Typically, after my husband orders the car, he texts me a screenshot with the license plate and wait time. This time, though, the picture didn’t come through. I sent a throwaway text to see if I could prod the message out. Still nothing. Sheepishly, I called my husband back. It was after 10 p.m. The man just wanted to go to bed.
I anticipated that not having a smartphone would make me more reliant on other people — perhaps without Google Maps on hand, I’d have to ask an actual human for directions.
I don’t think any of this means smartphone-free living is untenable. On the contrary, perhaps the only way for us to recreate a society in which we don’t have to be tethered to these brain-rotting devices is for someone to take up the mantle of being a pain in the butt.
Fuck, I hope my smartphone doesn't go down. Otherwise I'd have to act like a human! 
Not having WhatsApp would be pretty rough. If some company expects me to scan a QR code that's on them.
Just call a cab.
Just use your card lmao.
Don't they give you a phone number.
So many of these problems are just nothing.
White Americans just self-reporting that they can't operate without a slave.
It's beyond silly to equate a smart phone to slavery.
To me it seems clear they're referring to the gig apps, in this case uber, not simply using a smartphone. Which sure, is not an uncontroversial comparison to make either, but not the strawman you make it out to be.
Also felt like a reference the classic BMF banger:
Say they were. Equating an Uber driver to chattel slavery is still a terminally-online take. A shitty job is still very different from forced labor where someone might cut off your foot if you leave.
This article is about the U.S. One of the biggest theoretical questions for U.S. leftists is how post-industrial workers relate to capital. How do you develop class consciousness in someone who (for instance) works a service job through an app, who works largely alone, who maybe does some Robinhood-type stock trading, and who goes home to a standard of living that is low for their area but still meets a lot of their material needs pretty comfortably? What if that person has bounced between that, more traditional service jobs, more lucrative PMC-type jobs, and maybe others? That's a lot more complicated than reducing things to slavery.
The Moto-Slave from Bubblegum Crisis is actually short for Motorola Slave. Free the phone.
These problems are surmountable, but they are absolutely not nothing. Smart phones took off so fast because it's very useful to have access to the internet in your pocket. It's one thing to say the costs of smartphones outweigh the benefits, it's another to pretend there just aren't any benefits.
Ok, you got me. I'm a painpig for making my life more difficult out of the believe that society should be centered around human needs not technology.
Fetishizing utility is already part of the problem.