We are not low income: A manifesto

If there’s one thing I find often when I talk about accessing products and services without using a smartphone, it’s that people assume that the reason people want to do this is for “accessibility”

Accessibility is, in this case, a code word for “low-income people”.

I am all for accessibility for low-income people. I think everyone should have access to important services regardless of their income. Health care, retirement benefits, housing, basic income, these are all things that should be available to everyone in some form, regardless of people’s ability to pay into the system.

But people are making the connection that not using a smartphone means that you are a person of limited means. No smartphone means low income. “Obviously, if you just made more money, you’d have a smartphone.“

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Which is why I propose the following. Perhaps it’s a manifesto. Maybe it’s just a poem. Either way, it’s for you to think about, mull over, and make your own.

A manifesto

We are not low income

We are empowered to choose

We are intentional with our purchases

We are intentional with our personal information

We don’t need gatekeepers

We can opt-out where we want

We are not beholden to Apple, Google, Samsung, or any other hardware provider

We choose our services with care

We know that app stores only track us to sell our info to advertisers

We know that smartphones make us less happy and more disconnected
If we use a smartphone, we seek to not be forced to always use one

If we don’t use a smartphone, that doesn’t mean that we wish we could

We are not disabled
We don’t need “accessibility”
We don’t need either pity or scorn
We exist

We have means

We are able

We make choices
And we may make you uncomfortable
Aware that you haven’t made choices
But instead just did what they told you to do

And we have compassion for you
As we have been there too
But we don’t wish to judge you
We just want to be accepted
For our choices too

We are not low-income because we don’t use a smartphone
There is no correlation for us between income and phone usage
Except
For the thought
For the idea
That maybe someday
Maybe in the future in the future
Those who use smartphones
May be the ones
Who are low-income.