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by zzzbra 1362 days ago
> but life in Moscow without a phone is basically impossible (taxis, deliveries, electric scooters, bikes etc. all become pretty much unavailable).

am I the only one who finds this horrifying

5 comments

No, but the thing is that for the majority of people nowadays this is normal and unsurprising. If you don't have a phone, a lot of things become unavailable and 99% of people (maybe even more!) don't consider that strange.

You can sometimes work around parts of it. For example there are still taxi dispatchers you can call (but with what? Maybe if you have at least a dumb phone ...) but drivers might be more hesitant to accept those jobs (less precise pickup locations, more ambiguity about destinations etc.). You can rent some of the public bikes using a public transport card, but none of the scooters - and those are much more available.

In highly modernised places there is simply a baseline assumption about the tech that everyone has available to them ...

People find it strange when I tell them I leave my phone at home most of the times when I go for walking, so I can relate. 99% have absolutely normalised phones in their lives as an essential commodity like refrigerator or a house key.
I don't find it horrifying at all, I remember the times when I had to sit in phone calls to organize a plethora of small things I shouldn't have wasted time on the phone for. To me the modern age where you open an app and do things there has been infinitely better. Ordering pizza, calling a taxi, paying for delivered groceries, paying bills etc. -- all through phone.

The fact that there are entities out there that want to steal every drop of your attention when you are on your phone does not nullify the usefulness of modern technology. Nor does it guarantee them success.

I'd say that many people happily use technology to improve their lives and dodge all the other crap. For that group the modern age is absolutely great.

Not only that. Many banks and government services nowadays require a phone (and/or phone number) as well. Their excuse? MFA. So idiotic. I can understand that they want to improve auth for the vast majority of their customers, but don't make it mandatory FFS!
Too many people, even here, praise MFA when they reveal how weak their passwords are.

I've never had an auto generated password get broken into. Password databases should've been the solution everyone pushed, not 2FA.

Also, it's really an attempt for these services to cut down on fakes and bots. Its easy to make new emails, but hard to get new numbers that aren't already black/brown listed.

What do you think is wrong with 2FA?
As a user, it's not fast, user-friendly, or fail-tolerant. And all three of those vary heavily depending on the company implementing the 2FA.

A username/email and password is pretty simple and straight-forward. If I lose a password, I can reset it via my email. Therefore, the only account that should even consider MFA should be my email, since it's a gateway to everything else. But that also means my email shouldn't have to be connected to 20 other services.

2FA is fine. Being forced to use a mobile phone for 2FA is wrong.
same. i'm really feeling it now after adopting a dumb phone.

recently had an idea: what if we installed small, public computers on city blocks, much in the same way that we did phone booths

You think the fraud tech on ATMs is bad already? Wait until you see what people would do with those computers :)
i'm sure, but no different than what people already do with private computers
It's just the progression of things. Things first shifted online. Some are now going with apps because apps are a better fit.

Eg, if you're calling a taxi, what are you going to call one from, if not a phone? A phone is the best tool for the job because if they come and can't find you, then can call you back.