Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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horizon
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Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by horizon »

I've had a smart phone now for about four years and a mobile phone for about three years before that - so a late adopter on both counts. I don't use it much: a few texts to family, catching up on Radio 4 news, a rare phone call and the odd foray into Radio 4 Extra. It's the privilege of partial retirement and the result of a working life cut short by the pandemic.

At home, I don't need it: the question arises as to whether to take it "on tour". In this situation it should come into its own but on previous excursions I've used it less and less. I've gone back to paper maps, I've booked my accommodation at home from my PC and I've cleared my escape with family members. I now take a book if I want something to read. Generally it just sits in my barbag and is taken out just for the purpose of charging for it then to do nothing. Leaving it behind has now become a real and enticing prospect.

My main wish for wanting to dispense with it is because it is a distraction, for the obvious reason that it calls for attention. But it also becomes a prism through which the world is experienced. There are lots of ways to get information: road signs, station timetables, other people, maps. I don't really want a mono-media. I want to enjoy the world on my terms and on its. Cycling allows you to explore and experience the world in a multi-faceted way - through your legs, your skin, your eyes, your mind. The phone cannot do that. I'm afraid the phone has to stay at home.

The point at which I don't take it at all, rather than just using it less is the watershed. Can I go without it completely? The sheer relief of not having to bother about it - checking where it is, is it charged, has someone tried to ring me, should I look something up - is blessed indeed.

More than anything though I see the phone as a worthless intrusion into a beautiful and practical world: it's an ugly piece of black glass that cannot hold its own beside a good spanner, a Trangia stove and a paper Ordnance Survey map. On a desert island it would be useless. It's important as well to be able to go away, to leave even family behind and reflect on the world, on relationships, on life and death without being reminded of domestic minutiae. For partners, husbands and wives, parents and children, bosses and staff, a short period of separation is priceless. The phone cruelly and crudely smashes that space. It has to go.

So I'm currently planning my next trip - a short winter break. The phone will be staying at home. Some things will need to be prepared differently - indeed they will need to be prepared, something that a smart phone lets you off. I'm already anticipating a different kind of trip: me, the bike, people I meet, the stars, the wind, the cold, the silence. I can't wait.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
pwa
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by pwa »

It depends what experience you are after. If you want to "get away from it", then yes, leaving the smart phone at home is an obvious first step. Having a smart phone with you is just taking the complexity of modern life with you.

Interestingly, yesterday I was walking with our whippet in a wooded valley, with dense cloud cover and just a hint of drizzle, and without any real need for it I reached for the phone to check something on the Ordnance Survey app. And it wasn't functioning. No internet, I was informed. A blank frame where the map ought to have been. It reaffirmed my belief that phones are not a reliable alternative to paper maps. If I had been lost I would have remained that way for quite a while. Normal service returned about an hour later.

But moving on to more important matters, the whippet is getting better at recall. She ran down the track and disappeared around a corner about 200 metres away, and I whistled. Ten seconds later she reappeared, galloping in our direction at full speed. They do up to about 35mph. I had returned the phone to the pocket, determined not to let it distract me from the refreshing sensory experience of the walk, so the focus was back on the trees, the wet moss, the roaring brook at the bottom of the steep fern covered bank, and the graceful speed of the dog. Perfect.
freeflow
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by freeflow »

A smart phone is a tool. Treat it as such and your life will be immesurably better. No need for existential angst when you can switch them off untill you decide you want to use the tool.
pwa
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by pwa »

freeflow wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 4:32am A smart phone is a tool. Treat it as such and your life will be immesurably better. No need for existential angst when you can switch them off untill you decide you want to use the tool.
And if you don't have the self-discipline to leave it alone? I think that is the problem. I bet most users don't have the discipline to do that.
freeflow
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by freeflow »

That's a bit of evolution that's ongoing at the moment. The world is splitting into masters of smartphones and slaves of smartphones.
pwa
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by pwa »

freeflow wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 5:11am That's a bit of evolution that's ongoing at the moment. The world is splitting into masters of smartphones and slaves of smartphones.
:lol:
Steve X
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Steve X »

I would say two reasons a smart phone is "vital" when touring, and should not be, are;

Bureaucracy increasingly expects it, but it can manage without.

Accommodation often/ usually offers significantly better rates for online bookings, and that could mean, stood in reception eyeball to eyeball with the front desk. Not booking online, frequently makes you the mug customer.

