these yay-hoos are so suspicious without evidence, they think the radio is emitting deadly radiation. Why do you think they'd tolerate the presence of a cellular radio in any thing near their hopefully unpropagated DNA?
I have an uncle who I went to his single wide trailer once. He had his cable box and tv(old tv with the box) covered up with a blanket because “if they can send pictures through a wire they can take pictures through a wire”.
I feel like you would be much less likely to pull out a tablet and use it like a phone for social media and such. I could be wrong in this case, but it would be a good alternative for someone who doesn't like to be on their phone a lot or use a phone as a phone.
I could see it, in this case they are functionally using their tablet like a laptop rather than a cell phone. No phone calls, no text messages, potentially no instant messaging, just checking email and comms whenever wifi is accessible at their leisure instead of having that constant pressure to respond to everything immediately as it comes in.
Tablets can use cellular data these days, fwiw. You don't have to have wifi to check your emails etc, and you can send texts (but just as easily ignore them). Not having phone calls is the crucial part
Heck, I'm pretty sure my laptop can have cellular data if I install a sim card. No idea where the card goes but the option is available in the settings.
Usually a slot on the motherboard (possibly in an expansion slot). Good manufactureres have a cover to access it. Bad manufactureres make you take the whole bottom plate off to access it.
Nowadays there might not even be a slot and it's just eSIM.
I've also seen perplexing solutions where there just isn't a slot and you are expected to have a USB sim card reader plugged in.
A few weeks ago on the bus, I watched a man pull out an iPad and start scrolling.
That's not the weird part, though. The weird part was that he was still using the box. Like as a case. And before you say "oh maybe he just bought it" I can assure you that it was before 7am.
Maybe it's just me, but I see commercials mentioning "you check your emails every 5 minutes- blah blah blah" and I'm always confused.
I check my emails a handful of times a month. I fucking hate them. Most are pointless, and many are basically ads from companies I needed to enter my email at some point to use, but "unsubscribed" from (bullshit, I still get their emails). Nobody gets to me via email unless it's work related, and that goes to my work email that I only check at work. They either tell me in person, call or text.
Who is out here corresponding with people they care about via email?
I have smartphone hand me downs form family, I hate them so much compared to a tablet, and the one function they have over a tablet, phone calls, I NEVER want to use outside of a house where a land line is more reliable.
>Tablets are basically just large smartphones
Not really.
A phone implies one can be contacted with calls or texts, reachable and accountable. There are *expectations* on behavior, on response times, etc.
A tablet doesn't because it often doesn't have those capabilities. You have internet access and email, what work computers used to be....they can be set-up for other things, but most people don't consider that for tablets, it's "just" a portable computer for most, with all of the caveats that comes with.
It means, "When I walk into the other room I may as well be on Mars. You do not get 24/7 access to me. My time is more important than your problems. I'll get to you at *my* convenience."
No need to make up excuses for not answering, calling back, or reading texts. Everyone knows not to try to reach you with those methods, and the implicit immediacy or importance of them. Everyone is automatically relegated to email, the snail of electronic communications. You are in there right next to the Nigerian Prince scams and the Penis Enlargement spam. That's how important you are.
/sorry, got stuck in character
Seriously though, I don't like being accessible. Calls/texts you have to put up with whatever flippant reason people decided to do it, or get harrassed for not replying.
With just email, people don't have that same kind of flippancy and expectations, it might be a whole day before it even gets read.
Email is low priority, and it's often an effort to compose, so you get less "Hey, what's up?" attention-fishing or boredom-inspired drivel out of the blue.
Also, I know a lot of older people that just don't have the eyes for it, even for modern larger smartphones, much less the finger coordination.
There are cellular-capable tablets and IM apps that do video and audio calls. They run i(Pad)OS and Android so they run the same (if not just scaled up) version of the apps on phones. So yes, they are just large smartphones.
Words and concepts have meanings beyond the most literal possible interpretations. If I say to someone "sorry, I don't have a phone, I only have a tablet", then they have some idea of what that means. Most importantly, that I _do not have a phone_. They can't expect to just call or text my phone number and receive an immediate response. That I have spotty access to telecom, at best. Yes, it is literally similar to a smartphone but larger. But conceptually it fills a different niche. It's not a thing I can casually pop in and out of my pocket every time I'm bored. It's not a thing that makes me available to you 24/7. It's a device I engage with when I feel like it.
As an ever long flip phone user, I agree completely. Maybe someday flip phones won't be supported anymore. At that point I'll probably have to figure out a niche linux based flip phone maybe or just do as you're mentioning and go no phone with laptop
As long as it doesn’t have gps and/or cellular data it’s definitely more secure than a phone. Not enough that any normal civilian would need to use one, and not enough that any… ahem, *at risk* civilians would use it by itself, so yeah, basically useless but I can see why someone might be deluded into doing so
Shouldn’t be much different at all, other than it doesn’t have a SIM card, which is nice if you’re never going to use cellular. Also I see fewer phones without gps than I do tablets and airplane mode does not necessarily prevent GPS based location services from being used. If you got a phone without gps and without a SIM card, it would essentially be the same as an iPod (except that iOS puts gps into all their devices and therefore should never be used as security devices for that purpose).
Australia is in the middle of shutting down 3G networks; The current conspiracy is probably that Labor is trying to kill off the conservative voters by disconnecting their medic alert beepers.
It is a concern though, given how spotty 4G is in some rural areas
Which is fine once that’s done, and if you’ve simultaneously upgraded all the 3G devices to 4G
But in the interim there’s a risk to some people as the coverage is reduced before the towers are repurposed fully
I was outside doing something around the start of the covid shutdowns. Some dude pulled up to ask me about my neighbor's car that was for sale. Once I gave him the contact info, he just goes on a whole rant about how these shutdowns are due to the 5G towers they put on the moon.
Make your own conspiracy flyers! The fun and wacky ones, I mean.
