Does anyone not have a smartphone? How do you manage?

[JustMyName]

I'm fed up of my smartphone ruling my life and yet ... I'd really miss having information instantly available and being able to keep in touch with friends and family.

If you don't have a smartphone, how do you keep in touch with people? Do you wish you had one? Did you have one and get rid of it? Do you take a camera with you when out and about instead of a smartphone?

I have a £10 Nokia that literally just texts and makes calls. I can contact people if I need to, and people can contact me.

I have a camera that I take on holidays or days out. I have a laptop for emails and MN.

I don't wish that I had a smartphone.

I resisted a smart phone for ages,citing the superior battery life of my little Nokia.

Now it is my watch, alarm clock, radio, library of books and newspapers. camera, satnav, to do list, memory (take a picture of anything I need to remember ). Pack of cards, NM and Facebook. WhatsApp to organise get togethers for Bookgroup and the walking group.

Would not be without it now.

Sorry, bit of a digression from the OPs question.

DS1 doesn't have a smartphone. But he has a small tablet he carries round everywhere and uses just as much as most phone addicts use their smartphones, so not really what you were asking for!

I have one but I don't use it. Don't even take it on a night out.

I have my DHs old smartphone but with a Giff Gaff bag that doesn't include data. I do all my SM and internet use on my tablet at home. I'm retired, if I worked I would definitely use the phone more and have a data package. I rarely remember to take my phone when I go out though to be fair I'm often with DH who always carries his and has a data package. Use his for photos.

Neither of us feel the need to check our phones every few minutes which could be an age thing or we are just unpopular

My mum is 70 & has a basic old Nokia & copes. She uses it for texts & calls. It can be annoying as I can't send her photos (she hasn't got any kind of computer or device & refuses to even get an email address).

Personally I've got an iPhone 8. I'm 43.
I love my smartphone!! I think they're the best invention ever.
When I was a child I dreamed of taking a camera everywhere I went & of getting instant photos, & of being able to just film anything.
As a music loving teenager I dreamed of being able to compile my own music without the hassle of making a mixtape. I wanted to be able to listen to my music when travelling without having to carry a bulky cassette player.
I used to read newspapers but dreamed of finding out more about the world.
Now my dreams have come true!!
I have a smartphone so I can take & edit photos & films, & use Spotify to download & compile playlists.
On social media I can contact & chat to like minded people from all over the world.

On the internet I can get up to the minute news & views & can google anything I want to find out immediately!!

My mum refused to have a smartphone until a relative was seriously ill and she spent a lot of time in the hospital with them. She realised it was much easier to update people with something like WhatsApp rather than multiple texts or waiting until she got home and trying to write an email when she was very tired.
Sorry, but communication has moved on. Having a smartphone doesn't mean you have to be glued to it.

I have a smartphone but I purposefully don't use it to its full potential because I don't like the idea of relying on one gadget for everything. The only things I use it for, as well as phone/text, are banking, school info and web surfing.

I have an actual camera, a dSLR that forces me to slow down and think about the photo I'm taking. This usually results in better, higher quality images.

We have a proper alarm clock and leave our phones downstairs so that we're not tempted to check them overnight.

We have an actual radio in the kitchen and a dedicated satnav that doesn't store our data or share it with anyone else.

I check emails 2x a day on the laptop.

I have turned all permissions and most notifications off because I hate being pestered and don't want to be tracked.

I don't have a smartphone, and don't want or need one either. I have a satnav for navigation and a Kindle for reading, as well as countless books, and I always have a paper map in the car, just in case.

My lad does have a smartphone and is glued to the thing; they are antisocial in the extreme.

If anyone wants me they can call my dumb phone or my landline.

Dh retired in December, and handed back his iPhone to his employer. He bought a dumb phone with PAYG with giff gaff. Very happy - doesn't need to be available all day, and no need to have the phone with him all the time.

I don't think one would add anything to my life, so why bother?

oh yes, a watch. Marvellous device - rather than tugging the brick out of the back pocket, you just look at your wrist. And the battery lasts for years.

anyone who needs me can call the landline - lovely clear comms with no power or battery needed. Or my small useful mobile which is in my pocket, IF I am in signal. Or send me an email which I pick up at home.

lovely clear comms

Yes, the landline, where you can actually hear what the person on the other end is saying.

I much prefer the landline, but I find if you give people both numbers they tend to phone your mobile. But I don't want to discuss bloodtest results etc when I'm out and about with other people plus can barely hear what you are saying.

Pink An Amazon Kindle Fire will do what your iPad does for the most part. we bought one for my Mum for Christmas as her iPad 2 is dying, and we weren't prepared to fund a new iPad for her.

scary thank you

I have zero interest in smartphones and social media which appears to have made people self obsessed and desperate to post about the minutiae of their boring lives.

