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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

No they don't. People want to virtue signal that they are above the mindless masses that you can turn into easily with a modern phone. This is effectively the "I don't own a television" signaling of this decade. People want to be the kind of person that they think can "rise above" these things. They don't want to put in the ridiculous effort it would take, though.

Edit: Fair critiques that I don't think it is literally all virtue signaling. I certainly think there is something to be said for people that love to discuss how they don't like phones. What I was thinking more strongly there was people confuse their declared preferences with their actual preferences.

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Yes they do, as I am one, and it has nothing to do with virtue signaling, because I would be embarrassed to tell someone. For me, it's more about my brain keeping an undesirable tether to my phone, which appears to be a real phenomenon [1].

My experience may be different from yours, but try this if you haven't: one by one uninstall each of your social media and media apps. When I do this, I feel a tangible silence when it uninstalls. With massive amounts of addiction in my gene pool, maybe I'm wired different than you, so maybe don't come at it with such negative assumptions.

[1] https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/2023/05/20/brain-drain-smartphones

Why would you be embarrassed to tell people about your phone? For that matter, how often are you discussing your phone with anyone? Having lived on burner phones for a time, I can tell you that virtually nobody noticed. Or cared.

Edit: And apologies, I forgot to address your challenge. Amusingly, I don't have social media installed on my phone. I do what I can to not even look at email on my phone. Fairly successful at it, all told.

> Why would you be embarrassed to tell people about your phone?

Precisely because of people like you, that can't appreciate differences personal preference:

> People want to virtue signal that they are above the mindless masses that you can turn into easily with a modern phone.

That I understand it is a personal preference is why I don't care what sort of phone you have... Nor does my phone type ever come up. Occasionally, someone realizes I don't get their texts because they are apple.

Is like caring what someone's TV is setup like. It just doesn't matter.

So, let me restate a little. The type of people that bring this up are all too often not serious on it. They sometimes want to be, in a declared preference way, but they could easily act on it and have a cheaper phone. It is not a hard choice to make. Nor is it expensive.

> The type of people that bring this up are all too often not serious on it.

As you again just demonstrated, silly judgmental perspectives like this is precisely why I would never bring it up. You're asking me why I wouldn't, and then telling me negative things about people who would. I don't enjoy these types of interactions. Getting a potential spotlight from someone baselessly judgmental, and then having to defend yourself, is not my idea of a good time. It's embarrassing.

Some people are weirded out when someone does something slightly different, seemingly causing some strange tribalism region of their brain to activate, putting the other person into a "them" category, filled with negativities. I find it very strange, and I try to not associate with people like that. I think categorizing is a post-fact thing, not a pre-fact thing.

I didn't ask why you wouldn't bring it up, I asked why you would be embarrassed. I would similarly ask why someone else would ask. My assertion being that nobody cares what anyone else's phone is. I'd assume if you bring up your phone, it is something you want to talk about, so I'd let you. I might even be interested in your interests in your phone. Ahead of time, though, I flat don't care.

There are countless choices you can make in life that nobody else cares about. What brand of shoe are you wearing? What style? What brand of shirt? What style of cuff? Collar? Buttons? Do you wear pins with your outfit?

I don't even think my points here are interesting. You shouldn't let yourself be influenced by what others care about in things that don't matter. More, I don't think my points here are counter to your declared preferences. I agree that it is strange to care about someone doing something slightly different. I'm not the one that said I'm embarrassed when I do, though?

Edit: Also wanted to say that "this" got shifted some there. The sentence I had in the last saying people that bring this up are not serious on it, is on people that bring up wanting a cheap phone. It is not necessarily a bad unseriousness. But it is unserious. Nothing is stopping you from getting a cheap phone today.

Hard to take your comment seriously when you immediately use a phrase like "virtue signal" and infer that everyone stating this desire is disingenuous.

Fair in that I doubt it is everyone. But, at large, people are rather happy with their phone. If a touch embarrassed that they use it so much. Though, really only if you confront them with a scenario that begs the question, as it were.

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