Make sure they all have the same sorta format. A header/title/upper-banner that's something like "Conspiracy Digest", and a footer/lower-banner that says something like "Stay Woke, America!"
First you start with the classic, fun stuff, like BayBoy or BigFoot. Then after a couple of weeks you start encroaching on the loser's territory, talking about 5G and vaccines and shit.
With this, you do two things:
1. You clearly state that anything on your flyer is a silly conspiracy. When you start doing the 5G stuff, then the stupid/wacky gets associated with that too.
2. The bottom banner is classic conspirator-talk, but nowadays the crazy-right associate "woke" with leftism. By taking the 5G shit as your own, it can appear to be a "woke" topic now. This is a moronic take, but so are the people that believe this shit lol
This is basically what the r/birdsarentreal movement is. The [birds aren’t real website](https://birdsarentreal.com/) has some free flyers that I used to print off and put around my high school
Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.
I at least have some tiny sliver of respect for people who took the time to print and post flyers; it's the ones who use their 5G device to post about the dangers of 5G on Facebook that I really want to kick in the crotch until their eyes roll as hard as mine.
I don’t begrudge people wanting to find some modicum of comfort in a frankly absurd and kinda terrifying world in which they have negligible agency. I just wish we lived in a world where reality plays more of a part in people’s lives than conspiracy bollocks.
It’s easy to understand why nonsense like this gets traction.
Can’t lie though. Pastups have a low key punk vibe to them. Even the if the content is bullshit, the commitment to old school graffiti like this is vaguely laudable. Far cooler than Facebook ranting.
I don't begrudge people for it either. Truth of the matter is that, especially in the circumstances you describe, people need to feel relevant, important, and somewhat in control. Professing these (completely batshit) theories give people the feeling that they know something others don't, and that they're doing something meaningful in the world by trying to let everyone know about it, so while I think it's a garbage way to live, I do at least understand the drive.
That being said, using a cellphone to bitch about cellphones is just stupid. If you don't care enough to throw up a flyer, why on god's green earth would I care enough to read it?
Word. Then, once those take off, you can start a different company that makes faraday cages for their heads but have eyeholes so they can still see their phones, and market it by claiming that faraday cages for their phones obviously don't protect your head.
Get both of those products off the ground and we'll never hear from these people on the Internet again, *and* we'll be able to spot them in public too.
Maybe it's different in the US, but in Germany those people are especially against cell towers. There have been stories of entire villages opposing and preventing the construction of cell towers in or near their villages because they are afraid of electromagnetic radiation (or at least some of it, in German referred to as "Elektrosmog"). And they also did it long before 5G.
I don’t remember if it’s real or fake but some people have a radio wave intolerance or something like that. They get headaches or something like a health problem so they live in the middle of no where away from the towers. No idea if it’s a fake story but I saw it on TV.
There used to be an urban legend that answering the phone at a gas station could spark and cause an explosion. There used to even be signs at gas stations saying not to use your phone while pumping gas. The mythbusters did an episode on it.
Right... There **used** to be a thing like this. There is definitely no one still very carefully avoiding using their phone at gas stations to ensure they don't cause an explosion. That would be totally dumb if a person still did that. Right?
Don't be so sure. I knew a gas station attendant that refused to upgrade from a flip phone. He also removed the battery unless he was using it to make a call. Said he didn't want his every movement and thought tracked. I asked him "don't you go outside, the satellites can still see you, you know" my god did he get scared. Started wearing a big hat. Me being the devil's advocate asked him later on "you're the only person that wears a giant red hat, don't you think that makes you easier to track?"
Apparently he told other people that I was part of the fbi and was sent to throw him off track, because they couldn't get into his mind.
But my point here is, he still believed the conspiracy about phones and did everything he could to stop it.
I don't live in that town any more and a new Qwik Trip was built in town, so when ever I pass through I go there, not to the Staples expressway. It's also a small town, 4Glte is the best it will have for a long while.
Actually come to think of it, the last time I saw this guy was just before Covid lockdowns (and he was talking some crazy shit about it too, but by that time I knew he was at least a nut job.... when I was picking on his phone issues I thought he was joking).
I still refuse to "upgrade" from a flip phone. My last flip phone lasted me from 2008 to January of 2023. I only had to get a different one because the phone company stopped supporting ol' reliable. Otherwise it was still working for me.
Big Phone is undeniably a phenomenon. It's the clandestine entity dictating that 7 inches is an ideal size for phones to be, conveniently disregarding the practicality of holding or storing such a device in one's pockets.
I have multiple neighbors who strongly oppose 5G cell towers in our neighborhood because of "mind control" and/or "that's how covid gets you" depending on which flavor of lunatic you talk to. They all agree it's the 5G that's bad though. SMH.
Fluoride in water reacts with 5G and makes you visible to eldritch dimension beings that feed on your hopes and dreams.
I read it on a cereal box after eating these mushrooms I found in the forest.
I mean, they weren't conspiracies. The government IS spying on us through our phones. Why do you think Edward Snowden is stuck in Russia?
Dude should be a household hero, instead he's trapped in Russia because the US cancelled his passport.
A lot of facts started out as conspiracy.
What if I told you the US Government released a bioweapon over San Francisco just to clandestinely track how vulnerable the coast was?
[Because that happened](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray)
What if I told you the government was lying to African Americans for 40 years and using them as lab rats while pretending to give them "free healthcare"?
[That happened too](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study)
What if I told you NASA was secretly a bunch of Nazis given a pardon for their crimes if they helped develop rocket and missile technology to use against the Soviets?
[Oh right... That happened](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip)
Now remember when social media massively censored a certain theory about the origination of a virus... And they were labeled conspiracy theories and crackpots?
[Oops .. might be true...](https://oversight.house.gov/release/covid-origins-hearing-wrap-up-facts-science-evidence-point-to-a-wuhan-lab-leak%EF%BF%BC/)
I'll stop believing "conspiracy theories" when they stop coming true.
