• Psythik@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It’s been at least a decade since I’ve seen a homeless person without a phone. Free government phones are easy to get. They all have them.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      5 months ago

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6516785/

      However, little is known about homeless adults’ technology access and use. Utilizing data from a study of 421 homeless adults moving into PSH, this paper presents descriptive technology findings, and compares results to age-matched general population data. The vast majority (94%) currently owned a cell phone, although there was considerable past 3-month turnover in phones (56%) and phone numbers (55%). More than half currently owned a smartphone, and 86% of those used Android operating systems. Most (85%) used a cell phone daily, 76% used text messaging, and 51% accessed the Internet on their cell phone. One-third reported no past 3-month Internet use

      Based on that study, many have a cell phone, but not all of them have smart phones. There’s also a lot of turnover.

      I’ve never had a homeless person ask me to venmo them some money.

      • hOrni@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Wait a few weeks and Google will be giving away free phones, just so they can track everybody. Wait a couple more weeks, and having a tracked phone will be mandatory.