it's been something I carry everywhere all the time for decades.
Edit. For financial transactions, for all the talk among many here about not letting BigTech take over your personal life, it would be nice to see more effort to you know, actually apply that to the basics, such as by not utterly depending on a phone and a couple of mega payment processing tech monsters like Apple and Google to pay for basic shit that could be handled through fairly simple alternatives. a little inconvenience for the sake of a more fundamental point rarely kills.
I may be missing something, but I have a really hard time understanding the "corporate backdoor / overwatch / control" argument when it comes to MFA.
Same here in the Baltics, something like SmartID is prevalent and all major banks ask you to use it: https://www.smart-id.com/
Sometimes it's even integrated with document e-signing, to the point where it's hard to say where convenience ends and dependence begins (since something like TOTP or PGP aren't offered as alternatives).
For banks, I don't think that they'll allow use of 3rd party apps, either.
Problem still persists with mandatory phone number verifications every couple months. It's likely most services have a cronjob running for that.
I recently got a new phone to replace my Pixel 3 that's no longer receiving updates, and it took days to sort out all the "you must verify this device from your old device" bullshit. These apps are essential to banking, and also to my workplace (I had to call the IT department from one of my devices that thankfully didn't yet have an expired session).
And this is when I HAVE my old device. Imagine the chaos if my old device were lost or broken? Or if google suddenly decided to lock my account?
What do I use my phone for? Communication (Signal, Threema), 2fa, and work, and nothing else. And it's a disaster waiting to happen.
Sounds like a combination of reasons to switch (or bridge) to Matrix, use a 2FA program you can back up (such as Gnome Authenticator) and a problem for the IT guys at your workplace for your work-provided mobile :)
Matrix is an interesting idea that might even get there someday, but it's not there now, and won't be there next year. And even then, it's only one breaking change away from not working with some communications app I need.
And my workplace isn't going to provide a mobile just for the 2fa apps (multiple) I need, nor would I want to have to carry an extra device just for that.
It's a fragmented world out there, and going with an even more obscure and less supported solution isn't going to cut it.
It's a damn beautiful world out here. Silence and space are wonderful. Lack of notifications and lack of stimulation is to be embraced. Cash points and debit cards exist. People are kind and will give you directions. Interactions with humans - real ones, not mediated via a screen - will teach you a million times more useful things about emotion and love and fear than a thousand years of InstaTikTokFaceplant bullshit.
Get back in your life.
My experience completely laughs in the face of this, probably because I've never used Instagram or TikTok, and deleted my Facebook account a decade ago. But the friendships I've had online have been far closer and more engaging than anything that I could have ever had with a "Real Human".
Sometimes you live in an area where people hold different values than you, or have hobbies that are pretty far detached from what you'd prefer to do. Maybe they have political leanings that don't make you comfortable, or kind of expect you to participate in those activities that you don't care for, to fulfill your "role" in society.
In those cases, finding interest groups and communities online that aren't limited to incidentally being in your proximity feels like a good thing! Same for various support groups, or even being able to find information online easily nowadays by content creators!
Nothing wrong with any of that at all. In addition, it's also easier to handle people that you don't want to engage with (blocking) vs IRL. Just watch out for parasocial aspects and takes by terminally online people or influencers.
I don't mean a relationship kind of love, or even the opposite end of the spectrum being totally-platonic love. I just love my friends for the people that they are, perhaps even more than I am capable of loving a physical body.
And because the internet keeps me always connected to everyone... I don't have to arrange meetups, or worry about travel times or expenses, or about people moving away.
I've had tons of traumatic experiences too, because this necessarily comes with a certain degree of vulnerability. I still haven't been able to escape the negative effects of those experiences yet. But I'd say it's worth it just for the wonderful people that I know today.
Instead of browsing the web on the phone screen I instead read a book or a newspaper on the train.
Instead of texting a friend that I'll be 20 minutes late because I missed my connection I instead had to hope that they'd still wait for me at the place we were supposed to meet.
Instead of checking google maps for directions I'd look at the maps hung around the cities or ask someone.
Now all of that might be because I'm an introvert, but I've been listening to music and reading books instead of interacting with strangers since forever. The smartphone just made it so I wouldn't have to lug around several books and a discman.
That said: I absolutely make the exception for work related stuff. There's a reason why I have a separate work and private phone, getting Teams notifications and other work related stuff during my time off can absolutely ruin my evening.