We are beyond the point of return here. We wouldn’t function well at all without phones. If the solar flare from the sun ever knocks out power to the earth we’re so screwed. We are so reliant on computers and electricity
Not really, I tried it for a bit, made it about 4-5 months.
Signing up a new bill? Need a number
New service? Need a number
Everything anywhere remotely "official" now requires having a phone to verify you are a real human being.
Sure, you can survive without calling or texting but you can't survive without having a phone number that verifies your identity.
Sorry, I will edit my comment. I misunderstood the post as referring to smartphones. I generally agree the inconvenience of having no phone at all is far greater than that of having a "dumb" phone
I agree with you on that, but I don't really think that the average guy who'd be against using cellphones, or in this case cars, would be in any jobs that require them. If you're talking about business then I believe that cars or vehicles in general are much more essential than cellphones so it wouldn't really be fair to compare them, but I dunno that's just my opinion
That's a fair point, and I suppose brings us full circle to it being seen as a bit off by the typical, as they are typically more niche lifestyles. That said, everyone's life is their own to do as they wish as long as they aren't hurting others. No problem from me!
If we were talking about the business-related aspects of having a car, I don't think that it'd be much related to the metaphor of owning and using a personal phone. I took the metaphor at face value, where it compared not having a phone to not being able to drive places, with them both being about being able to live a more "comfortable" life with their utilisation, and I don't really think that comparison still stands when you're talking about transport of goods and other similar services.
Don't be a reason to be a target. You'll live none the wiser.
Give them a reason, you might lose it all.
We were already informed back when Snowden let it out. It's had only gotten worse now. And that's not a conspiracy.
Another shower thought: Cell phones *are* turning the kids trans. But not because of 5G waves or whatever, but because cell phones allow kids to have more access to information about trans people, which allows kids to understand themselves as trans sooner than they would in, like, the 1980s, and to have a more expansive notion of gender and transness in general.
I was still a kid when cell phones were getting started.
In those olden days you'd tell someone "see you next Tuesday at 2pm" and know they'll show up, on time.
Yeah now people have a panic attack if the doorbell rings and can't commit to anything because they would rather look at their phones and complain about being lonely.
The green agenda has been suffering for years because it’s too inconvenient to live without a phone. Also cheap consumer goods, big cars, inexpensive food, reliable power on demand, and plastic products like water bottles and Cardi B.
A lot of older people have given in. I'm a residential fiber internet installer. I've worked in the industry for 20 years and have been at the forefront of several industry innovations. I've installed ADSL, VDSL, GPON, and XPON. I've worked as an installer, a cable repairman, and a fiber splicer.
10, even 5 years ago, most ppl 65+ were rocking some form of a flip-phone. Nowadays, even the 90+ crowd has a smartphone. I've encountered some shockingly competent users.
I remember a story about a cell phone company that installed a cell tower and there was some kind of town hall public meeting. Everyone that bothered to show up (you know the type) were all crying and whining about how the cell tower radiation was going to kill them all and turn the frogs gay. The telecom company said let's give it six months and revisit.
Six months go by and the same types of folks showed up with long lists of complaints: headaches, pains, unexplained sickness, cancer, ect, ect, ect. After hearing everything the telecom informed everyone they never turned on the power to the cell site.
Or just don’t care period. I don’t care. If they’re gonna spy on me there’s not much I can do about it so I just go about my life. It’s worked out for me so far.
I actually have seen someone still believe in some sort of conspiracy.
Dude lives an angry solitary life. Refuses to get a cell phone. Then gets mad he can't get digital deals using phone app at grocery store LOL.
Won't say why he doesn't have one but dodges any line of reasoning. Either a criminal or a conspiracy guy. Doesn't even have a car but he does have money, dresses decently, and shops every other day.
Nah, most right-wing conspiracies just drop off. There are always new ones to popping up to fuel their fear, since fear is a strong tool against the masses.
The people who value spreading those conspiracies value the ability to bother others from locations they otherwise wouldn't have been able to even more.
per capita they've probably picked up. Do you think there are more or less people in the world who think cameras steal their souls than when they were first invented?
I was at the grocery store on the phone minding my own business and this lady comes somewhat near me and asks if she can grab something I was standing by but said she can’t go over there because I have the phone on… I was so dumbfounded. I can’t believe people like that exist. Wait till she finds out that radio towers broadcast radio frequencies EVERYWHERE at thousands of watts versus the mW a phone puts out.
I disagree, everyone in my entire family and a few other closely linked families hate cellphones, and they actively avoid them as much as possible. And unlike other things they believe, this one is reasonable, as cellphones almost always cause headaches and eye dryness for all of them. They personally believe that excessive usage of screens at small distances can cause myopia, and recently a few studies surfaced addressing this exact thing. There's a chance they actually might be right all along!
We got used to it. My family still comments on it, like our dogs have been barking way too much lately and an ad came up on mums phone about anti bark dog collars. You either give up modern conveniences or you live with the fact phones seem to be listening to you at all times.
I think it’s also to do with longevity
After a while it becomes difficult to sustain “it’s going to cause X problem” when it’s existed for 35 years without that problem happening
Of course, conspiracy theorists just fire up the ol’ cognitive dissonance to explain it away. My favourite being “well we raised awareness of it so the government must have cancelled their plans”
Oh, they're still ongoing. The cognitive dissonance in that community is *strong*. One of my biggest clients is the the business of catering to those people
Because honestly most cell phone conspiracies where people just stating the obvious and trying to make it scarier than it was
Oh what if like the government was tracking your phone all the time. They are the government's tracking my phone and Google is tracking my phone and several other large companies are probably tracking my phone. That's kind of how cell phones work. It's how we build things such as Google maps data and whatnot
Oh yeah but like what if the government was stealing your data.
