Proud to Be

Chatterbox: Chirp at Cricket

Proud to Be

Proud to Be Smartphone-Free Thread!

Let's make being phoneless a "cool" thing! Since so many CBers don't have any smartphones, we need a thread where we can celebrate having resisted the ~Lure of the Smartphones~ and still being tuned into the real world instead of a screen *cue ominous music* Seriously, though, smartphones are so bad for your physical and mental well-being - I'm never getting one, and I know there might be other CBers who also feel like it's kind of pointless to have one. On this thread you can also get support if you want a phone but don't have one, or if you have a phone but want to stop using it! Basically it's for all of us Phone Opposers, whether phone owners or not! 

Iffy says <tmceo>. Trademark CEO? Well, she's definitely spouting some kind of business jargon :)

submitted by Poinsettia, age ageless
(June 20, 2023 - 7:27 pm)

Oh yes. I didn't know there were so many people without phones. Ah yes I only have my school iPad that I am typing on right now. (And amazon fire that's like 1,000 years old) I am never getting a phone, you get addicted to it! I would chose nature over it anytime!

submitted by Peregrine Falcon, age Fledgling, At the tree
(July 7, 2023 - 3:33 pm)

Thank you!! Yay!! Nature over phones!! That kinda sounds like a campaign or something...

submitted by CelineBurning Bright, age As Needed, The FireMist Sea
(July 8, 2023 - 10:20 am)

Yes I could start a campaign: "Take your eyes off you device and live a little! Experience nature! smell the flowers! Listen to the birds!"

submitted by Peregrine Falcon, age Fledgling , At the tree
(July 8, 2023 - 2:08 pm)

Ooh, that sounds great! Definitely do it if you want to! :)

submitted by Poinsettia, a sea of crystal waters
(July 11, 2023 - 8:27 am)

YES!!! THAT'D BE SO COOL! And you could make, like posters and stuff. We all could! And do petitions (tho who knows if anyone's gonna sign) and make tech-free times at school (which, we always have them, but no one actually does it. Sometimes not even me if I'm working on a project or writing a story or something). Or you could do whatever you want to do!

submitted by CelineBurning Bright, age As Needed, The FireMist Sea
(July 12, 2023 - 10:17 am)
submitted by Top!!!
(January 1, 2024 - 1:43 pm)

Not me overhere literally accessing this thread via smartphone ;D

submitted by Scuttles
(January 3, 2024 - 2:09 pm)

Maybe this thread should be topped...

One thing that's happened since this thread was posted is that flip phones have actually gotten much more popular, which is great! Definitely flip phones are really nice and easy to use. You can text, take photos, call, and even use the internet if you've absolutely got to. Texting on them is actually kind of calming :P They also look really nice? All trim and slick and compact. And they're not addictive and privacy-invading like smartphones are. 

Plus, they're genuinely getting popular - one time a girl mentioned my flip phone, like "oh you have a flip phone! those are cool!" Handheld cameras are also taking off. Once this random girl, whom I'd never even seen before, said she liked mine. Also Lindsay Lohan was using one apparently.

So now, not only can you obtain better health, privacy, and emotional wellbeing by forfeiting smartphones, you can even get popularity and make social connections...!

submitted by Poinsettia
(December 22, 2024 - 6:44 pm)
submitted by Topsettia
(December 29, 2024 - 3:32 pm)

I didn't have a phone until half-way through high-school :0

submitted by Jaybells, Lost, somewhere
(January 6, 2025 - 4:14 am)

Yooo same

submitted by Piano Man, age 15 , nowhere
(January 17, 2025 - 3:58 pm)

