I guess it is still possible to live without a smartphone. But most of you, like me, must use one at some point. Traveling internationally makes this is even more of a must. But of course, phones are designed to have you tapping at them when you do not actually need to be and granting them permission that they don't need to have. In some ways they persuade us to do things. In these cases we have at least a little choice about what to do. However, in other instances they downright strong-arm us. In these cases there is no workaround available. We must either agree to their arrangements or refrain from using the device altogether. If you are already hip deep in email and chat and app connectivity, this isn't even an option any more.

It really irks me how the companies of these phones and platforms behave. Although the Supreme court ruled in Citizen's United that corporations are people, if actual people in the street behaved the way they do they'd be arrested and put away in short order. Some examples of the shady behavior phones are involved in include:

Updating operating systems to drain the batteries and curb functionality of old phones to force the owner to upgrade.

Specifically making the hardware and software difficult to put down, enabling an addiction basically.

Changing settings users have carefully configured (in the process of an operating system upgrade), such as sending one's entire photo library to a cloud storage that will then suddenly require a monthly fee or risk loss of all media.

Making users agree to a never-changing contract of incomprehensible legal jargon, full of misleading statements and cryptic, masked descriptions of terms that link endlessly to pages and pages of other terms, which can be changed retroactively.

False promises of privacy, hiding personal data gathering and generally acting sleazy.

Provide entities back-doors for full-on surveillance of all the details of people's personal lives

Asking for personal responses and data entry from customers yet only providing automated responses to those same customers' inquiries with AI bots and FAQ pages.

Storing customer data insecurely, then indemnifying themselves when a hack or data breach occurs, often not even telling the customers

The list could go on and on. And it may be too late as these phones are never going away. But I thought I would just call a spade a spade. That is, the thuggish, bullying behavior of these devices and platforms... the bullying phones!