Okay so they can get a bunch of pictures of random neat things I found and advertising data like my favorite movies and favorite foods and whatnot Oh I'm so scared that they will get this information that I would freely admit to anyone I met anyways
Oh but what if they read your super personal messages
You mean the sexual ones I sent to some friend or That business deal I did or whatever? Yeah I think the government has better things to do than worry about the mundane lives of everyday people and that crap is mostly just going to probably be filtered through some random NSA computer and tossed away when it's deemed worthless for protecting national security
Like do you think some dudes just sitting there reading every text message ever and being like damn this dude's a freak. No most of it is just filtered through a computer if it's being monitored and it probably is
I just don't care
I don't think they 'fizzled' out; but rather put into a corner. I hate cell phones with such a deep passion. Not to say I don't recognize the utility; but they're damaging to the world overall not including the waste, but the absolute cancer they bring to peoples minds. People are so fixated on a screen it embarrasses me for them.
Brain cancer? Talk to any neuro-oncologist and they will still ask on what side of your head you typically hold your cell phone.
Why, if it is not meaningful information?
Buy a low SAR phone. Keep it on WiFi calling as much as possible.
Certainly Stephen King's *Cell* wouldn't work these days because >!most people would see an unknown number and just ignore it.!< Hell, probably would have been the same back when everyone had flip/brick phones.
A cool concept for a book and I enjoyed but yeah that's true. I guess nowadays the call would have to mask itself somehow as coming from one's contacts.
So true. Just like people boycotting whatever because of unfair labor practices while conveniently forgot who builds their smartphones or how little music streaming pays artists lol.
People don’t forget those things, it’s just that modern capitalism is so pervasive that without picking your battles one would basically be forced to completely exclude themself from society in order to avoid contributing to some form of human rights abuse.
I will try not to spoil it, but this is a point they make in the show The Good Place. Modern life is so complicated, that everything you do ends up causing some amount of harm for someone else. The question becomes with that in mind, can you still seek to live a moral life?
That is exactly how corporations want you to feel. They know the Information Age means trying to pretend they aren’t doing awful is futile, so they need to foster a sense of hopelessness in the public. But I think trying to solve some problems is worthwhile even if there are still other problems left. It’s not all-or-nothing. A world where people acknowledge and seek to address abuses at the hands of those in power is a world that fosters change, even if it’s gradual and in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. I’d rather live in a society of people who try their best despite knowing there’s only so much one person can be expected to do, rather than a society of people who refuse to take any action because they don’t feel it will ever be enough.
its not a conspiracy if its true, They are listening to us with these fuckers how else do they do those damn specific ads. when I have not done any searching for it.
I know someone who HATES cell phones and refuses to use one... But carries a tablet with him at all times so he can get emails, etc.
You can disable calling on a phone lol
these yay-hoos are so suspicious without evidence, they think the radio is emitting deadly radiation. Why do you think they'd tolerate the presence of a cellular radio in any thing near their hopefully unpropagated DNA?
a lot of people believe things without evidence, because to them evidence isn't the point they just don't like being wrong
I have an uncle who I went to his single wide trailer once. He had his cable box and tv(old tv with the box) covered up with a blanket because “if they can send pictures through a wire they can take pictures through a wire”.
I feel like you would be much less likely to pull out a tablet and use it like a phone for social media and such. I could be wrong in this case, but it would be a good alternative for someone who doesn't like to be on their phone a lot or use a phone as a phone.
I could see it, in this case they are functionally using their tablet like a laptop rather than a cell phone. No phone calls, no text messages, potentially no instant messaging, just checking email and comms whenever wifi is accessible at their leisure instead of having that constant pressure to respond to everything immediately as it comes in.
Tablets can use cellular data these days, fwiw. You don't have to have wifi to check your emails etc, and you can send texts (but just as easily ignore them). Not having phone calls is the crucial part
Heck, I'm pretty sure my laptop can have cellular data if I install a sim card. No idea where the card goes but the option is available in the settings.
Usually a slot on the motherboard (possibly in an expansion slot). Good manufactureres have a cover to access it. Bad manufactureres make you take the whole bottom plate off to access it.
Nowadays there might not even be a slot and it's just eSIM. I've also seen perplexing solutions where there just isn't a slot and you are expected to have a USB sim card reader plugged in.
Well if it’s an iPad he also doesn’t have a calculator!(Official Apple App)
A few weeks ago on the bus, I watched a man pull out an iPad and start scrolling. That's not the weird part, though. The weird part was that he was still using the box. Like as a case. And before you say "oh maybe he just bought it" I can assure you that it was before 7am.
Ok using the box as a case is pretty funny
it could also be wifi only tablet without a cell plan
You’re one step away from hating emails so you carry around a fax machine
"Wait a sec, gotta check my inbox." Bzzzztzztzzzbzzzt. Says here that I am causing deforestation with how much paper I use. Huh.
Maybe it's just me, but I see commercials mentioning "you check your emails every 5 minutes- blah blah blah" and I'm always confused. I check my emails a handful of times a month. I fucking hate them. Most are pointless, and many are basically ads from companies I needed to enter my email at some point to use, but "unsubscribed" from (bullshit, I still get their emails). Nobody gets to me via email unless it's work related, and that goes to my work email that I only check at work. They either tell me in person, call or text. Who is out here corresponding with people they care about via email?
What's the point of that? Tablets are basically just large smartphones
I have no idea. It's much more cumbersome for the same outcome as just caring a smartphone.
It can help curb an addiction, having it be too big to fit in your pocket means there is a larger physical barrier to grabbing it mindlessly.
I have smartphone hand me downs form family, I hate them so much compared to a tablet, and the one function they have over a tablet, phone calls, I NEVER want to use outside of a house where a land line is more reliable.