Gosh, I'm so glad I don't have a smartphone - experts have been discovering that they're incredibly bad for your mental health, and despite being "smart"phones, they're actually capable of reducing your level of intelligence. They addict you and lower your standard of living, so should we really think it's good or even okay to use them? They're especially harmful if you're very young when you start using them (so @Jaybells, yayyy, congrats for not having a phone in primary/middle school! You're stellar), but they cause some level of harm to everyone, even adults. Even without taking into account all the completely not-CB-friendly content they expose you to, using them shortens attention spans, takes away from time that you could spend engaging with the real world (making friends, appreciating what's actually there, etc.), bombards you with consumerist attitudes (e.g. shows you products and ads and encourages you to think in terms of sTuFf), and, as I said, are addicitve on top of all that. They also show kids an "ideal" world, where everyone looks stunning and nothing goes wrong, which is highly unhealthy and can stop kids from valuing themselves.

They're also bad for the environment. First of all, they're made of plastic, and manufacturing all the thousands/millions of phones on the planet must emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (I haven't researched this, but it makes sense, doesn't it?) Furthermore, data storage also takes up vast amounts of CO2, and smartphones enable individuals to generate ginormous amounts of data. For example, consider taking photos. With a hand-held camera (which, as Poinsettia says, are becoming much cooler!!), you're likely to take a few photos a week, since you don't take the camera everywhere you go and you probably put more thought into each photo (this also makes the photo more meaningful and worthwhile, but we'll leave that aspect out for now). By contrast, smartphones go everywhere with you, and a lot of people I know take thousands and thousands of photos. Those all have to be stored somewhere, which means that databases have to be kept running by using up CO2, just so that you can keep thousands of photos that might not mean as much as they could to you. This is a generality, obviously, as some people might value photos on their phones very highly and might not take many, but you get the idea (I hope :P)

Smartphones also invade your privacy... I think this has already been gone into on this thread, so I won't say much about it, but they basically provide a way for companies to spy on you and influence you. They also let companies collect data about you, which in turn has to be stored, which in turn is bad for the environment...

I know that computers have many of the same problems, but they're much less intrusive, since you can't exactly tuck your laptop into your pocket when you go off to your grandparents' house. Computers also give you a bit more flexibility and make it easier for you to regulate what you see and do. Obviously, though, stay mindful of your computer use too :)

Lastly, you may be saying "but smartphones are so useful!!!" They are, but I agree with Poinsettia - flip hones have a ton of the same advantages while eliminating most of the harmful aspects of smartphones. Basically I second everything she said in her comment above :) If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'm up for respectful debate!

submitted by Amethyst, smartphone free!!! :D
(January 15, 2025 - 1:11 pm)
submitted by Topethyst
(January 15, 2025 - 4:29 pm)

In Australia, they made a ban on social media for people under 16! (idk if there's any Australian CBers, but if so, luckyyyy!) I have a smartwatch, which is actually a good alternative. I can literally only text and call (and like alarms and small stuff like that) and my mom has to approve of all my contacts and I have limited time each day. Also, my state, SC, (not the beachy/southern part) has made it a LAW to not have phones/watches in school. I only have a watch so I can contact parents/friends I don't see very often. But yeah, SMARTPHONES SUCK!!! I use CB through my school chromebook (where almost everything's blocked) Also, there's a difference how you use smartphones (not that it makes it much better) and simply being mindful of how you use them, and sparking awareness can help!  

submitted by KatanaLuna
(January 16, 2025 - 8:11 am)

All valid points!

 

Personally, I do have a smartphone, but it has all kinds of screen-time limits and my parents don't let me have it in my room, or at night. Personally, I find that I am definately happiest and most productive when I turn my phone all the way off, but also see the benifits that it has (communication, etc.) I once read this article about this professor who doesn't have a smartphone, just a laptop computer that he checks for messages like, once a day. It was all about how he goes about his day-to-day in an ever-more digitalized world. 

On my phone, I do not have- nor do I want- any form of social media. I attribute the mental-health crisis in American teens to the increasingly common use of social media. It is a topic I am personally very passionate about, and I would love to hear everyone's opinions.  

submitted by Coyote , Penny Lane
(January 25, 2025 - 5:09 pm)