Page 5 | Neighbour has no internet, tv or smart phone

Bottlesofrumonthewall · 2025-12-16T01:00:40+00:00

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

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 18/12/2025 13:28

jessycake · 18/12/2025 13:24

I sort of envy him , I have a love hate relationship with it all .

Surely it's all about balance and personal choice, though? I love a lot of comedy shows and quiz shows on TV (not to mention Eurovision), but I have no interest whatsoever in any kind of sport, and I hate how much it often dominates the schedules.

I don't hate my TV, though - or unplug it and pack it away into a cupboard - when there's sport on; I just watch something else that I do like or turn it off. It's just a medium, like the internet, radio or books are.

Springonionsoup · 18/12/2025 13:29

mil doesn’t have internet or smart phone and is weirdly proud of the fact, but she’s not really thriving without it, we end up having to do a lot of things for her, so the internet still ends up having to be used just by proxy.

WilfredsPies · 18/12/2025 13:33

PuppyMonkey · 18/12/2025 12:44

Re her telly, the analogue signal was switched off several years ago, so she must have a modern digital box attached to view Channel 1-5 on this ancient contraption?

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Yeah, there’s a box that came from Argos that my brother got for her, but she’s not a fan of Judge Judy or police interceptors, so only really watches bbc 1,2 or itv. That way, she doesn’t have to press any extra buttons and accidentally get it stuck on Sc4.

WilfredsPies · 18/12/2025 13:37

Apocketfilledwithposies · 18/12/2025 13:26

Do you claim Universal Credit? I'd be interested to hear how people navigate that without internet access!

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No, I work and luckily don’t need to claim anything. I acknowledged earlier that I didn’t know what I was talking about re UC 🙂 I was only thinking about Pension Credits, housing benefit and council tax exemptions.🤦🏻‍♀️

Nothungrycat · 18/12/2025 13:39

I've got neighbours who only retired a year or so ago who do not have internet, computer or smartphone - and have no interest in getting them. I did ask if she was planning to do some computer training now she was retired and got an emphatic "no". She's a bright enough woman, so it's definitely not a capacity. issue, and they seem to have found a work-around for everything they need to do, although I do wonder how long that's going to last.

sidebirds · 18/12/2025 13:39

Sweetiedarling7 · 18/12/2025 07:22

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?

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"you are a conspiracy theorist?" 🤨

I 'cycle myself, follow the arts closely, my sole source of 'news' consists of newspapers and the radio, and I voted 'Remain'. It seems that I find myself addressed by an enthusiastic regurgitator of clichés from the internet.

Kimura · 18/12/2025 13:45

WilfredsPies · 18/12/2025 12:36

I agree. There are loads of people who have none of this stuff.

My mum has no internet, has never driven, no smart tv (hers is 25 years old, a whacking great big thing you could fit a person in, but works perfectly well for channels 1-5 so she won’t let us replace it). She had a bus pass for the local town centre but it expired because she never used it. Her phone is a £10 drug dealer’s phone from Argos and she couldn’t send or open a text if you gave her written instructions. She’s not long had her very first bank account open, but has no DDs and doesn’t use cash point machines. She withdraws her pension in cash on a Monday, from the local post office. She has a payment card for her water bill, a card and key for gas and electric and my DH takes her shopping on a Sunday morning which she pays for in cash. I sorted her housing benefit and council tax exemption out for her by phone donkeys years ago and they just send her a form every now and again for her to sign confirming nothing has changed. She gets pension credit, so has a free tv licence. I order her medication at the same time I do mine (not on line as neither of us have NHS accounts) but by nipping into the GP on my way home from work, writing what we want on a slip and then hers is delivered to her by the chemist. I can’t remember the last time she asked any of us to get something for her she couldn’t find locally. She buys a daily newspaper and watches the news /newsnight etc.

She’s very happy with that, has zero interest in any technology beyond the microwave, and is by no means unusual in her neighbourhood. I’d say probably 80% of her neighbours are in the same position.

And I try to emulate that. I do have the internet, obviously, and I love a bit of on line shopping, but I don’t do apps or stream music or watch podcasts etc. I don’t do on line banking or have a usable email address (I set my iPhone up to the extent where it generated an email address but not far enough that I could access an in box, so I use that for any on line shopping) and I don’t use social media other than MN. It’s very peaceful.

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My late nan was very technophobic - perfectly happy with five TV channels, her radio/stereo and books/newspapers. My parents bought her mobiles from the 90s but until the day she died I couldn't teach her how to send a txt message, bless her. She was always willing to learn, but I think she'd convinced herself it was beyond her and she was in constant fear of 'messing them up'.

