I live in France. I did nothing at all for months, but I had and wanted no social life. I returned to my computer because I wanted it, and to a dumbphone because of banks. Without a phone number, there is a lot of things you can’t do with your bank, and I couldn’t access to my bank account anymore. I know people with a landline phone and no dumb or smartphone and it’s ok for the bank, for now.

I have mail, phone numbers, etc. But what’s really annoying is people are always with whatsapp or signal and I can’t. I feel left out of lot of things. I’m often the last to know social events.

Edit: and there are lot of services which requires smartphones, even state ones.

In the U.S. older people still get by fine without all this stuff. I have family that still has a landline, nothing else, so I guess maybe that’s #3 in your list. It does mean they physically have to go to places to get things done (e.g. physically go to a bank).

Older people don’t care as much about social life beyond visiting/seeing the people/relatives they’ve always been seeing. A smartphone isn’t required for that.

A friend of mine avoids smartphones as he is (rightfully) very concerned with his privacy when it comes to big tech. So he has a PC and a dumbphone.

In the US, it’s not a requirement. I use my phone for nothing but occasionally making or receiving calls, taking photos, and messaging friends, but all of that could be done without it. I just use it because I have it.

Tedious but doable as proven by a lot of older people.

In your four scenarios.

1 is doable the rest are not.

You need a voiceline/phone.

I guess you could use a soft phone.

it’s not even about a smartphone, it’s about being allowed to access services with said smartphone.

when the ticket machine was removed from a train station in rural sweden and replaced with a note on how to buy tickets online, it instantly locked three types of people out: people who don’t have a smartphone, people who don’t have a payment card, and tourists. because it required online verification, you basically needed a swedish phone number and id to buy tickets.

this was about eight years ago, so smartphone penetration was lower, but i still think about the people i met at the train station while i desperately tried to order tickets over the phone and kept getting stuck in their automated phone tree. they were basically stuck there.

My mother in law gets by just fine without hers. But then again, she’s in Arkansas, so I’m not sure if that counts as a modern, or developed country.

Does the US count as a “modern-day developed country?” 'Cause if so, it’s apparently still possible because my tech-illiterate Boomer parents manage it.

(Okay, they technically have smartphones, mainly because I’m trying to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but they basically use them for nothing but phone calls and maybe an occasional text message or email. My dad accesses banking stuff via website on his computer, but if he didn’t have that I’m sure he’d just be fine going to the counter at the brick-and-mortar branch.)

I didn’t have my first smartphone until my 20s.

I’d imagine it would be similar today. A purse full of maps, important phone numbers in my head, Skype on my computer to talk with my family and friends.

In the early days, I would go to the library to use the computer and Internet.

Doesn’t difficult very much depend on what you think matters? You’re instantly missing out on anything app, anything QR-code related (ordering food in some restaurants, links, etc.), membership cards that no longer exist in physical form. Some places sell certain tickets online only and then you may need a printer or you’re SOL. I’m sure in missing something so that’s not extensive.

But at the same time, if you have a dumb phone, you can still stay in touch with friends and family. You’ll be missing out on images being sent that are bigger than 2 pixels. But you wouldn’t be completely out of the loop. And if you have an internet ready computer at home or at the next door library, just not on you at all times, I think that’s crucial. Without that you’re ending up in all sorts of trouble.

I would say it’s doable if you are good at not giving F’s. If at the same time you only want to use cash or just no credit cards you’ll be making your life much harder though.

I did these in China.

4 first, poor had nothing, moved to teach English. It was fine, I paid for things with cash, I had a debit card to use the ATMs.

And up until that point I still didn’t have any phone, so I climbed the hills behind the apartment I was renting and just walked around town learning stuff, trying for, living life.

Then I got a dumphone, which changed little except I could hang out with close friends from the school but usually we coordinated when we work together in the school anyway, so there was very little change with a dumb phone.

Then I bought a laptop and I could study Rosetta Stone and watch TV/movies.

eventually I got a smartphone and then I could start dating in the modern world. I dated in China before that through organic meetups, but I didn’t realize how far into the digital age dating head lapped until I got a smartphone and used all the apps.

It’s very feasible and I’ll say a lot less stressful to not have a phone, but it’s not as anxious-fun, and I do like looking stuff up all the time and having gigabytes of music in my pocket.

which reminds me before I had a laptop or smartphone, I bought a mini iPod in China and used one of the school computers to load it up with music.

Shoot that was a revolution for me, I loved the little clip on the back and how late it was.

How bad would it be for your social life?

I’d say that without the tech you won’t make new connections as easily on a surface level, but whenever an unteched person does get into a conversation, their side of the conversation tends to be a bit more well thought out and significant.

You’ll also put more work into the real life relationship since you don’t have a hundred virtual relationships vying for your attention on your phone.

So it would probably help your social life, by my metrics.

I’m kind of living the 1) life, I have a degoogled smartphone in eternal airplane mode and only free software apps. So in practice I have none of the apps “required” to live.

In large cities, transportation is getting more and more difficult without uber. Bike/escooter rentals also stopped working without an app. I use osmand on my offline smartphone to find taxi stands, so that’s cheating by your standards, but stands are empty these days and the drivers are a bit surprised and comment that “most people order a taxi by phone these days”.

I’ve lost most of my friends when I quit facebook, when we randomly meet we still have a small chat but I don’t get invited to events (birthdays etc) any more. Big respect to the few that still don’t mind sending an sms or email (and even more respect to the 2 friends who keep an xmpp client with only me as a contact)

Increasingly, I don’t know what’s going on around me because businesses, libraries etc advertise only on “spotted” on facebook, have presence only on fb, and don’t even care about telling the local news about events or openings. I only know about that because of other people who use facebook.

It’s entirely possible, depending on what services you want to live without.

More and more official / administration things in more and more countries require a smartphone.

So: outright impossible, unless you want to unplug yourself from any “normal” living, earning money etc.