Not had a smartphone or even a cell phone plan in years. I live in silicon valley and run a b2b company.
I manage bank accounts, travel a lot, keep up with friends, clients, and peers, etc etc, and get by fine with looking up directions before I leave with a paper map as a backup.
Turns out you actually do not NEED a phone. I have a very digitally connected lifestyle which makes it that much more important I be -disconnected- whenever a workstation screen is not in front of me so I can be -present- in whatever I am doing or with whomever I am doing it with.
Where do you live that gyms don't work without a smartphone? Must be some hipster SV place with Juiceros and Keurigs I imagine.
All the gyms I've been to in Europe give you either a physical RFID card or armband for access when you sign up, no smartphone required. Then again I've only been to the most budget gyms, not the uber-fancy ones of tech-bros, lawyers and corporate elites, so maybe those gyms have "smarter" access systems too but I couldn't care less.
I know at least Puregym in the UK eschews physical passes, and while 80% of people check in by scanning the QR code on the app, they also just give you a number which you can put in the keypad on the door instead
Fwiw, I have smartphone (iPhone 12 work mandated / provided, and a samsung note for myself), but I don't use it for banking, gym, shopping, payments, etc. Guess I'm old school but Financial stuff I like to do on computer, for access I like physical tokens. Yes I print my air tickets! :-) I like to reduce my failure modes and I view my phone as disposable, even though tech companies want to equate it with my life / identity.
You can have a non-ios non-android device for maps, visit a non-requiring a smartphone gym, use a plastic card instead of NFC and a website instead of bank app. Also use phone/email for voice/text conversations instead of 14 apps every one of which are full of ads.
Yes to all of that except for banking. I have to confirm login and every operation with either an OTP generated by the app of the bank or with a fingerprint in the app of the bank. In the best case they could run on am emulator on my laptop but I never checked if it works.
I really don't. I exercise at home. I can just go to the bank, or if I have a balance inquiry, call them. They also have a desktop web application that I can use. The only one I really need on that list is maps, which my dumpy trash-heap will have.
