Hacker News Reader

Comment by zhoBEENG | Hacker News Reader

I do not carry a cellphone. I am employed and live in a major city. I never think about not having one. I know multiple other people, also employed, living both rurally and in cities, who do not carry cellphones.

It is entirely optional.

View on HN

Less and less though and you need to go through quite a bit of trouble sometimes already. Banking, gov apps, I know more and more companies you cannot enter nor clock in without smartphone etc. Sure, you can just resign, move country, try to find another bank; in the end you will run out of options as they are all moving there.

> I am employed and live in a major city. ... . I know multiple other people, also employed, living both rurally and in cities, who do not carry cellphones.

This doesn't mean much. I know multiple people who fit this description, live in the US, and can't speak or read English. However, speaking English isn't meaningfully optional. You will face constant limitations and problems in every aspect of life. There are people who don't use electricity, so I guess by your definition that's optional too?

> I never think about not having one.

Sure you don't.

Genuinely. Thinking back on it now, the only times I notice it is in some restaurants that don’t have paper menus out by default. I need to ask for one, which feels very odd and kind of awkward. This is the only instance I can think of.

What happens when you're meeting up with someone? With the folks I know who don't have a phone, this is always a real pain point because they don't have a way to communicate or receive changes of plans, "I'm going to be late", etc...

We agree on when to meet and where, and then we both actually show up. The whole last-minute plan changing thing is a pretty recent phenomenon, I believe.

Do you never have problems with transportation like breakdowns or accidents stopping the traffic for a while or having some sort of emergency where you need to drop everything an take care of it?

Not who you replied to, but I do sometimes have problems like this, and as a result I am sometimes an hour late with no warning. It's bad, but it only happens very rarely. This also sometimes happened when I did use a smartphone, if it ran out of battery (though, in hindsight, why didn't I bring a charger?).

How I operate as well. But noticed most people can not do this anymore. They will not pay attention to the details and (try to) call at the last minute to find the location.

For some folks I know who don't carry a cellphone, sometimes 'last minute" is any time after they leave home in the morning because they won't have their phone with them all day.

So many stores and (all?) banks require two-factor login now, where an SMS sent to a phone is the second factor. How do you cope with this?

I do not carry a cellphone, but I own an old one with no data plan that remains off and in a drawer except for when used for things like this. I am not sure I have run into any stores that require 2 factor. Mostly just official stuff like banks.

My work has multiple systems that require 2fa on a regular basis. It's actually quite annoying, and the alternative options to 2fa don't work for every system.

The glorious day in the future when Oauth is confined to the dust bin of history and logging in to anything doesn't require a web browser redirecting 10 times.

Oof, this is a problem at my workplace. Crew [1] and Connecteam [2] (workplace communication apps) both require an SMS code to sign in. Technically, you don't have to have a cell phone, because you can use a VoIP service, but it means that someone who does have a cell phone has to replace it with a VoIP service instead of just getting rid of it.

[1] https://crewapp.com/ [2] https://connecteam.com/

Not all banks require SMS. I use Chase bank and the two factors are my debit card and my PIN. I don't use any app, but instead just go to the ATM or talk to a human. Some things, like wiring money, have an extra charge if you don't use the app.

A major downside of this is that if someone did figure out how to withdraw a bunch of my money from my account, I wouldn't notice until I go to the bank, which I only do once per month or so. I wish my bank had an option to send me an email on every transaction, but as is I have to go to the ATM and request an email with the recent transaction info.

Partially as a result of this limitation, and partially because I enjoy playing the "Where's George?" game (which involves using cash), I pay for everything with cash and only use my debit card for withdrawing cash. I've heard that it's possible to get an ATM-only card for this purpose, so I will probably do that eventually, so that if someone gets my card information they will not be able to make online transactions.

Counterpoint: I could not do my job without one. Clients expect support over WhatsApp.

For sure, but you still do retain the option to leave it at work, unless you have some kind of 24/7 sales job. I do think privacy at work is not an option for most people.

> Clients expect support over WhatsApp

Seems very country / region specific?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com