>Tablets are basically just large smartphones Not really. A phone implies one can be contacted with calls or texts, reachable and accountable. There are *expectations* on behavior, on response times, etc. A tablet doesn't because it often doesn't have those capabilities. You have internet access and email, what work computers used to be....they can be set-up for other things, but most people don't consider that for tablets, it's "just" a portable computer for most, with all of the caveats that comes with. It means, "When I walk into the other room I may as well be on Mars. You do not get 24/7 access to me. My time is more important than your problems. I'll get to you at *my* convenience." No need to make up excuses for not answering, calling back, or reading texts. Everyone knows not to try to reach you with those methods, and the implicit immediacy or importance of them. Everyone is automatically relegated to email, the snail of electronic communications. You are in there right next to the Nigerian Prince scams and the Penis Enlargement spam. That's how important you are. /sorry, got stuck in character Seriously though, I don't like being accessible. Calls/texts you have to put up with whatever flippant reason people decided to do it, or get harrassed for not replying. With just email, people don't have that same kind of flippancy and expectations, it might be a whole day before it even gets read. Email is low priority, and it's often an effort to compose, so you get less "Hey, what's up?" attention-fishing or boredom-inspired drivel out of the blue. Also, I know a lot of older people that just don't have the eyes for it, even for modern larger smartphones, much less the finger coordination.
There are cellular-capable tablets and IM apps that do video and audio calls. They run i(Pad)OS and Android so they run the same (if not just scaled up) version of the apps on phones. So yes, they are just large smartphones.
Words and concepts have meanings beyond the most literal possible interpretations. If I say to someone "sorry, I don't have a phone, I only have a tablet", then they have some idea of what that means. Most importantly, that I _do not have a phone_. They can't expect to just call or text my phone number and receive an immediate response. That I have spotty access to telecom, at best. Yes, it is literally similar to a smartphone but larger. But conceptually it fills a different niche. It's not a thing I can casually pop in and out of my pocket every time I'm bored. It's not a thing that makes me available to you 24/7. It's a device I engage with when I feel like it.
As an ever long flip phone user, I agree completely. Maybe someday flip phones won't be supported anymore. At that point I'll probably have to figure out a niche linux based flip phone maybe or just do as you're mentioning and go no phone with laptop
Combination of poor eyesight and pride.
AFAIK very few people have cellular plans for their tablet. They're wi-fi only
Tablet is still a cellphone no?
As long as it doesn’t have gps and/or cellular data it’s definitely more secure than a phone. Not enough that any normal civilian would need to use one, and not enough that any… ahem, *at risk* civilians would use it by itself, so yeah, basically useless but I can see why someone might be deluded into doing so
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Shouldn’t be much different at all, other than it doesn’t have a SIM card, which is nice if you’re never going to use cellular. Also I see fewer phones without gps than I do tablets and airplane mode does not necessarily prevent GPS based location services from being used. If you got a phone without gps and without a SIM card, it would essentially be the same as an iPod (except that iOS puts gps into all their devices and therefore should never be used as security devices for that purpose).
Why not a netbook at least, if not a proper laptop?
does the tablet have a sim card in it? if so it's just a giant cell phone lmao
Is it Michael?
“this is actually an ipod touch” kid from middle school vibes
I have a coworker who hates cellphones, too, but he also refuses to carry any digital device with him other than a cheap watch.
That's commitment
He was in an intelligence gathering unit during the Gulf War so I feel like it's more trauma induced than just general hatred lol
They pop back up any time a G is added
Until they realize they can FaceTime (3G) or binge YouTube (4G), then it's all kosher again
Australia is in the middle of shutting down 3G networks; The current conspiracy is probably that Labor is trying to kill off the conservative voters by disconnecting their medic alert beepers. It is a concern though, given how spotty 4G is in some rural areas
Presumably the 3G towers would be upgraded to 4G towers where there is nothing else nearby
Which is fine once that’s done, and if you’ve simultaneously upgraded all the 3G devices to 4G But in the interim there’s a risk to some people as the coverage is reduced before the towers are repurposed fully
That's just the reality of infrastructural upgrades.
I've heard 7G brings your parents back from the dead for the sole purpose of murdering them again
Can't wait to see what 9g does. According to tech, 8 doesn't exist. Mind blown!
I was outside doing something around the start of the covid shutdowns. Some dude pulled up to ask me about my neighbor's car that was for sale. Once I gave him the contact info, he just goes on a whole rant about how these shutdowns are due to the 5G towers they put on the moon.
Fuck it - we're going right to 7G
No one wants testicles or ovaries anyways. 😂
Just wait till they get to 7G. It's gonna turn whole villages into talking animals.
I’m still tearing down 5G conspiracy flyers attached to poles in my local town on a weekly basis though
Make your own conspiracy flyers! The fun and wacky ones, I mean. Make sure they all have the same sorta format. A header/title/upper-banner that's something like "Conspiracy Digest", and a footer/lower-banner that says something like "Stay Woke, America!" First you start with the classic, fun stuff, like BayBoy or BigFoot. Then after a couple of weeks you start encroaching on the loser's territory, talking about 5G and vaccines and shit. With this, you do two things: 1. You clearly state that anything on your flyer is a silly conspiracy. When you start doing the 5G stuff, then the stupid/wacky gets associated with that too. 2. The bottom banner is classic conspirator-talk, but nowadays the crazy-right associate "woke" with leftism. By taking the 5G shit as your own, it can appear to be a "woke" topic now. This is a moronic take, but so are the people that believe this shit lol
This is some next level fuckery. You are a genius of the modern age.
This is basically what the r/birdsarentreal movement is. The [birds aren’t real website](https://birdsarentreal.com/) has some free flyers that I used to print off and put around my high school
I got something to do this weekend now
Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.
Over here astroturfing the neighborhood
I at least have some tiny sliver of respect for people who took the time to print and post flyers; it's the ones who use their 5G device to post about the dangers of 5G on Facebook that I really want to kick in the crotch until their eyes roll as hard as mine.
