Living in a city like London means being connected to many of the most diverse and entertaining communities in the world. Actually staying engaged and appreciative within these communities can be challenging, however, especially when we feel the need to stay on the cutting edge of the latest tech.
By taking a step back and downgrading or just not updating some key pieces of technology, it’s possible to become more engaged with the world around us. It’s easier than you think, and you still don’t have to give up on the advantages tech offers.
Simple is Still Powerful
Even if you downgrade a system like a smartphone to a basic model, you’ll still have access to a huge amount of functionality. This is because the base models of modern devices are still extremely flexible and powerful. If you want to play bingo for free online, for example, you won’t need a fast device. Connection to these games (which run several times a day) is streamlined even on older or less powerful devices, and you have just as much of an opportunity to win the cash prizes. The same is true for most streaming and browsing services, which require little in the way of processing power.
While we’ve tended to overlook it thanks to the normalisation of constant upgrades, generation improvements to tech systems are far from what they once were. Smartphones like the iPhone are again a perfect example, where each new system once brought with it leaps forward in performance and usability, where modern version-to-version differences are often minimal at best.
Running the Numbers
To find out just how much you could save by not upgrading, you’ll need to run a few calculations on the different systems you use, what you could do without, and how these costs add up. For a simple example, we could look at a streaming service you no longer use, like a Netflix Premium subscription, and a yearly upgrade to the latest iPhone.
According to current prices, the Netflix subscription here would work out to about £228 per month, while a basic iPhone model costs around £800. This works out to over a thousand pounds per year just from these two options. Multiply this by multiple family members over multiple years, and the costs really start to add up.
What Really Matters
While cost might not always be a consideration for everyone, if you want to save for something like a special holiday or something to treat your loved ones with, then making these small changes can be well worth the trade.
The ultimate point here is to remember that we can fall into patterns that we don’t re-examine down the line, which can cause us to miss out on approaches to life we might prefer. It only takes a small while to take a look at the effects that tech has in this part of our lives and to look for alternatives that prove superior in the long run.
