The inequity of no-phone life (phoneless rant)

Hey all,

broke my smartphone a few days ago. Currently using taco bell wifi with my laptop on a lunch break to write this.

Sincerely, I wish mobile devices ceased to exist. We have crumbled all institutions to solely rely on cell phones. "Man I need to call someone...." no public phones. "Gee I need to log into my paycheck platform".. punch in your phone number to get a code, even though this is your login. "Ah man, I'm lost, there's an emergency, I have a flat tire, etc." Too bad, you don't have a cell phone! It's all done on your cell phone. Bought movie tickets and standing at a kiosk that says "pick up tickets"? Well too bad, we sent the code to your phone. Figure it out.

It has been fun and assistive in my focus to plan my day without my phone. I have been using a cd player, writing directions down at home for the car, and so on. However, there are certain things, many important things, that feel nigh impossible without mobile internet access. I substitute - the building I'm in has NO public wifi and refuses to share the codes with me. That we have enabled tech companies to convince us of this necessity, even the writing of my post, is so depressing. In looking for a "new" phone, the two carriers I was considering do not accept phones older than 2021. FIVE YEARS AGO. Cool man, it's all good that a 5-year old flagship costs upwards of $300 and is considered mechanically obsolete.

I am upset and irritated at how the industry pushes newer and newer things that must be important to a user; AI is trash, but get that new phone which has several dozen built-in AI applications.

Thank you for listening. I will try not to let it get me down.