Neighbour has no internet, tv or smart phone

[Bottlesofrumonthewall]

I was talking to my neighbour recently he is 40 I’m much younger than him and he casually mentioned that he has no internet at home, no smartphone, no TV, and doesn’t drive. He cycles everywhere.
it feels completely surreal in 2025 that someone actually lives like this. I think I would turn into a crazy lady without my gadgets. I coped as a child, but don’t play out anymore so now the idea of spending every day like that is completely alien to me, and yet here he is
Does anyone else know someone who also lives this way it just seems so rare now

With those sources of 'news', presumably she is a 'Remain' voter? 🤔

Our neighbour and her husband are the same, they enjoy reading, playing board games and hobbies, they try to see as much theatre as they can, particularly amdram as its cheaper.

as long as i had various books then i could shut off the internet, i mainly use the net for faster researching etc

tv itself rarely watch, i prefer dvd tv shows or documentaries youtube is usually quite good. social media wise, its mainly mumsnet or linkedin

at one point society did only have newspapers before the days of social media and society still survived

Quite a strange assumption - I think you are implying she must be a bit naive at best

however - the written press is trending right wing but obviously it has way more checks and balances than social media / not least because of the trail of accountability and permanence of the record

but once you have gone into social media traps that all seems like one giant conspiracy I guess

If you work in a library you see the same people come in every day to use the computers and/or the free public wifi. . I assume they don't have the Internet at home.

sometimes ive used the library its nice and with various books etc, plus facilities and its in town etc its handy at times

Sounds like bliss to be honest. I wish I could disconnect at home, but everything is online so not sure it’s doable.

@Bottlesofrumonthewall Does anyone else know someone who also lives this way it just seems so rare now

Yes, my 80+ year old neighbours. They have no smartphones or internet or anything. Just a landline phone.

What a bizarre comment.
How she voted on Brexit is not the issue and I have no idea of her politics so why you would think you are is amazing.
How about I draw a conclusion based only on your response that you are a conspiracy theorist?

An old friend of dh (extremely clever and very nice, but to me always a bit odd) used to have no TV or radio (certainly no internet then) and didn’t read newspapers.

Even so I was 😱 when he told me it was 4 full days before he realised that Princess Diana had died!

I bet he's lying. If you are much younger he's just trying to come off as edgy/different in an attempt to get in your knickers.

I have 2 friends who have never owned a mobile
I rarely watch TV its just rubbish with crap actors and special effects
Nom way would I never use my phoner for banking - my mate is a private detective - he has proved top me he can get any info from any phone number very easily
If it is all so safe why do all banks have a massive fraud dept

Do you not have to have an online account to access the Universal Credit system?

I wish I could be less online but I'm a sucker for convenience.

We try and go away once a year to one of those digital detox cabins for a week. I was dreading it the first time but now it's something I really look forward to.

I have a friend in her 70s who has a TV (but it's not smart), only uses the internet to order books (and nothing else) from Amazon) and doesn't have a smart phone. Increasingly her life is becoming harder, because she doesn't bank online (she does telephone banking instead or goes into the branch 15 miles away), and she pays everything in cash.

I do get a bit annoyed when I pay for anything for the pair of us and she can't transfer me the money, she gives me cash, which I never use!

I also back important stuff up with paper. Plus it's far easier and quicker for me to find something, rather than logging on, remembering a bloody password and scrolling through endless emails just to get to where I want!

I don't have/watch TV of any sort.

I do have internet, smartphone etc.
We got internet when I was 11, and I held off getting a smartphone until 18, even though all my friends had them, I didn't want one.

Now I use it all at work, and am as addicted as everyone else (ie I use my phone a normal amount) - honestly, it is more convenient, but if I could stick to only using it for the functional things and get more into real, 3D life for a greater proportion of the day, I do believe my life would be richer. I don't even do any social media, but these days all my chats are WhatsApp, we never pick up the phone and it's mostly seen as weird to do so.

But we're all stuck on the dopamine hits they design into these things. And that they are the default so it is much less convenient without them nowadays

It must be very unusual for someone aged 40 not to have these things at home.

Is he happy?
if so fair enough

In my orthodox Jewish community pretty much nobody has tv's and a large percentage don't have the Internet at home. Most who do have the Internet (myself included) don't allow their kids to have Internet access.

I would struggle with no internet, however I understand the no car and smartphone. I think there are more people like this than we realise. If you live in a town/city and have radio, newspaper, doctors surgery , supermarket and chemist within easy walking/cycling distance then I think you are still involved in society and up to date (uptodate?) with what's going on.

Yes I know a man, late 40s who has never had a mobile phone, not even a basic one. he works quite some distance from his home and uses public transport to get there, he leaves home at 4:45am to get there on time on 3 buses mon-sat. He's a single man. He seems to live an early 90s pre Internet lifestyle. no idea how he manages as everything is online these days but he quite happily does and good on him.

I have a pal i used to know quite well and visit from time to time. He was very high up in telecomunications business and quite obviously a extremely intelligent man.

He cycles hundreds and hundreds of miles every week (He thinks nothing of cycling 100 miles in a day), he runs everywhere else. He works from home most of the time and when i visited his house he has no TV, no internet and no home electronic devices. His house is full of books.

I have zero understanding of what he does for a living now but he manages to somehow avoid ever having to use any gadgets. He has no social media.

He is now married with 2 children and he is raising his family in an idyllic home in the countryside worth massive amount and from what i see his family love it.

Ah, you may be right about universal credit, I’ve never claimed it or helped anyone who has, so I hold my hands up, I could be completely wrong about that. Pensions and Pension credits, housing benefit and council tax exemption definitely can be done though, as I sort my mum’s out for her.

And that sounds lovely; nobody being able to get hold of you! So peaceful.

Hmmm, no thanks to that way of life, and I’m in my 50s so old enough to remember pre-internet. I’ve got no wish to end up like my DM, who wastes huge amounts of time and energy with banking and bills because she refuses to be online.

I like films, there is some great TV. I also read a huge amount, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I don’t like the idea of cutting myself off from choices of information and entertainment.