💾 Archived View for sbg.one › gemlog › 2020 › 06-02-The-Ultimate-Goal.gmi captured on 2021-12-03 at 14:04:38. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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June 01, 2020
I've mentioned this in passing in previous posts over the years and in person conversations as recently as today that my ultimate goal in technology is to free myself from the clutches and burden of a cellular carrier and as a bonus, a phone altogether.
I've loathed the telephone and to a certain extent more, the cellular phone for a long time. It is by far the most annoying thing in my life.
I dispise having to carry it around with me nearly everywhere I go. It's a digital tether that society more or less deems I have and to boot, I have to pay for it, too. I'm shelling out money for the device and the service for something I don't even want to have. That really sucks if you ask me.
Granted, I get it. The phone, the cellular phone is a huge advancment in technology, communications, emergency assistance, and social connection. I do, I get it. I'm just not the same as everyone else on this one. We have the Internet now and for many of us we have it as high-speed as well.
So why do I need cellular service anymore? For those times when I am not at home, work or someplace where there is reliable WiFi or Ethernet connections? Those are some of the times I want a phone the least! I miss the old days when the only phone we had was the one hanging on the wall in the house. When you left home, or just went outside to do something, you left the phone behind. If someone called, oh well, they can try calling you back at another time and hope you were there to answer it.
If I choose to leave my phone home, or inside, or even turn it off, people get freaked out when I don't respond right away. They might think that either something bad happened to to me, or that I chose to ignore them. That's the fundamental reason why I hate the phone so much. People expect and demand that we answer it everytime because there should be, in their mind, no reason why I shouln't. To them, I should have my phone with me at all times and answer it when it beckons my attention. I am a slave to the phone and all that it brings with it.
To achieve my goal of doing away with it will be a difficult, if not impossible effort. There is no way to just quit it cold turkey and that is because of my particular job responsibilities and for family reasons.
What I think might be possible if the tech gods allow a way, is to get rid of cellular service and only live on WiFi. That would be the first step in the journey to freedom. I would like a way to have a phone number without having to have a phone number. Do you get it? I want a number that isn't tied to a telephone company and where I have to pay them a monthly fee forever and be dependant on cellular towers.
I just need the phone number to allow traditional SMS messages to reach me, only via the Internet. There are excellent apps for voice calling, or VOIP, such as Signal that I can use for this purpose, but even still, Signal requires the use of a phone number to work. Though I did read something the other day that says they're working on a new system of connecting to people without the need for a phone number and still be secure. I hope that comes through and it works the way I'd like it to for my needs.
The other reason I still need a phone number for those SMS messages from certain companies or websites who are so far behind the security curve that they can't see around the bend. SMS for 2FA is so stupid and proven insecure by simple social engineering. They having yet discovered TOTP apps or hardware tokens to achieve proper 2FA.
I may be able to find alternative ways, or even switch away from these insecure SMS 2FA companies who don't know what they're doing. If I can do that, and find a reliable way for normies to contact me over VOIP instead of traditional telephone service, I'll be a step closer to my first goal, which is getting rid of cellular service.
For years I was paying AT&T something like $70 a month for a basic plan of phones, text and data and I hated it. Then last year I switched to Google Fi and I only pay about $26 per month now. Its $20 a month for unlimited calls and texts, and you only pay for the data you use. I am almost 99% of the time on WiFi so I never use cellular data. The other $6 per month are taxes and fees with a bit of data too. That's a good deal for me, it really is. But I want to eliminate that too if I can.
The ultimate goal of eliminating the phone, the service and the device itself may never happen. Or I think that if it can, it probably won't happen until I retire from working and won't have the job responsibility any longer.
What I want is to have no phone and no phone service. I want high-speed Internet service. My preferred method of communication would be either email, or even better, traditional mail, aka, snail mail. The art of writing a letter and mailing it is nearly dead. But think of the personalization of it. Sitting down and grabbing a pen some paper and writing by hand a letter to someone is very personal. The committment to materials, thought, and time is amazing today. Now we have all this technology and instant communications. Text messages, and oodles of social media apps and services to "communicate" with one another has taken that old fashioned personalization away from communicating. The anticipation of mailing a letter and waiting days or weeks for a reply is gone. The fascination and wonderment is missing anymore. I want that back.
I believe it is my right to not be contacted instantly. That if you send me a message, in any form, that I should be able to respond to it in my own time and without being vilified for it. Society's expectation of instant gratification and response has posioned my views on how we spread ideas, or memes, around the globe and affected things for the worse in many ways.
Mainly, though, I want to be left alone and communicate passively. Send me a letter or an email and have the expectation that I may respond at a later time or date, or maybe not at all. If you want to talk to me, write first and we can agree on a meeting time and place and have a good talk.
Active communication can be had in person either by agreeing ahead of time to meet at my home or in a public place is my ideal way of communicating.
I hate the telephone and in my opinion (and we all know what opinions are like) it is the worst invention humanity ever devised right after nuclear weapons.
Can't we just go back to mailing letters? The Postal Service could use the extra cash anyhow.