Possibly, keep one in a water proof pouch at the bottom of a pannier, and just forget about it, unless you "need" it.
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mjr
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by mjr »

pwa wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 4:22am I reached for the phone to check something on the Ordnance Survey app. And it wasn't functioning. No internet, I was informed. A blank frame where the map ought to have been. It reaffirmed my belief that phones are not a reliable alternative to paper maps. If I had been lost I would have remained that way for quite a while. Normal service returned about an hour later.
Rubbish apps like that should not condemn all phones.

And yes, the OP's situation seems to be more about self discipline than the phone. Leaving the phone behind may not solve the problem as well as mastering it.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
simonhill
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by simonhill »

Horizon (OP) said a short winter break. How long is short. He also says that he sorts stuff out in his computer before he leaves, so not internet free and no smartphone doesn't sound like too much of a hardship.

I'm currently on a 7 week trip and find my phone extremely useful - can't say essential because I did without one in the past.

I probably use it more than I need to, but haven't fallen into constant social media updates or the need to photograph everything. Mainly planning, maps and hotels; news; this forum; travel info; email; banking (safer and saves a lot of money); keeping in contact with friends and social groups (I'm an organiser); etc.

Pre smartphone I used internet cafes, they are rare now, so in some ways it's a replacement for them.

Could I do without - probably. Do I want to do without - no.
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Audax67
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Audax67 »

Here's my phownership (har har) history:
Image
(clickable image: once you get there, hit left arrow to banish Mr. Bowdler)

I didn't think much of smartphones either until I was benighted on the wrong side of the Vosges and my obliging little 2011 phone found me the last room going in an IBIS 30k down the road. Instant love.

BTW, I made that trip 10 days before joining the CTC forum. You can see a wee bit of the scenery here: https://pbase.com/johnewing/201108_lorraine
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Tim Holman
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Tim Holman »

I have to say that I am in agreement with Horizon. I only have a mobile phone to text and talk. Mostly it is switched off and in my pocket or barbag. I do not want to be contacted at someone else's whim. At home, I can answer the telephone apparatus...or not.
Tim
ANTONISH
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by ANTONISH »

In the sixties I relied on pot luck to find accommodation - that didn't always work out and I've slept rough on a few occasions.
After a long absence I returned to touring in the nineties. I used a hotel booking company and booked everything in advance by landline.
Subsequently I booked in advance using the internet.
The problem with advance booking is that you may not be where you intended to be if there is any problem.
When my son prevailed upon me to purchase a smart phone it enabled me to book at short notice - I found this convenient ( obviously not essential).
I use an etrex 30 for navigation - but a feature of the smartphone is that it will give step by step voice instructions to one's destination, so I use it for guidance when I arrive at a town.
google maps seem to update to take account of current traffic conditions which was useful ( when we were driving ) and had to get to a hotel in Belgium - the town had an annual festival - we knew where it was but some roads were closed and we were going round in circles. We tried the smartphone which gave us the instructions we needed to get to our destination.
I always carry paper maps as I like the larger picture as well but you can't get the detail to give street names etc.
All things are tools - one can use them or not but one shouldn't be dismissive of innovation.
Stradageek
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Stradageek »

I'm mostly disturbed by how many things you now cannot do without a smartphone. Even my younger wife's COVID jab appointment arrived before mine because her's came through on her mobile whilst mine was two weeks later by post. And don't get me started on the 'two step verification' now being required to log into almost anything.

I think my realisation that the world has gone (smartphone) mad peaked when at church they wanted a show of hands on some issue or another but rather than a show of hands a QR code appeared on a screen and we were asked to scan it and answer the question on the App that then appeared :roll:

Needless to say my vote wasn't registered :lol:
Jdsk
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Jdsk »

freeflow wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 4:32am A smart phone is a tool. Treat it as such and your life will be immesurably better.
ANTONISH wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 9:32amAll things are tools - one can use them or not but one shouldn't be dismissive of innovation.
mjr wrote: 11 Nov 2021, 8:25amLeaving the phone behind may not solve the problem as well as mastering it.
Those sound right to me.

As with any tool: list the advantages and disadvantages, do experiments, make a decision.

It's helpful to hear from others and the results of those experiments in making that personal list of advantages and disadvantages.

But philosophising about the modern world, general declinism, and contempt for other people is a completely different topic.

Jonathan
Last edited by Jdsk on 11 Nov 2021, 9:48am, edited 2 times in total.
Jdsk
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Re: Cycle touring: time to ditch the smart phone?

Post by Jdsk »

What hasn't come up...

... safety issues.

... using a smart 'phone as a satnav device can mean one less piece of technology. Ditto camera.

... all of the other things that a smart 'phone can do.

Jonathan
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