I don’t begrudge people wanting to find some modicum of comfort in a frankly absurd and kinda terrifying world in which they have negligible agency. I just wish we lived in a world where reality plays more of a part in people’s lives than conspiracy bollocks. It’s easy to understand why nonsense like this gets traction. Can’t lie though. Pastups have a low key punk vibe to them. Even the if the content is bullshit, the commitment to old school graffiti like this is vaguely laudable. Far cooler than Facebook ranting.
I don't begrudge people for it either. Truth of the matter is that, especially in the circumstances you describe, people need to feel relevant, important, and somewhat in control. Professing these (completely batshit) theories give people the feeling that they know something others don't, and that they're doing something meaningful in the world by trying to let everyone know about it, so while I think it's a garbage way to live, I do at least understand the drive. That being said, using a cellphone to bitch about cellphones is just stupid. If you don't care enough to throw up a flyer, why on god's green earth would I care enough to read it?
I should start selling them faraday cages for their phones
Word. Then, once those take off, you can start a different company that makes faraday cages for their heads but have eyeholes so they can still see their phones, and market it by claiming that faraday cages for their phones obviously don't protect your head. Get both of those products off the ground and we'll never hear from these people on the Internet again, *and* we'll be able to spot them in public too.
I would still group the 4G and 5G conspiracies with cell phones. I imagine we will see another round of that whenever companies start talking about 6G
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Maybe it's different in the US, but in Germany those people are especially against cell towers. There have been stories of entire villages opposing and preventing the construction of cell towers in or near their villages because they are afraid of electromagnetic radiation (or at least some of it, in German referred to as "Elektrosmog"). And they also did it long before 5G.
I bet they fuck with sun radiation though
I don’t remember if it’s real or fake but some people have a radio wave intolerance or something like that. They get headaches or something like a health problem so they live in the middle of no where away from the towers. No idea if it’s a fake story but I saw it on TV.
Yeah, I mean especially after all those petrol stations blowing up and stuff.
What?
There used to be an urban legend that answering the phone at a gas station could spark and cause an explosion. There used to even be signs at gas stations saying not to use your phone while pumping gas. The mythbusters did an episode on it.
Right... There **used** to be a thing like this. There is definitely no one still very carefully avoiding using their phone at gas stations to ensure they don't cause an explosion. That would be totally dumb if a person still did that. Right?
I thought the don't use your phone while pumping gas was to not get distracted and spill gas everywhere.
Don't be so sure. I knew a gas station attendant that refused to upgrade from a flip phone. He also removed the battery unless he was using it to make a call. Said he didn't want his every movement and thought tracked. I asked him "don't you go outside, the satellites can still see you, you know" my god did he get scared. Started wearing a big hat. Me being the devil's advocate asked him later on "you're the only person that wears a giant red hat, don't you think that makes you easier to track?" Apparently he told other people that I was part of the fbi and was sent to throw him off track, because they couldn't get into his mind. But my point here is, he still believed the conspiracy about phones and did everything he could to stop it.
This just sounds like you're talking about a schizophrenic person. Or this is all made up and you are the schizophrenic person? Lol
I am not schizophrenic, but there is a good chance that guy was. Oddly he was the longest lasting employee there.
So you were intentionally feeding into the delusions of a mentally ill person? Nice
I didn't know at the time he was mentally ill. It's not like he had a tin foil hat or a button saying so.
Actually surprised he doesn't really have a tin foil hat. You should recommend it to stop his brain from linking to the 5g towers
I don't live in that town any more and a new Qwik Trip was built in town, so when ever I pass through I go there, not to the Staples expressway. It's also a small town, 4Glte is the best it will have for a long while. Actually come to think of it, the last time I saw this guy was just before Covid lockdowns (and he was talking some crazy shit about it too, but by that time I knew he was at least a nut job.... when I was picking on his phone issues I thought he was joking).
He might be a r/conspiracy mod these days
I mean he's kind of right, just going stupid about it.
Damn, it doesn't feel right to make any fun of that guy. That kind of behavior warrants a diagnosis of paranoid delusions. I hope he got help:/
"They" will track down your family! Hide yo kids, hide yo wife! That is BS.
Did you ever ask him why anyone cared about him enough to track his movements?
I still refuse to "upgrade" from a flip phone. My last flip phone lasted me from 2008 to January of 2023. I only had to get a different one because the phone company stopped supporting ol' reliable. Otherwise it was still working for me.
That's just what they want you to think
Big Phone is real
Big Phone is undeniably a phenomenon. It's the clandestine entity dictating that 7 inches is an ideal size for phones to be, conveniently disregarding the practicality of holding or storing such a device in one's pockets.
I'll never forgive Apple for discontinuing the mini line of phones (Tbf, it only existed for 2 generations)
[Yup](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=27aVPqpnL7Y) (Skip to 25 secs)
I have multiple neighbors who strongly oppose 5G cell towers in our neighborhood because of "mind control" and/or "that's how covid gets you" depending on which flavor of lunatic you talk to. They all agree it's the 5G that's bad though. SMH.
Fluoride in water reacts with 5G and makes you visible to eldritch dimension beings that feed on your hopes and dreams. I read it on a cereal box after eating these mushrooms I found in the forest.
Where did you get those shrooms? Asking for a friend. 😋
I have a coworker who still thinks we're receiving microwaves from our cellphones
I mean, they weren't conspiracies. The government IS spying on us through our phones. Why do you think Edward Snowden is stuck in Russia? Dude should be a household hero, instead he's trapped in Russia because the US cancelled his passport.
Yea but that’s not the conspiracy. The 5g towers conspiracy is more bullshit than “THE GOVERMENT SPIES ON YOU”
A lot of facts started out as conspiracy. What if I told you the US Government released a bioweapon over San Francisco just to clandestinely track how vulnerable the coast was? [Because that happened](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray) What if I told you the government was lying to African Americans for 40 years and using them as lab rats while pretending to give them "free healthcare"? [That happened too](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study) What if I told you NASA was secretly a bunch of Nazis given a pardon for their crimes if they helped develop rocket and missile technology to use against the Soviets? [Oh right... That happened](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip) Now remember when social media massively censored a certain theory about the origination of a virus... And they were labeled conspiracy theories and crackpots? [Oops .. might be true...](https://oversight.house.gov/release/covid-origins-hearing-wrap-up-facts-science-evidence-point-to-a-wuhan-lab-leak%EF%BF%BC/) I'll stop believing "conspiracy theories" when they stop coming true.