We got her an internet connection and laptop so we could video call her when we moved away, and within weeks she'd ended up getting caught by an IT scam 😭

She suffered from very bad dementia in the last few years of her life. My parents got her a little flat around the corner from their house, and one of those Alexa units with the camera and screen so that my mum could call her easily.

One day, out of the blue, she called me, my siblings and both of our parents on it back to back, proudly telling us that she was spending the day "doing my video chats". She could barely change her TV channel at that point, no idea how she managed it!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 18/12/2025 13:51

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 18/12/2025 12:38

I agree that some people make claims that don't really have any substance: they 'don't watch TV', but they watch YouTube, Netflix etc; they 'don't use the internet' but they have a smartphone that they regularly use to go online.

All banking is online nowadays; it's just that, if you go into a branch or use telephone banking, an employee just does online banking on your behalf.

I feel for elderly people who had already lived half of their lives before the internet came along (although it was already nascent by 1995, if not earlier, so the number must be dwindling). Many older folk embrace it and are willing to at least learn the basics, but many are too scared or resolutely stubborn to ever try using it. Again, like with banking, many of them do 'use' it - except that they will frequently ask their adult children or grandchildren to find everyday information for them or "order it for me and I'll give you the money".

I cannot for the life of me understand why anybody under 60 (unless they have learning difficulties or other vulnerabilities) would actively choose to completely ignore the existence of the internet. Nobody is saying that you have to use it all the time or for every task, but it's very difficult - or far harder - to do so many things without it nowadays. It's basically 'the world' online - there is loads that you'll have no interest in and no need for, but plenty that you will want and need to access at least occasionally.

I think some of the currently middle-aged internet refuseniks are in for a nasty shock in their later years, if they rely solely on 100% offline living, as much of that provision is still deliberately (and often reluctantly) kept available for the time being largely for those who are elderly now. Once that generation has left us, doing all of these things won't just be the expected default but it will be the only option and effectively mandatory for any kind of life. Much better to choose to get to grips with it whilst you're 50 now than to be forced to do so from scratch once you're 80.

Nobody will have much sympathy for an 80yo in 2050 who pleads helplessness (absent SEN or vulnerabilities) because they actively chose to ignore the dominant, standard way of communicating that the world started using when they were only 30. They'll be stuck with the indignity of having to ask their children to do everything for them whilst all of their fellow octogenarians will be online as second nature.

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I agree. A neighbour of my Mum's took early retirement from the NHS, having spent a few years moving jobs to avoid finding herself in a position where she had to learn to use IT, because she was convinced that she couldn't do it. I think she is in her late 60s/early 70s now, so a few years older than me. I find it amazing that someone of that age in a professional job can have avoided using IT at work.

She doesn't have the internet at home, uses a mobile but only for calls and texts, books train tickets over the phone and goes to the ferry office in person to book her tickets or change them. She has to use an ATM occasionally because the only bank branch on the island closed. She hates it and is very fearful about it. Pays for her supermarket shop in cash so she can't get cashback that way. Obviously she doesn't do online banking and must be one of the very few people who regularly go down to see the community banker on her weekly visit so she can ask her to do transfers etc.

She has a car but has decided that when it finally fails its MOT she won't replace it because modern cars are too complicated for her to cope with.

I find it quite sad. My Mum is similar in many respects but she's 93!

It really won't be long before using IT in all sorts of ways is unavoidable. It's already almost impossible to manage without a mobile phone. Everything is set up on the assumption that people have access to the internet and a mobile number. Denmark is just about to end its letter post service. Cash will go the same way probably before long.

youalright · 18/12/2025 13:54

I don't know how people live like this what if its 2am and you can't sleep until you've googled whether giraffes sleep standing up

sciaticafanatica · 18/12/2025 16:55

I grew up in a tv free house.
i do have a tv but I stream stuff I want to watch.
i can drive but I’ve never owned a car.
i have a smartphone and Wi-Fi though.
my favourite thing to do though is listen to the radio

Biscuitsneeded · 18/12/2025 16:59

Sweetiedarling7 · 16/12/2025 23:27

My cousin doesn’t have a tv, or a pc or a smart phone.
She is a youthful 64, lives in central London and cycles or uses public transport. She is passionate about art, fashion, music and theatre so spends her time at galleries/ museums/ plays / concerts.
She reads newspapers and listens to the radio.

