How attached are you to your mobile device? (2025 Edition)

[Scott5114]

I was going to rebut this with a modern PDA I heard about, but apparently this thing can actually make calls, though it looks incredibly silly.

How does that thing display any kind of affection, public or not?   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexting

[kphoger]

I definitely need it for some of my day-to-day tasks, and wouldn't dare try to do something complex like a trip without it.

Meanwhile, for my most recent trip out of the country two months ago, I traveled with my dumbphone and a borrowed digital camera.  The only thing I might have needed a smartphone for was CDC contact tracing info in advance of my return trip to the USA;  but I just had my wife do that from our PC at home on my behalf, although I could have simply done it at the airport counter before departure instead, and Reddit threads now lead me to believe I didn't even actually need to do it at all.  For at least half of my time in Mexico, I didn't have cell reception anyway.

I flew from Wichita via DFW to Tampico, caught a city bus a couple of blocks from the Tampico airport, got off after about 5 km, walked about 1 km to the intercity bus station, bought a ticket and boarded an hour later, then got off at a gas station 155 km away, where I arranged via text message for my friend to pick me up.  No smartphone required.

Seriously, you guys do realize that people managed to travel before the invention of the smartphone, right?

[JayhawkCO]

Meanwhile, for my most recent trip out of the country two months ago, I traveled with my dumbphone and a borrowed digital camera. 

Would have been nice to have it for Mobile Passport Control if you don't have Global Entry. Sometimes has saved me an hour in the past.

[kphoger]

Would have been nice to have it for Mobile Passport Control if you don't have Global Entry. Sometimes has saved me an hour in the past.

When I returned to the USA through DFW, I didn't show my passport to a single person.  All facial recognition.

[JayhawkCO]

Would have been nice to have it for Mobile Passport Control if you don't have Global Entry. Sometimes has saved me an hour in the past.

When I returned to the USA through DFW, I didn't show my passport to a single person.  All facial recognition.

How long was the line though? That's the important part. It you use the MPC app, the line is normally 10% of what the normal passport line is.

[kphoger]

How long was the line though? That's the important part. It you use the MPC app, the line is normally 10% of what the normal passport line is.

Yeah, the line was pretty long.  I don't remember there being a 'mobile' line, though.  How does that work?

[JayhawkCO]

How long was the line though? That's the important part. It you use the MPC app, the line is normally 10% of what the normal passport line is.

Yeah, the line was pretty long.  I don't remember there being a 'mobile' line, though.  How does that work?

You basically just enter your passport info and take a selfie in the app within four hours of your arrival. Then there's a separate line for people who did this stuff in advance, and I've never waited more than 10 minutes in that line. If your wife has a smartphone, one person can add their entire traveling group together.

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/mobile-passport-control

[Rothman]

I definitely need it for some of my day-to-day tasks, and wouldn't dare try to do something complex like a trip without it.

Meanwhile, for my most recent trip out of the country two months ago, I traveled with my dumbphone and a borrowed digital camera.  The only thing I might have needed a smartphone for was CDC contact tracing info in advance of my return trip to the USA;  but I just had my wife do that from our PC at home on my behalf, although I could have simply done it at the airport counter before departure instead, and Reddit threads now lead me to believe I didn't even actually need to do it at all.  For at least half of my time in Mexico, I didn't have cell reception anyway.

I flew from Wichita via DFW to Tampico, caught a city bus a couple of blocks from the Tampico airport, got off after about 5 km, walked about 1 km to the intercity bus station, bought a ticket and boarded an hour later, then got off at a gas station 155 km away, where I arranged via text message for my friend to pick me up.  No smartphone required.

Seriously, you guys do realize that people managed to travel before the invention of the smartphone, right?

Yes and it sucked compratively.  I can now route myself around traffic jams much, much easier than back in the 1980s or 1990s and that's even taking into account using my own route rather than what Google Maps suggests.  Rand McNally Road Atlases could not show all local roads and options like online mapping services nowadays can.  Frankly, I've been wondering about if we're underestimating the beneficial effects that real-time routing has had on aggregare vehicle-hours of delay...

[kphoger]

Hmm.  Maybe there was an MBC line at DFW and I just don't remember seeing it.

[kphoger]

meh.

I can now route myself around traffic jams much, much easier than back in the 1980s or 1990s and that's even taking into account using my own route rather than what Google Maps suggests.

I can route myself around traffic jams by just getting off the highway and taking a different route.  What route to take?  If it's in my home city, then I already know alternate routes.  If I'm traveling, then I look at a paper map.  The day before I leave for a road trip, I check the traffic overlay on Google Maps to look for road construction delays.  None of that is some major inconvenience.  Even back when I had a cell phone, I never used it for real-time directions.  On rare occasions, I have my wife check for an alternate route on her smartphone instead of pulling out a paper map, but those occasions few and far between.

