Hyperbole doesn’t help. I’m a 44 year old former software engineer now with a modest social media following (100k per platform). I don’t have a phone.
I’ve never had a smart phone, last dumb phone gone in 2015.
I have to hassle my bank to let me use email instead of SMS for 2FA, and I hand jot notes for driving directions sometimes.
Otherwise, I’m immensely happy not to have one.
I think people have been brain washed to believe they can no longer live life without being enslaved by a surveillance device.
Lost? Ask for directions. Need a map? Go to a hotel or a tourist center, or print one in advance.
I really have the impression that using a smartphone makes a lot people much more dumb with respect to seeing obvious solutions for their problems.
Also luggage check-in counters will print a boarding pass.
I’m not sure about Wizz Air, I’ve never flown with them and their website isn’t quite as clear as Ryanairs.
[1] https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/lp/explore/digital-boarding-pa...
You can print the boarding pass at the airline kiosk at the airport, at least in any US airport I've been to. I always do this.
As noted in a peer post I try very hard to do everything without a phone. I do have a phone but don't want to depend on it.
Boarding passes in particular seem very unreliable on a phone. I always have the paper boarding pass printed at the airport but for curiosity I check the phone app boarding pass. More than 50% of the time the phone app boarding pass hangs from bad connectivity while standing at the gate and I can't retrieve it. Fortunately I always have the printed boarding pass so that always works. Paper does not rely on internet connectivity so it will always be infinitely more reliable.
So that is half of 1%.
Now try in any one of the other 194 countries in the world.
I, sadly, live in a small island and fly a lot. I haven't been able to do this in years.
So, the solution is not to suggest that people should not use a smartphone. That ship has sailed. I agree that it should still be possible to do things without for people that do not want to use one. But you are not going to convince more than a small percentage of the population to abandon smartphones.
Instead we should focus on making alternative smartphone ecosystems (AOSP can be a starting point) and getting technology that is used to shut out competition (e.g. Google Play Strong Integrity) banned.
It’s just the typical HN humble brag thread about being present and owning no technology.
Awesome that these folks don’t own a phone and give their landline to businesses. I love that for them.
But I like my smartphone, GPS directions, digital wallets, streaming music, etc. I just don’t want it to be controlled by two companies. I want there to be a healthy market of multiple options including open source alternatives.
This for me has been achieved on my desktop and laptop but not yet on my smartphone.
Listing a few challenges of a phoneless life doesn’t negate the point that one can still exist without a phone, even in 2026.
Very true. But it is a huge first step.
I’d also spend more of my life staring at a small device instead of talking to people or just enjoying the trees, mountains and rivers.
On the whole, I much prefer it this way.
This anecdata probably says more about french techno-fascism and politics of destroying public services than about how phones have somehow become mandatory because of society evolving in general. I'm still very happy not to have a phone.
Maybe the reason this guy gets away with not having a smartphone is that his friends use their smartphones for him whenever things like this pop up?
> Hyperbole doesn’t help.
For MANY Americans, it's not possible to function normally in society without a smartphone. That's not hyperbole, but your argument was.
I lived in mega cities for 10 years, I’ll never do it again.
Call in hermit life if you want, I call it the simple life where enjoyment and happiness are the priority