[commodorejohn]

I've considered returning to a dumb phone a few times, and may do so once I figure out a good alternative for mobile data that doesn't cost a fortune.

For me the answer is "looking things up ahead of time." I never got into smartphones (I loathe touchscreens; I can cope with something like stylus tapping and Graffiti on the PalmPilot, more or less, but stubbing one's fingers blindly at virtual keys that are considerably smaller than my actual fingertips is only not my least favorite means of text entry in all of spacetime because those stupid arcade-style ring-around-the-alphabet UIs they use on "smart TVs" also exist,) and the transformation of half the people I knew into fondleslab zombies for about seven or eight years post-iPhone drove me absolutely bonkers and solidified my resolve to never touch the things.

(I vividly recall one time around 2013-2014 where a group of friends/acquaintances invited me to join them for lunch on a Sunday afternoon; we all sat down around the table in a little coffee shop, placed our orders, and then every single one of them proceeded to stare into their screens until I finally got fed up and left after eating my lunch in total isolation with four other people. It was quite an experience for an antisocial recluse like myself to somehow be the least antisocial person there.)

I still haven't found anything they offer that I'm really crippled by not having. If I need to go somewhere, I look it up and write down directions if necessary (this also gives me the opportunity to sanity-check Google Maps's directions, which are full of lies and hatred at least 30% of the time.) If anybody desperately needs to get ahold of me, or if I desperately need to get ahold of them, I have a normal cell phone. Everything else seems to be either stuff that I can do on my laptop while out and about, or stuff that can wait until I'm back home with Internet access.