The main advantage I've found is that, if it's approaching mealtime and I haven't already planned where to eat, we can pull up all restaurants on Google Maps and decide where to eat as we're approaching the town.

Rand McNally Road Atlases could not show all local roads and options like online mapping services nowadays can.

No, but it does show most routes that are worth taking as a bypass—at least in the part of the country I'm typically traveling through.  Your experience, obviously may be different than mine.

[JayhawkCO]

Hmm.  Maybe there was an MBC line at DFW and I just don't remember seeing it.

Yeah, it's definitely there. I remember using it flying back from Santiago once.

[Rothman]

meh.

I can now route myself around traffic jams much, much easier than back in the 1980s or 1990s and that's even taking into account using my own route rather than what Google Maps suggests.

I can route myself around traffic jams by just getting off the highway and taking a different route.  What route to take?  If it's in my home city, then I already know alternate routes.  If I'm traveling, then I look at a paper map.  The day before I leave for a road trip, I check the traffic overlay on Google Maps to look for road construction delays.  None of that is some major inconvenience.  Even back when I had a cell phone, I never used it for real-time directions.  On rare occasions, I have my wife check for an alternate route on her smartphone instead of pulling out a paper map, but those occasions few and far between.

The main advantage I've found is that, if it's approaching mealtime and I haven't already planned where to eat, we can pull up all restaurants on Google Maps and decide where to eat as we're approaching the town.

Rand McNally Road Atlases could not show all local roads and options like online mapping services nowadays can.

No, but it does show most routes that are worth taking as a bypass—at least in the part of the country I'm typically traveling through.  Your experience, obviously may be different than mine.

You choose to suffer and I refuse...

[kphoger]

You choose to suffer and I refuse...

You seem to have missed the part where I'm not suffering.

[Rothman]

You choose to suffer and I refuse...

You seem to have missed the part where I'm not suffering.

Neither was the man with the shovel standing next to the Bobcat operator.  Ignorance truly is bliss and that's not a positive saying.

[kphoger]

Paper maps are not a form of suffering.

[Rothman]

Paper maps are not a form of suffering.

Using them is.  Unfolding them, finding where you are on the map, eventually tearing at where vertical and horizontal creases meet... Safe drivers have to pull over to use them...

I do have nostalgia for paper maps and have a recent RMcN atlas at home, but there's nothing like using two fingers to find a detour route in seconds...

[kphoger]

Unfolding them, finding where you are on the map, eventually tearing at where vertical and horizontal creases meet... Safe drivers have to pull over to use them...

Oh yeah, I hate folding maps too.  I travel in the USA with a Rand McNally spiral-bound atlas, in Mexico with a Guía Roji spiral-bound atlas.  For places where I need greater detail or customized maps, I make my own ahead of time using Google My Maps (or official online Mexican state maps from SCT) and MSPaint, then print them on 8½x11 sheets that may or may not end up in sheet protectors.

[Rothman]

Unfolding them, finding where you are on the map, eventually tearing at where vertical and horizontal creases meet... Safe drivers have to pull over to use them...

Oh yeah, I hate folding maps too.  I travel in the USA with a Rand McNally spiral-bound atlas, in Mexico with a Guía Roji spiral-bound atlas.  For places where I need greater detail or customized maps, I make my own ahead of time using Google My Maps (or official online Mexican state maps from SCT) and MSPaint, then print them on 8½x11 sheets that may or may not end up in sheet protectors.

Yeah, I don't have to do any of that...

[kphoger]

Yeah, I don't have to do any of that...

I enjoy building my own maps, customized for my travels.  I did so back when I had a smartphone too.  My kids also like to grab the paper atlas every so often to see where we are and how far we have to go.

Most of the time, I already know the route well enough that I don't even need a map.  So you might say I don't have to do any of it either.  But I enjoy it.  I'm not just a roadgeek, but a mapgeek as well.

Heck, for the intercity bus trip in Mexico back in August, I built my own detailed route schedule ahead of time, complete with km-post numbers, so I could follow along by looking out the window and see how far behind schedule the bus was.  Completely unnecessary for the purpose of my travel, but something I enjoyed doing anyway.

[Rothman]

Yeah, I don't have to do any of that...

I enjoy building my own maps, customized for my travels.  I did so back when I had a smartphone too.  My kids also like to grab the paper atlas every so often to see where we are and how far we have to go.

Most of the time, I already know the route well enough that I don't even need a map.  So you might say I don't have to do any of it either.  But I enjoy it.  I'm not just a roadgeek, but a mapgeek as well.

Heck, for the intercity bus trip in Mexico back in August, I built my own detailed route schedule ahead of time, complete with km-post numbers, so I could follow along by looking out the window and see how far behind schedule the bus was.  Completely unnecessary for the purpose of my travel, but something I enjoyed doing anyway.

