In the same vein I think that people were making jokes about how it is even possible to use smart phones to make phone calls like 5 years ago lol. Wouldnt be shocked if some folks had not made a single phone call in the past 3 or 4 years. Smartphones are small mobile internet connected computer plus camera hybrids first, and also if you really want you could use them to make phone calls too I guess but you could drop that feature and the other 99% of the use vases people actually use smartphones for (work, reddit, YouTube, slack and other chat, internet browsing, apps, ordering food through delovery apps, etc) would be unaffected

The only outgoing phone call I've made within the past 12 months is to the taxi company when their app said there were no cars available. The person on the phone said the same thing, so the call was just a waste of time and money.

I have gotten incoming phone calls, mostly from daycare when a kid has been sick.

As you got to experience, smart phones aren't mainly phones, they're mobile computers with a phone app. They have Bluetooth that let's them connect to bikes close by, biometrics that let's them be used for relatively secure payment, modems that allows them to communicate with servers, GPS that makes it easy to see that you're not riding or parking the bike where you're not allowed, etc. If one person was able to unlock multiple bikes who is responsible for how the bike is used? A while back someone on a rented scooter hit an elderly man and then left the scene. He was found and convicted, because the scooter was personally rented by him.

Don't expect to be able to use modern services if you don't want to meet the providers where they operate. It's like refusing to use a card and demanding everyone to use cash, you're going to limit yourself and it's your choice if you think it's worth it.

I think limiting your goods and services to people with devices that have been available for more than two decades and are basically ubiquitous is a reasonable thing to do, considering the benefits that comes with it.

Personally i very rarely talk on the phone, that's never been why I've used mobile phones. I listen to music and use offline maps with GPS far more, but I also use it for payment, camera, text messages, etc.

Honest question: how do you stay in touch with friends?

I'm not the OP, but for me it's email, phone calls, instant messaging, paper mail sometimes.

Surely your pocket computer isn't your only computer? Like, you do own a computer with a physical keyboard, right?

Pre-COVID, when I made plans to go out with folks, we arranged a time and place to meet, and, like, arrived at that place roughly around that time. It's pretty easy, really.

I'd be far more inclined to assume someone didn't have a computer--or at least ready access to one--than didn't have a smartphone.

>Surely your pocket computer isn't your only computer? Like, you do own a computer with a physical keyboard, right?

More and more people, particularly the younger generations, don't have anything besides their smartphone because what's the point? It's additional expense, additional maintenance, additional clutter, additional mess.

They can do everything they need on their phone.

I know they're out there, hell my wife doesn't turn her laptop on from one week to the next, but I still find it hard to fathom.

This is the gulf UX design is supposed to cross, I guess. Designing for people who engage with tech in utterly different ways to me.

There certainly is a gulf.

On the one hand, I rarely use my smartphone at home because I have computers.

On the other hand, I hear stories from parents at work whose kids don't want a computer because "Why would I need one? My phone works fine."

> More and more people, particularly the younger generations, don't have anything besides their smartphone because what's the point? It's additional expense, additional maintenance, additional clutter, additional mess.

I’m 40 and if I wasn’t a software engineer I wouldn’t own a desktop / laptop computer. As you say, what’s the point? Everything except for software development can be done on a smartphone. Why even bother installing an instant messaging application on the computer when you can just take the phone out of the pocket instead of walking to the room where the computer happens to be? Even when I’m working at the computer I use the phone for music, messaging and news.

> Everything except for software development can be done on a smartphone.

That sounds like a little too broad a generalization.

A typical office worker who creates or consumes documents, presentations, accesses corporate apps (half of them still 90s tech with lipstick), submit proposals to clients, review others' work, attending multiple hours long zoom calls with screenshare, etc ... are still using at least 13" laptop screens to do a lot of their day to day work.

Sure a sales executive or a senior manager might get away by just typing one liner commands to minions on their smartphone, hitting approve buttons on expense apps, and just listening into team calls, etc. -- but lower in the hierarchy where the real numbers and usage are ... we still have physical keyboards and mice, and decent sized screens (often multiple monitors) to help us stay productive.

Wait until you’re fifty and you can barely see the stupid thing.

I know several households which don't have a traditional laptop or desktop computer. Smartphones and maybe a tablet. Maybe a work-issued laptop, but usually that stays at the office and isn't for personal use.

e-mail and my work phone. I'm a married man, so my wife does most of the social arrangements anyway. Recently I got a JMP.chat number so I could send and receive text messages, and have been very happy with it. When I leave my job and have to give up the work number, I'll probably break down and buy either a Pinephone or Librem (maybe there'll be other options by then).