# Dumbphones are the Smart Choice (for me) - alfred's Gemini capsule


I wanted to like smartphones, but 

* their touchscreens get smeared with fingerprints
* the screens are hard to navigate, with tiny virtual buttons that are hard to see or read in daylight
* apps grant themselves unreasonably liberal permissions that are hard (or impossible) to keep in check
* they're a vector for tracking you and stealing your attention
* increasingly, they're a single point of failure

After four years of using smartphones, I returned to flip phones, and found relief and peace of mind. I hope smartphones never become a requirement for commerce or travel. 

For computer stuff, I use real, general-purpose computers. 


> I like to walk down Bond Street, thinking of all the things I don't want.  -- Logan Pearsall Smith


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Last edited: 2025-09-03