I go through the same routing process, just with the advantage of using online resources.  Got a multi-day trip coming up with a whole lot of stops and my aging mind can't memorize all the twists and turns in the routing, even on a per diem basis.  Save the routes to my phone and just pull them up.

Got the old man habit of still printing out the directions as a backup, but I rarely use them as such.  If anything, I scribble on them after I stop for the night to keep track of times that I stray from the path for whatever reason.

Definitely appreciate Google Maps' automatic rerouting if a road is closed or I see something I want to check out or whatever else.  Much easier than futzing around with paper.

[ZLoth]

Seriously, you guys do realize that people managed to travel before the invention of the smartphone, right?

I remember traveling before mobile phones were available to the general public. I won't say mobile phone (period) as those were available back in the 1960s (there was an episode of the Andy Griffith show titled The Foster Lady that depicted this), but phoneless travel was possible. However, it was like being in a car with only a AM radio with no FM or eight-track (thank you frugal parents!). Submitted for your consideration...

• You had to check-in at the main counter to get your plane ticket. Nowadays, you can check in 24 hours from a computer or phone in advance of boarding, and print out your ticket at home. Or, just show your ticket via mobile phone.
• Want music in your flight? In the 1970s, you had to plug-in some non-electronic hollow-tube headphones into your seat and select between several airplane-supplied audio channels. The "Walkman" cassette player was introduced in 1979 and the portable CD player was introduced in 1984, allowing you to play your own music on a flight. Don't think about using a FM radio as it could interfere was the airplane's avionics. Nowadays, you can download your music and play it on your mobile device.
• If your flight was long enough, maybe they would play a movie that was edited to remove certain details including plane crashes. You enjoyed that movie and liked it because it was the only movie being shown. Nowadays, you would link up to the airplane's WiFi and choose between a selection of movies of both classic and modern films to view on your tablet in multiple languages, and some airlines are even eliminating the seatback video displays.
• If someone was picking you up from the airport, you gave when your flight arrived. Of course, this was pre-September 11th when you actually met your party at the gate... and hope that the flight's arrival wasn't delayed for more than an hour. No web page for flight information. Nowadays, I have a two-step notification process when people pick me up from DFW... a first call when the plane is on the ground and approaching the gate so that they can start driving to the cellular waiting lot (a thirty-fourty minute drive), and a second call that I have my luggage and am ready to be picked up. Don't even get me started on those drives to San Francisco International because Sacramento Metropolitan (pre-International) was too expensive.
• Want to find stuff on your destinations? I know that AAA had published TourBooks for your destination and turn-by-turn TripTix books for driving to your destination.
• Don't even get me started on distracted driving. I can't think of a more distracted driving than holding a three-times refolded paper map to navigate to your destination. Forget "Tom-Tom", how about "Son-Son"?
• Or even being a pre-driving age person on a family trip in the back seat. Usually, the entertainment was a book, a magazine, or if I was lucky enough, an electronic game.
• Of course, no family trip would be complete without someone crying "WWWWeeee'rrrreeee lost" along with "you are going the WRONG (BLEEPING) WAY!"

There are some aspects of travel that are sometimes missed today, including the part of dressing up for your flight and having a nice meal on a flight. But, considering how many functions are combined in my smartphone to make travel easier, I'll accept the trade-offs. During my last cruise, I was able to handle a household emergency while on a tour bus in Martinique. This would have been an expensive international call in the past, but a local call on my mobile with international roaming.

[kkt]

Everybody had to check in at the airline ticket counter, and back then the airlines were competing for your business, so they staffed them so that the line was pretty short.  And they offered to check your bags for free, so there was space in the overhead bins for the few people who wanted to take the luggage with them anyway.

[Max Rockatansky]

I definitely need it for some of my day-to-day tasks, and wouldn't dare try to do something complex like a trip without it.

Seriously, you guys do realize that people managed to travel before the invention of the smartphone, right?

Me personally, most of my trips (complex or not) involve going somewhere a smartphone is useless.  I know that I've mentioned getting paper tickets and having to check in at the airport in Mexico somewhere recently.  On my most recent day trip to New Idria (50 miles from cell coverage) we even took a CB radio and checked out/in with a reliable friend in case we were overdue back to civilization. 

[Scott5114]

Paper maps are not a form of suffering.

Using them is.  Unfolding them, finding where you are on the map...

Admitting to a group of roadgeeks that you find it difficult to find where you are on a map is not the flex you appear to think it is.

[Roadgeekteen]

Paper maps are not a form of suffering.

Using them is.  Unfolding them, finding where you are on the map...

Admitting to a group of roadgeeks that you find it difficult to find where you are on a map is not the flex you appear to think it is.

I mean it depends. If it's a map of the whole state and you are on some random side street, it could be hard. But if you are on a major highway most of us could probably find our location very quickly.