From Smartphone to Dumbphone

In my last post I wrote about how I was spent quite a lot of time over the last couple of months reading up and listening to podcasts on AI, digital surveillance and disruption caused to society by new digital products. Initially this interest was triggered by my own concerns over how attached to my smartphone I had become, or perhaps I should say, to certain apps on my smartphone. Twitter being a particular addiction of mine, or a quick browse through Facebook or Instagram. Perhaps it was just me, but increasingly I was finding that after a session of browsing on these platforms I was feeling annoyed or frustrated and that this really wasn't good for my own well being. My 'filter bubble' was reinforcing the things that could make me cross (politics, education) or increasingly I was seeing things being posted on platforms by friends and relatives and found myself starting to dislike them, which was a reaction I was then disliking in myself and a person I didn't want to be. I had also become very conscious of the surveillance element of using a smartphone in particular. I use a Samsung S8+ Android mobile and a mighty fine piece of tech it is too, but I'm also aware that like all smartphones it is also a superb tracking device. Through the Android OS and my various accounts, Google are fully aware of every step or journey I make, along with various apps installed relaying my location to goodness knows who. It does make you think that if your government said we are going to provide every citizen with a device that would track your every movement, recognize your face, has your fingerprints and can listen to what you are saying (Alexa, Google Assistant, Google Home) there would rightly be an outcry. However, that's exactly what we have allowed to happen with smartphones and also health tracking devices such as the Fitbit. Big tech now has an unbelievable amount of valuable and sensitive data on us all, and you can't vote them out of office! So, it's no good whinging about it, what could I do to address how tech was making me feel and behave? Was it possible to live without the smartphone attached to me?

Two days ago a bought myself a new mobile phone. A very un-smartphone or a dumbphone as I see them being called. It's a Nokia 105, bought in Re-Generate It for £12.99! I can make and receive calls, I can text. It has a basic calculator and I can play Snake Xenzia if I do get bored. It has the classic Nokia ringtone. It has no Bluetooth, camera, doesn't connect to Wi-Fi, no internet access and apps cannot be installed. Screen is 1.8inches, is 11cm long, 5cm wide and weighs 73g. I charged it two days ago and the battery indicator has barely moved. The last time I had a phone with this functionality was probably in about 2005! My Samsung S8+ is an absolute monster compared to this, with a 6.2 inch screen, weighing 173g and is basically a small tablet computer.

Heck, look at the size of it!

Two days in and what have I noticed? The lack of size and weight is very noticeable. The S8+ filled my pockets and would have to take it out of them when sitting down. I don't even notice the Nokia in my pocket. I'm also not worrying about dropping it. A couple of months ago I cracked the screen on the Samsung and because of it's size and the rounded edge to the screen it was going to cost £250 to fix! Thank goodness I had tech insurance. Making calls is ok, however I think I'm going to miss having my Google Contacts. All my contacts are saved in my Google accounts which is great when I move phones. I sign into my Google accounts and the contacts move across. No such ability with the Nokia, I had to manually add my family and some friends numbers in. I currently have over 1000 contacts in my Google Contacts list containing school and individuals numbers. There's no way I'm going to be able to manually add these! A couple of people have texted and responding has been a bit fiddly. No full onscreen keyboard. I text using the number pad, often having to press the button a couple of time to get to the correct letter. I haven't yet worked out how to create a capital letter! I'm sure I'll work it out soon. Have I missed not being able to access my emails, look at Twitter, Instagram or Facebook or search? As of yet, not really. In reality how urgent are any of these things and couldn't we all just wait until we get home and access them via your device. To be honest, I still had my Samsung connected to the Wi-Fi at home and did spend some time on it last night looking at Twitter but that's what I'm trying to get away from. Therefore today, the Samsung is switched off and if I need to access a social networking platform I'll be doing it from my laptop. Let's see how the next couple of days go :-)

Image from https://www.simplemost.com/smartphone-addict-dumb-phone-calls-texts-only/

Useful references around this topic:

The one dumb feature I wish Apple and Google would add to their phones - Fastcompany.com

Take Control - Centre for Humane Technology

12 Million Phones, One Data Set, Zero Privacy - New York Times (The Privacy Project)

The Money Machine: What Google and Facebook Do With Your Data - DuckDuckGo

3 Steps To Protect Your Phone - New York Times (The Privacy Project)

How To Protect Your Privacy On Android - DuckDuckGo

How To Protect Your Privacy On iPhone - DuckDuckGo
How Google Uses Location Information - Google Privacy & Terms
How to stop (or limit) Google maps from tracking your location - Wired UK
A Google Fitbit means new possibilities and questions for the smartwatch - CNET

A Disrupted Year?

So we're coming to the end of 2019 and this is as good a time as any to take a brief look back on my year. I could spend the time talking about the draft framework for the Science & Technology AoLE. Spent much of the autumn term talking to schools about this and getting myself up to speed on what the framework could possibly look like in the primary classroom. But I won't waste time here talking about it, let's see what is dropped on our desks when the final version is released sometime in January 2020.

Much of my spare time over the second half of 2019 was spent reading up on issues around artificial intelligence and  'big tech' and privacy. This interest was sparked by my own questioning of how I personally use technology (in particular mobile technologies and social media). Like many of you I'm sure, I use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with using Google applications and platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. As much as these applications radically benefit the way I work and communicate with friends and colleagues, along with the ease in which I access film and music and purchase whatever I want and have it delivered to my door next day, I was becoming far more aware of the 'disruption' these technologies have caused. Disruption to the creative industries (film, music, photography, literature); disruption to commerce with the negative effect on our high streets; disruption to politics (need I say more!); basically disruption to virtually all areas of our lives today. I'll look at disruption to education in another post.

Here's a sample of books, podcasts and articles I've been reading or listening to over the last couple of months. Lots of fantastic background information here for teachers (and others) wanting to gain a better understanding of this incredibly important area that touches our day to day lives. It has certainly made me re-evaluate and question what I do and say.

Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark - The Guardian Book Review
Roger McNamee on Sam Harris 'Making Sense' Podcast
Zucked website
Zucked by Roger McNamee - The Guardian Book Review
Tristan Harris - TED Talks "How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day"
Move Fast And Break Things by Jonathan Taplin - The Guardian Book Review
Centre for Humane Technology
Your Undivided Attention Podcast - from the Centre for Humane Technology
Joe Rogan Sam Harris on Social Medias Negative Impact on Society
Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy - New York Times (The Privacy Project)
You Should Be Freaking Out About Your Privacy - New York Times (The Privacy Project)
The Privacy Project - New York Times
Privacy and Power: Your Digital Footprint - NBC Nightly News
Privacy and Power: What Your Apps Say About You - NBC Nightly News
Privacy and Power: The Illusion of Choice - NBC Nightly News
How technology made us bid farewell to privacy in the last decade - USA Today
Colleges are turning students' phones into surveillance machines - The Washington Post
The threat circling human teachers and their profession - Neil Selwyn
The Money Machine: What Google and Facebook Do With Your Data - DuckDuckGo
It's time for tighter regulation on how Facebook and Google use our data - The Guardian
The Great Hack - Netflix
A brutal year: how the 'techlash' caught up with Facebook, Google and Amazon - The Guardian
No, you're phone isn't listening to you - David Carroll
The complete list of alternatives to all Google products - Techspot
No more Google
Brave - Internet Browser. Brave fights malware and prevents tracking, keeping your information safe and secure.
DuckDuckGo -  an internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results.
Mozilla Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Common Sense Education - Privacy & Security