# Can I continue to live in the "modern" word without a smartphone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 30, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378 "2012-04-30T01:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378/81 "2012-05-05T04:34:39Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > :rolleyes: Whatever, grampa. You don’t sound like you have the slightest idea what apps are out there and what they can do (and you use a compass for navigation? Well aren’t you all high tech! Why bother with a compass when you can use your eyes to figure out the sun’s position?). You will fucking eat a bacon! I prophesy, but I don’t wish it. Yes, GPS is useful for professionals in GIS tech. For a hiker stranded in the middle of nowhere? Maybe, but if those stranded had a topo map and a compass, odds are on the good navigator. Yeah – all those other functions are replicable by a computer. I know an Android is a computer, but people make it sound as though it were new technology. I’ve been tuning my own pianos with software for ten years and probably more, “sonny,” and recording off a DAW for quite a few more years. For the rest? Yeah…I got a compass, a starchart, and some balls if I want to figure anything else out. I’m 36, some little shit I heard about, so enough with that “grampa” shit. I wipe my toilet paper twice size every morning. And it sounds better than the little puling voice coming out of Josephine over too. Go back and sing for some of her friends, hick. ETA fixed content for contempt. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378/82 "2012-05-05T12:32:30Z")
:eek: I do so hate it when Mom and Dad start arguing. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378/83 "2012-05-07T03:53:43Z")
I can certainly live without a smartphone. I don’t know if I could live without a cell phone; I have a very irregular schedule, and a lot of friends who can’t plan more than ten minutes in advance. (I got one in the first place because the alternative was dealing with Qwest. If you’ve lived in a Qwest area, you know what I mean.) I did want a way to amuse myself on the train, mostly by reading things, and occasionally check my email in the park, so I bought a 3G Kindle. This gives me the very minimal list of things I’d want from a smartphone while eliminating the annoying possibility that someone might call me on the blasted thing. And it’s easier on the eyes than reading novels on an iPhone. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378/84 "2012-05-07T16:07:14Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > You will fucking eat a bacon! I prophesy, but I don’t wish it. > > Yes, GPS is useful for professionals in GIS tech. For a hiker stranded in the middle of nowhere? Maybe, but if those stranded had a topo map and a compass, odds are on the good navigator. > > Yeah – all those other functions are replicable by a computer. I know an Android is a computer, but people make it sound as though it were new technology. I’ve been tuning my own pianos with software for ten years and probably more, “sonny,” and recording off a DAW for quite a few more years. > > For the rest? Yeah…I got a compass, a starchart, and some balls if I want to figure anything else out. > > I’m 36, some little shit I heard about, so enough with that “grampa” shit. I wipe my toilet paper twice size every morning. And it sounds better than the little puling voice coming out of Josephine over too. Go back and sing for some of her friends, hick. > > ETA fixed content for contempt. That was seriously a hilarious overreaction. I literally LOLed, especially when I got to the ETA line. Hope you’ve cleaned the spittle from your monitor. 🙂 As to your actual reply, I never said that other tools couldn’t do the jobs I mentioned (and do them better). But I find it hilarious that you’re apparently cool with toting around a compass, star chart, multiple topography maps and a computer… But me carrying one small smartphone is apparently relying too much on silly gadgetry. 😛 Btw, part of the reason your post was so entertaining is because I have no idea wtf you are saying a good chunk of the time. You’ll prophecy that I’ll eat bacon? 36 is some little shit you heard about? And your rantings about toilet paper and Josephine (?) don’t do much to help your case, since they sound like something Abe Simpson would yell after talking about wearing an onion on his belt. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378/85 "2012-05-08T12:50:10Z")
I just hope it doesn’t get to the point where the government thinks it has to start “giving them away”\* to the underserved. - Includes forcing providers to do it, thereby increasing everyone’s costs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-continue-to-live-in-the-modern-word-without-a-smartphone/620378.md?page=4)