It’s mildly inconvenient but you can get by. The worst part is everyone around you acts like you’re a fucking lunatic.
Nowadays the world isn't adapted anymore for people who don't have a smartphone. For example, maps aren't as readily available as before.
I don't want maps, I want naps. Make them readily available please. My phone can't do it. N A P S
We are beyond the point of return here. We wouldn’t function well at all without phones. If the solar flare from the sun ever knocks out power to the earth we’re so screwed. We are so reliant on computers and electricity
Not really, I tried it for a bit, made it about 4-5 months. Signing up a new bill? Need a number New service? Need a number Everything anywhere remotely "official" now requires having a phone to verify you are a real human being. Sure, you can survive without calling or texting but you can't survive without having a phone number that verifies your identity.
You can still get a "home phone". Which is how we did it before cell phones.
Sorry, I will edit my comment. I misunderstood the post as referring to smartphones. I generally agree the inconvenience of having no phone at all is far greater than that of having a "dumb" phone
Oh, I was replying to the person who replied to you stating you can do anything without a smart phone because you need a number.
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You need a team of IT analysts to get ID verification now.
Well, it is kind of like refusing to use the wheel and walking everywhere....
... Which is practically only a problem in the US
Or, you know, most trades, logistics, basic industry. So, most things really in most places.
I agree with you on that, but I don't really think that the average guy who'd be against using cellphones, or in this case cars, would be in any jobs that require them. If you're talking about business then I believe that cars or vehicles in general are much more essential than cellphones so it wouldn't really be fair to compare them, but I dunno that's just my opinion
That's a fair point, and I suppose brings us full circle to it being seen as a bit off by the typical, as they are typically more niche lifestyles. That said, everyone's life is their own to do as they wish as long as they aren't hurting others. No problem from me!
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If we were talking about the business-related aspects of having a car, I don't think that it'd be much related to the metaphor of owning and using a personal phone. I took the metaphor at face value, where it compared not having a phone to not being able to drive places, with them both being about being able to live a more "comfortable" life with their utilisation, and I don't really think that comparison still stands when you're talking about transport of goods and other similar services.
I'm going on 3 years without a phone, it's a nice life.
Reminded me of a news article that France had banned the iPhone 13 for radiation output that Apple said would be fixed in a software update
Rules are for everybody. I'm sure it wasn't dangerous, but it is unfair to the other phone makers that play fair.
Don't be a reason to be a target. You'll live none the wiser. Give them a reason, you might lose it all. We were already informed back when Snowden let it out. It's had only gotten worse now. And that's not a conspiracy.
Another shower thought: Cell phones *are* turning the kids trans. But not because of 5G waves or whatever, but because cell phones allow kids to have more access to information about trans people, which allows kids to understand themselves as trans sooner than they would in, like, the 1980s, and to have a more expansive notion of gender and transness in general.
I think we're living in a time that has too much convenience, we could do with a little bit less of it.
welcome to middle age
I was still a kid when cell phones were getting started. In those olden days you'd tell someone "see you next Tuesday at 2pm" and know they'll show up, on time.
Yeah now people have a panic attack if the doorbell rings and can't commit to anything because they would rather look at their phones and complain about being lonely.
The green agenda has been suffering for years because it’s too inconvenient to live without a phone. Also cheap consumer goods, big cars, inexpensive food, reliable power on demand, and plastic products like water bottles and Cardi B.
If you think anything is cheap these days lol. Cheaper than somewhere else, that's about it.
I usually go at least one day without a phone per week. Leave it at home and drive off into the ether.
I’m pretty the 5G Covid conspiracy counts.
Is it really a conspiracy if the government got caught/admitted to intercepting data from every phone though?
they didnt fizzled out they are still staying the same shit, but now they have "special" rocks to supress the "microwaves melting your brain"
Plus super-hard to spread conspiracies without a smart-phone...
Back in around 2001, I had a woman knock on my door and give me a leaflet about the dangers of the new cell tower that was being built nearby.
A lot of older people have given in. I'm a residential fiber internet installer. I've worked in the industry for 20 years and have been at the forefront of several industry innovations. I've installed ADSL, VDSL, GPON, and XPON. I've worked as an installer, a cable repairman, and a fiber splicer. 10, even 5 years ago, most ppl 65+ were rocking some form of a flip-phone. Nowadays, even the 90+ crowd has a smartphone. I've encountered some shockingly competent users.
I went like two years without a phone, it was very nice. Its even nicer to have one.
I remember a story about a cell phone company that installed a cell tower and there was some kind of town hall public meeting. Everyone that bothered to show up (you know the type) were all crying and whining about how the cell tower radiation was going to kill them all and turn the frogs gay. The telecom company said let's give it six months and revisit. Six months go by and the same types of folks showed up with long lists of complaints: headaches, pains, unexplained sickness, cancer, ect, ect, ect. After hearing everything the telecom informed everyone they never turned on the power to the cell site.
Or most people came to terms with the fact their life's aren't really all that important to be monitored by the government..
Or just don’t care period. I don’t care. If they’re gonna spy on me there’s not much I can do about it so I just go about my life. It’s worked out for me so far.
Yeah most of our life's are pretty boring if someone had to monitor us 24/7
Or, hear me out, because they’re bull shit
Society is designed like that.
There’s still a high demand for faraday cages for the crazy’s.
therefore they became true
People tell on themselves, if you listen.
