Why you should consider getting yourself an old and outdated phone?

A Story from the Digitally-advanced Northern Nation of Finland

Let´s face it, most people who follow technology news and anything related knows how one special Nordic country has been able to put itself on the map with its tech-driven culture and globally recognized digital companies. That one weird kid in the classroom is Finland, with previously great contestant Nokia and several new gaming companies like Supercell and Rovio with Angry Birds. We are simply well advanced when it comes to anything that holds data or includes a circuit board. We love tech. And we love startups. Take Slush for example, the annual conference of the business geeks trying to make their way to the riches by digitalizing everything - and making tons of money out of it.

 "In a world of the latest it´s actually about the time to start thinking a little bit backwards."

However, I firmly believe that on the side of all of this electric hysteria there is another trend towards old basics. In a world of the latest it´s actually about the time to start thinking a little bit backwards. What I have come to witness is people opting for a 20 dollar used bike with thin tires, instead of a 1500 dollar fat bike specifically made for the winter conditions. It is indeed a fact that a Finn never really brags about anything and that we have been raised to not draw attention to ourselves in great amounts but trust me, this is not it. The reasoning behind this behavioural movement is related to a psychologic term - loss diversion. In here the fear of losing a specific item overtakes the feeling of wanting that very same object. Thus, people, when seen rational and possible, push to getting a perfectly functioning piece of an equipment instead of the latest and greatest. The new stuff simply gets stolen! 

So how does all this relate to mobile phones? Well, let me tell you my story. Some years ago, actually a very long time ago I had one of these "banana phones" from Sony Ericsson. Eventually that day came when I fell over in the stairs of my student flat, mad drunk obviously, and managed to smash the phone into two pieces. So I had to finally get a phone with the latest (back then!) technology, a touch screen that was. I decided to go for a pretty neat looking Samsung where the price was reasonable for a messy and often hazardous young male student like myself. Quite soon after my purchase, the newly bought S5230 proved to be pretty annoying phone when it came to the operating system. Now you need to remember that we are talking about the year 2009 here, so that should explain a bit. Anyhow, the touch screen was awful - once clicked on the main screen it would constantly open up a radio app or calendar or whatever else, except the phonebook I was going after. Also, the typing was hard and took forever. Texting, I just gave up. I would tell my friends and family to call as I would always read all my messages, but from thereon I would not write anything, not a single letter back. It was sad. I admit it.  But I kept the phone. Got new ones, better ones. 

"Quite soon after my purchase, the newly bought S5230 proved to be pretty annoying phone when it came to the operating system. "

To this day I am still using my trusted Samsung S5230. Generally, as the time moves on I have felt more and more ashamed of it. This all culminated last weekend (November 2016), when I got to hang out with my old friend from High School in a house warming party. My friend, nowadays a  salesrep for Samsung, had invited a bunch of his colleagues to hang out and drink booze all night long. Eventually what happened was that my phone finally rang, it was my mum by the way...and I had to publicly once again draw the phone from my pocket out to the public. Needless to say, the crowd was shocked. They had not seen such an obsolete plastic piece in years. All ten or so guys bursted into laughs. Each of them calling it names and coming up with silly stories from the past. As the volume of the attention was rather high, I decided to quietly ignore the insults and do what the penguins in Madagascar taught us - smile and wave. Some time later, one of the guys came to talk to me privately once I was pouring more JD into my glass in the kitchen. He was still somewhat surprised that I, a reasonably trendy guy would carry S5230 in my pocket. I explained to him that I just kind of never got up to changing it as I had a modern work phone from my employer and this one was still working like new. After a while I think I got him convinced that there was actually nothing wrong about it. It was actually, kind of cool.

"But you know what? I found my good ol´Samsung perfectly untouched in the chest pocket of my winter coat."

Later on we decided to head to the bar downtown and ditch the flat. We chose to pop into this a tiny bit rough bar in Oulu center (Google Oulu, check the images and no questions are left to be answered to) to kick the night finally off properly with shots. However, once we entered the bar we had to leave our jackets behind in front door counter where the bartender was keeping place. As we we were mad wasted, some of us forgot our phones in the small chest pockets of our puffy Helly Hansen and Northface jackets as we only made sure that we´d still have our wallets when heading towards the drinks. The shots worked well so we got a few more. And a few more after that. Finally after an hour or we head back to pick up our jackets to try a proper night club instead. At this point one of my mates got his jacket back before the rest of us and realized that his phone was missing. The bouncer didn´t really seem to care and calmly pointed at a tiny A4 poster stating that the staff would take no responsibility when it came to any missing items. So there was really nothing to do. The bouncer went back to get the rest of the jackets without really saying a word or two more about the subject. As we all got our Helly Hansens back and investigated the pockets - another friend noticed that he was missing his Ralph Lauren leather gloves and another on got his back without the small change coins he had had in the pockets. But you know what? I found my good ol´Samsung perfectly untouched in the chest pocket of my winter coat. The keylock was off which indicated that someone had gone through it as well but left it behind in the end anyways. I guess it was not up to the latest standards of the black market.

Some time later,  I heard that some of those Samsung guys I´d met that night had got old Samsung models from work for free for them to use as "night club phones". Phones that would not easily get stolen due to their outdated outlook and minimum resell value. Since then, I have also managed to convince few others at my work to consider getting B-phone for their freetime activities in public as well. Also, I´ve met people in social conditions in Finland that have come to the same conclusion themselves and moved on to use old phones instead of getting the latest Iphones. Much like the bikes this seems to be a some sort of niche trend over here in Scandinavia, at least Estonia and Finland. A trend that has roots in the negative sides of clubbing and active social life, especially in cold countries where you have to leave jackets and other valuables behind once entering a place.  Maybe it will fade away, or perhaps the rest of the world can once again take example from the crazy northern people. 

I really really love my Samsung phone.