Does anyone here live without a smart phone? If yes, how?

[SixSevens]

My phone is making me miserable. I want to go back to my previous life and never doom scroll or use social media again!

Is it possible?

I’m in my 30s and work full time. No kids.

Following as I am utterly addicted :(

We managed perfectly well without mobile phones before they came along, much to many people's amazement.

I deleted all social media.

I am a Mumsnet fan but make sure not to have apps for anything as it makes it too easy.

I put time blocks on too.

I did try a non smart phone but I found the lack of whatsapp a faff for many different things. I might try again though.

I did until September last year.

I want to be smartphone free but don't see how I can. Everything, and I mean everything, needs phone access now.
I loathe it but am trapped.

Unless you never need to book tickets for anything, never need to use a maps app, never need to contact anyone urgently I don't see how you could. I absolutely judge people who don't have a proper phone but rely on me for navigating and booking.

Hello. I didn't have one until 8 years ago. I worked in a v rural location with no phone signal and no WiFi. So a smartphone would have been useless for much of the week anyway.

I just used my laptop in the evening if I needed to do something like book train tickets.

I think the tricky thing now would be doing without WhatsApp, my son has started reception and a lot of parties etc get shared through the WhatsApp group, I'm also in a work group... That's the main thing stopping me switching back to my old dumb phone ways.

Yes we both have dumb phones, no Wi-Fi on them, so they are for calls and texts only and they have cameras so we can take photos. We still use social media but not glued to them. I tried two different smartphones but they weren't for me and returned both within a week. They're just too busy and I found them draining, I was and still am much happier after going back to my dumb phone.

I don't know exactly what a smartphone is. I lived from the beginning of 1970 to the end of it without a smartphone. I like the landline. I use the laptop. I don't like the feeling of being governed by tyrants. My New Year's Resolution was to give up Mumsnet, for time reasons, and maybe I'll start in February.

Yes but back then you didnt have mobile banking, apps for school, apps for shops, email wasn't as prevalent, apps for taxis, apps for bis travel, apps for paying your bills etc.

Almost everything requires you to use your phone

The problem is that if you give up having a smart phone, all the time you save by not doom scrolling will be spent instead on telling everyone around you about the fact that you don't have one and couldn't possibly think of a single reason why you would want to get one. Or maybe that's just unique to the one person I know who has never had a mobile phone of any kind. It's tedious.

I use very few apps just social media mainly, but on my iPad mini. I don't use the banking or tesco app either, I use the websites on my lappy

You could just use a laptop or computer, I rarely use my phone or apps. I prefer webpages and a large screen.

Same. No Facebook, TikTok, instagram etc. just mn for when I get really bored 🤣 try it @SixSevens

Most of these things can actually be done on a computer instead of a phone app, though I agree that it is changing and more and more we are being forced or at least strongly directed to use a phone based app. It is still possible to do most online stuff on a computer though. You just can't fit it all in at odd times in the day when out of the house, not necessarily bad thing IMO

WhatsApp is the exception. You can have it on a PC but only if you have a phone account set up

I don't have a smartphone; I have a Nokia mobile without internet access, which I use for texting and calls. I do have a laptop and iPad, both of which I use a lot, but neither have internet access if I'm not at home or somewhere where I can log on to free wifi. From what I've seen on here, I think it would be difficult to have school-age children now and not have a smartphone, because of the use of WhatsApp and messaging apps by schools and providers as well as other parents. I think it would be difficult for some jobs too - I'm self-employed. I haven't had any problems accessing banking etc as that can be done on a laptop or desktop. Social media of course can be accessed that way too, though some lose functionality (I'm on Instagram and can see other people's posts but not their stories).

I have a smartphone but don’t have social media. Nothing to doom scroll. And also a hard YES to I absolutely judge people who don’t have a proper phone but rely on me for navigating and booking, especially because these are generally the people that @XmasFilm refers to.

I don't use my iPhone much at all but that's just because I'm addicted to my laptop instead! I detest MN but currently wasting hours each day on it :(

I think what you make up for in not scrolling you lose in convenience and opportunity costs.

maps/payments & up to date info about events are just a few of the things I’ve needed my phone for today.

without it I would have got lost and missed the start of an event.

My 24 year old doesn't have a smartphone. We have just persuaded her to get a dumb phone so she can text when away from home.

It is a pain but as long as you do have a computer for bookings etc and a companion with a phone (for online tickets) it's doable. The hardest thing is banking. They have closed all branches near us and I have to drive her 30 min to get to a branch to set up a direct debit...

She's autistic.

Btw I have a "Brick" device to block social media on my phone. It's great, highly recommend. You have to physically scan the brick (which is magnetic and attached to the fridge) to get the access back.

Apart from google maps there is nothing I use on my phone that I can't use on my computer or a brick phone.

If it werent for keeping in contact with the kids who dont seem to understand sms then i would. I fucking hate ppl sending me inane messages on whatsapp and getting snotty when I dont reply. I dont like messaging on my phone and see no value in small talk over whatsapp. If you want me call me or meet me but no dont send me 'hey hows your day goin' messages on fucking whatsapp.

Also i only log in to MN on the laptop when I have time I dont have it on the phone nor have i accessed it on the phone, I type not text.

My dad has never owned or used a smartphone (or a mobile phone of any kind) and manages fine. But he doesn’t work or have kids so I suspect it’s quite easy for him!

Same here.

I noticed on Guy Martin's show yesterday that he has an old style phone.

Currently scrolling on MN between meetings
Today I have used my phone to check if there were still roadworks on the way to the station, check if the trains were running on time, pay for parking, buy my train ticket, pay for my coffee, read the paper, do some work emails, check to see if DD had left school for a sports event which might have been cancelled, use the map to get to my meeting, reference some documents in a meeting, use maps again, send a post meeting email to my boss, use WhatsApp to re-arrange a liftshare later on today, top up tomorrow’s supermarket delivery, scroll through MN and then, in a minute, do some final prep for my next meeting. So, no, I couldn’t.