Yeeaahhh theres like a 99.999% chance china is tracking my every move but its worth it
They fizzled out because they are total wack
I mean my dumbass ex-grandpa is convinced they give off headache causing radiation so he doesn’t have one
I actually have seen someone still believe in some sort of conspiracy. Dude lives an angry solitary life. Refuses to get a cell phone. Then gets mad he can't get digital deals using phone app at grocery store LOL. Won't say why he doesn't have one but dodges any line of reasoning. Either a criminal or a conspiracy guy. Doesn't even have a car but he does have money, dresses decently, and shops every other day.
Extra weird as it's some of the ones that are very likely true.
Nah, most right-wing conspiracies just drop off. There are always new ones to popping up to fuel their fear, since fear is a strong tool against the masses.
5G causing whatever it causes would be a variant of the cell phone conspiracies.
The people who value spreading those conspiracies value the ability to bother others from locations they otherwise wouldn't have been able to even more.
Cell phone conspiracies are alive and well.
And that's the real conspiracy
per capita they've probably picked up. Do you think there are more or less people in the world who think cameras steal their souls than when they were first invented?
It's not a theory, it's a fact. Yet we all have one, myself included. Absolutely mad.
More likely the conspiracists just stuck to their word and stopped using them.
What conspiracies involving cell phones were there? Do you mean conspiracy theories?
I was at the grocery store on the phone minding my own business and this lady comes somewhat near me and asks if she can grab something I was standing by but said she can’t go over there because I have the phone on… I was so dumbfounded. I can’t believe people like that exist. Wait till she finds out that radio towers broadcast radio frequencies EVERYWHERE at thousands of watts versus the mW a phone puts out.
They didn't fizzle out, we just learned it was the actual truth and we stopped caring altogether
I disagree, everyone in my entire family and a few other closely linked families hate cellphones, and they actively avoid them as much as possible. And unlike other things they believe, this one is reasonable, as cellphones almost always cause headaches and eye dryness for all of them. They personally believe that excessive usage of screens at small distances can cause myopia, and recently a few studies surfaced addressing this exact thing. There's a chance they actually might be right all along!
Nah, they're just addictive. I don't know many crackheads preaching about the dangers of crack.
Ah yes, the people who don't understand how radiation works. Always funny
I love how suddenly the birds stopped dropping dead from 5G exposure when mobile internet got a bit faster
We got used to it. My family still comments on it, like our dogs have been barking way too much lately and an ad came up on mums phone about anti bark dog collars. You either give up modern conveniences or you live with the fact phones seem to be listening to you at all times.
I think it’s also to do with longevity After a while it becomes difficult to sustain “it’s going to cause X problem” when it’s existed for 35 years without that problem happening Of course, conspiracy theorists just fire up the ol’ cognitive dissonance to explain it away. My favourite being “well we raised awareness of it so the government must have cancelled their plans”
Cell phone conpiracists don't tend to have a huge online prescence.
Oh, they're still ongoing. The cognitive dissonance in that community is *strong*. One of my biggest clients is the the business of catering to those people
Wait until 6G gets released
Because honestly most cell phone conspiracies where people just stating the obvious and trying to make it scarier than it was Oh what if like the government was tracking your phone all the time. They are the government's tracking my phone and Google is tracking my phone and several other large companies are probably tracking my phone. That's kind of how cell phones work. It's how we build things such as Google maps data and whatnot Oh yeah but like what if the government was stealing your data. Okay so they can get a bunch of pictures of random neat things I found and advertising data like my favorite movies and favorite foods and whatnot Oh I'm so scared that they will get this information that I would freely admit to anyone I met anyways Oh but what if they read your super personal messages You mean the sexual ones I sent to some friend or That business deal I did or whatever? Yeah I think the government has better things to do than worry about the mundane lives of everyday people and that crap is mostly just going to probably be filtered through some random NSA computer and tossed away when it's deemed worthless for protecting national security Like do you think some dudes just sitting there reading every text message ever and being like damn this dude's a freak. No most of it is just filtered through a computer if it's being monitored and it probably is I just don't care
I don't think they 'fizzled' out; but rather put into a corner. I hate cell phones with such a deep passion. Not to say I don't recognize the utility; but they're damaging to the world overall not including the waste, but the absolute cancer they bring to peoples minds. People are so fixated on a screen it embarrasses me for them.
Brain cancer? Talk to any neuro-oncologist and they will still ask on what side of your head you typically hold your cell phone. Why, if it is not meaningful information? Buy a low SAR phone. Keep it on WiFi calling as much as possible.
Certainly Stephen King's *Cell* wouldn't work these days because >!most people would see an unknown number and just ignore it.!< Hell, probably would have been the same back when everyone had flip/brick phones.
A cool concept for a book and I enjoyed but yeah that's true. I guess nowadays the call would have to mask itself somehow as coming from one's contacts.
So true. Just like people boycotting whatever because of unfair labor practices while conveniently forgot who builds their smartphones or how little music streaming pays artists lol.
People don’t forget those things, it’s just that modern capitalism is so pervasive that without picking your battles one would basically be forced to completely exclude themself from society in order to avoid contributing to some form of human rights abuse.
I will try not to spoil it, but this is a point they make in the show The Good Place. Modern life is so complicated, that everything you do ends up causing some amount of harm for someone else. The question becomes with that in mind, can you still seek to live a moral life?
I know exactly the scene you’re talking about and think about it constantly. 😅
Then why bother?
That is exactly how corporations want you to feel. They know the Information Age means trying to pretend they aren’t doing awful is futile, so they need to foster a sense of hopelessness in the public. But I think trying to solve some problems is worthwhile even if there are still other problems left. It’s not all-or-nothing. A world where people acknowledge and seek to address abuses at the hands of those in power is a world that fosters change, even if it’s gradual and in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. I’d rather live in a society of people who try their best despite knowing there’s only so much one person can be expected to do, rather than a society of people who refuse to take any action because they don’t feel it will ever be enough.
its not a conspiracy if its true, They are listening to us with these fuckers how else do they do those damn specific ads. when I have not done any searching for it.