How does she buy theatre or exhibition tickets?

Sweetiedarling7 · 18/12/2025 17:23

sidebirds · 18/12/2025 13:39

"you are a conspiracy theorist?" 🤨

I 'cycle myself, follow the arts closely, my sole source of 'news' consists of newspapers and the radio, and I voted 'Remain'. It seems that I find myself addressed by an enthusiastic regurgitator of clichés from the internet.

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I was making the point not to make assumptions based on a small amount of unrelated information

Sweetiedarling7 · 18/12/2025 17:23

Biscuitsneeded · 18/12/2025 16:59

How does she buy theatre or exhibition tickets?

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In person

sidebirds · 18/12/2025 17:32

Sweetiedarling7 · 18/12/2025 17:23

I was making the point not to make assumptions based on a small amount of unrelated information

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I plan to continue with this 'practice' 🙄

CedarCreek · 18/12/2025 17:35

No mobile phone or tv here. Iffy landline and internet connection after a tree fell on the line two storms ago. Clued up about world news but frankly, it’s all very negative? To hell with being available 24 hours a day.

Periperi2025 · 18/12/2025 18:33

I know of a couple in their 30s/40s who don't have any screens, tech or internet and live largely of grid as one of them has mental health problems and has psychosis centred around tech.

everdine · 18/12/2025 18:57

Sweetiedarling7 · 18/12/2025 17:23

In person

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I remember queuing up to buy tickets for the Eurostar for Paris when it used to depart from Waterloo!

xxlostxx · 18/12/2025 23:51

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 18/12/2025 12:13

She only said she didn’t watch TV and films.

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Why bother though? There are no medals or rewards for such a stance. Plenty of shit on tv but quite a bit of good too. She's missing out.

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 19/12/2025 11:25

xxlostxx · 18/12/2025 23:51

Why bother though? There are no medals or rewards for such a stance. Plenty of shit on tv but quite a bit of good too. She's missing out.

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I agree. We've gone way past the stage where you either watched 'the TV' - that is, what everybody else was watching - or you did something else instead.

There is something like 12 thousand lifetimes' worth of content available on YouTube alone - let alone all of the many other producers and channels of TV - so nobody nowadays will ever be watching more than the very tiniest fraction of available TV, even if they did nothing else in their life and watched TV 24/7.

Hirral · 19/12/2025 12:58

whatwouldlilacerullodo · 18/12/2025 13:12

These people bore the hell out of me. I've been out with a guy once who didn't have a smart phone or GPS so he had to study the route before leaving home and plans couldn't be adjusted after that (like we did in the 90s and before, but we had no choice then). I have another friend who used a typewriter. Good for them if they're happy, just don't want to have anything to do with that and I don't think they are superior [Yawn]

It does sort of sound like you think you're superior though. Personally I think the days when you had to make plans and stick to them were very good. People had to be less flakey.

Hirral · 19/12/2025 13:01

xxlostxx · 18/12/2025 23:51

Why bother though? There are no medals or rewards for such a stance. Plenty of shit on tv but quite a bit of good too. She's missing out.

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There's so such much entertainment out there, it's fine for people to have a preference for radio rather than TV. Or magazines rather than films. Or something else completely. My mum doesn't watch TV because she doesn't like sitting around in the evening. She'd rather be doing something or in bed.

I love it when people are different. I think our culture has become homogenous and boring.

whatwouldlilacerullodo · 23/12/2025 13:30

Hirral · 19/12/2025 12:58

It does sort of sound like you think you're superior though. Personally I think the days when you had to make plans and stick to them were very good. People had to be less flakey.

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You're right, I feel superior because I don't need to "act different" to feel good. I'm not 18 anymore. But as I said, I like that different people do different things. I just don't want to get involved, but I do that in a respectful way. The same with people who take their dog everywhere, have a restrictive diet or follow restrictive religions. I respect their choices, and my personal opinion doesn't matter.

IAmKerplunk · 24/12/2025 11:59

Why do so many people think that radio is superior to television?

PyongyangKipperbang · 24/12/2025 16:22

IAmKerplunk · 24/12/2025 11:59

Why do so many people think that radio is superior to television?

As someone who hasnt got a TV and listens to the radio or audio books, I dont think that it is inherently superior. I just prefer it. I can listen whilst doing something else, whereas a lot of things can't be done at the same take as watching TV. I like lego, gaming (I know, shoot me! And I am 52 as well...the horror!) and painting, and I cant do that and focus on a programme or film. I get bored just staring at the TV so it works for me.