Yep, same here. I can't imagine anything worse than living your life through SM. The bits I've seen and heard about Facebook, Snapchat, etc., is really quite depressing, especially the self-obsession which seems to be the main cause for a lot of mental health issues.

It depends what other tech you have and who you want to keep in contact with... for me a smart phone is better than switching the PC on and I don't want an ipad. If your phone is too much of a temptation you can get apps which grow trees the longer you leave your phone alone...

Yes, the landline, where you can actually hear what the person on the other end is saying.

Yep, I hate speaking to clients who are on their mobile phone. Usually poor quality signal, making it hard to discuss complicated/important matters, especially if you know they're on a train or driving or there's a lot of background noise. My default is to phone them on a landline number and if I have to use their mobile, I try to keep the call very quick and simple and arrange a landline call or meeting instead, especially when we need to discuss something serious.

I definitely spend too much time looking at my smartphone but I feel I can’t get rid of it because:

a) using Googlemaps with immediate traffic updates is so useful. I do a lot of travelling to new locations for work and Googlemaps gets me there reliably.

b) mobile reception is patchy at home so everyone WhatsApps me now as text messages sometimes don’t arrive until hours later.

I do also make use of the email facility.

But basically it’s Internet browsing that is the time sucker, especially sites like MN! It’s the only thing of a social media ilk that I use but I spend far too much time on here.

I've scavenged my husband's old smart phone when I got him a new smartphone for Christmas (he got me some new tech, so, all good)

Want to know what I use it for ? To check what's missing from my online grocery order when I'm in the supermarket. Yep, it's a shopping list.

I use my old Nokia for phone calls and text messages and that is enough for me. I am contactable when I want to be.

I spend far to long looking at a screen as it is. I don't need a hand held device to get addicted to.

If you don't have a smartphone, how do you keep in touch with people?
I don't really have any desire to keep in touch with anyone apart from DP and I live with him! I have a landline, people can call me on my landline. Or I have email, people can email me. If my mum has something to show me, we Skype every now and then.

Do you wish you had one?
Absolutely not. What a waste of £40-£50 per month. I genuinely don't get the point of them.

Did you have one and get rid of it?
Nope, I have never ever had one.

Do you take a camera with you when out and about instead of a smartphone?
I find this question really bizarre. As a species we managed fine for thousands of years without having to record every waking moment. Then the camera came along and we started recording special moments, which is nice. I just don't get the modern obsession with photographing everything. I just live my day-to-day life. If I see something nice, I will tell DP about it but I don't feel the need to have it photographed. If we go somewhere special (holiday or whatever) we take a camera for particularly nice things (like sights etc.) but otherwise just leave the camera at home and just enjoy things. I really don't see the need to have a camera when you're just 'out and about'. I find it really really weird.

I'm in my early 30s by the way

Somehow I missed the smartphone train three years ago so I´m stuck with my loyal nokia. I now have a PAYG nokia retro phone which is good for battery life but won´t let me take more than 5 photos which even my previous nokia non-retro phone was capable of doing (so I won´t be buying this one again).
I have a tablet at home for online shopping and news etc. I use my nokia for texts to husband and colleagues. I don´t miss my smartphone but I do feel under a lot of pressure to get one. Mostly from my mum, which is immediately the reason I am convinced I should never get one as she´d be whats apping me all day. Also school mums are forever surprised that I cannot (and do not want to) be a member of the class´ whats app group.
I see other people staring at their phones all day. In meetings I see people checking their phone every five minutes. I don´t understand how that became so normal in such a short time.

I have an old Nokia 3110c - the battery life is still more than 2 weeks. Bliss, not tied to recharging the thing. All I want from a phone is to be able to ring people and to be contactable in an emergency. Ticks those boxes.

My eyesight is getting worse, and I don't want to be pulling out my glasses to look at the teeny text on a teeny phone screen phone every 2 minutes, so my home laptop is set up for all the internet and gaming stuff I could ever want. As for a camera - I can go months without taking pictures of stuff I would never look at anyhow.

I do find that compared to a lot of my friends I seem to have a lot more free time.

I have just got a smart phone this week after years of resisting. It's really useful at times for example the bus app is great cos i know how long I'm going to have to wait. However, I find that I don't really like using the internet on it cos the screen is too small. I'm going to try and continue as before. I'm not used to having using one so it shouldn't be too hard to resist.

Thanks for all the replies.

I don't post on social media much, I mainly use it to know what's happening locally, or for news.

The thing I don't think I can do without is messenger to keep in touch with my children who don't live at home, one even abroad.

I just like photos of beautiful sunsets etc, but I guess I don't look at them often, so maybe it is a waste iof time.

I spend too much time on MN, but I'm not sure growing a tree on my phone would stop me!

I don't know if you still can but you used to be able to install WhatsApp on your PC, would that work for you?