Living without a smartphone

It's been around a year or so since I trashed my third or fourth smartphone in a row, and Mum decided that I should get a burner phone. Sadly, burner phones now have 4G, so it didn't do much for my surveillance paranoia (or realities, depending on how believable I seem). Otherwise, it's been fucking great! I don't mind using the crude, old-school method of using the number keys to type words: if it's good enough, then I'll write it out. If Wellington had free wifi in the CBD, which they used to have, then I'd be sweet and able to write my Question Time reviews on Cuba Street while we sesh. Currently, I've found out that both Parliament and the National Library only allow you to access their free internet if you're in the building. - Having Internet on my phone has mostly been really bad for me. Even the burner was able to access Facebook until recently, which is how I posted my updates from Auckland when I was there for the Whakamana opening and Chloe's campaign launch in 2023. I've started taking my laptop on trips if I want to make a long podcast/rant.

On my laptop, it's fairly easy to block ads and news feeds and all that other stuff that drives me crazy. Instagram is slightly more tolerable than the Facebook news feed, so I'm keeping that as is, though it does occasionally piss me off. - I'm eccentric, though. I don't mind if it's slightly more difficult to get in touch with me, though I wish people wouldn't use that as a justification for the various methods that they've used in the last few years.