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.

My DH has a phobia of phones, can't remember the official term
.we don't have landline anymore. There's a PC. I had a basic Nokia for many years, got a smartphone during the pandemic because I wanted to volunteer in vaccine centres and you had to have a smartphone..I don't bank online. A lot of my elderly neighbours don't have smartphones..

I want to spend a lot less time scrolling and looking at social media
...however a lot of the things seem more faffy or time consuming without a smart phone or app. I mean they probably aren't if you've never had the app to start with.
Something as simple as a train app, being able to see in real.time if a train is late/cancelled/look up alternatives.

Agree we used to survive without phones in the past and of course it is possible but a lot of things are set up assuming everyone will have one.

Same here. Just get rid of social media.

I am old (seventies) and I love my android phone, it is fantastic and how wonderful that everything is at my fingertips. Admittedly, I use a laptop a lot but the phone is everything I could wish for
(Disclaimer, I appreciate it's difficult monitoring children with SM etc)

Go to Doctor - get home, check on NHS app that my visit is logged and what doc has said
Order prescription
Out and about, check how far away an Evri delivery is and what time I need to be home by
What was the name of that shop a friend told me about... google it, there it is just half a mile away
Booking my pilates session because I forgot when I was home
Check bank balance as worried a big payment is coming out and I need to transfer some dosh
Send a pic on whatsapp to DD of a bird I saw perched on a hedge, as she is a bird watcher

Honestly, all those of you who insist on no smartphone, you don't know how hard and restrictive you are making life for yourself.

If you mainly use a computer you have to actively sit at it so less mindless scrolling. I have got a fairly new iPhone but don't really use it but it is a useful vehicle to my iMac for sending it bank codes, texts etc. everything is linked so it is needed, I can also access my phone on the computer. Shopping is easier on a computer, mine has fingerprint recognition and Apple Pay so just as instant as the phone and much bigger to look at stuff. You can't watch TV and scroll with it though and I find that quite nice so it does cut down on mindless stuff.

I also have an iPad but tend to use that when I go away. Maybe because I am old that I'm not using the phone much, I love my iMac though, I only use MN and other forums, no FB, IG or TT. Though I still have my phone to fall back on if I need.

Never had the urge, manage perfectly well without it.Just use a laptop for internet banking and emails.

Speak for yourself! Everything you describe is just as easily done by making a phone call or using a desktop or laptop! Which involve being intentional, rather than mindlessly scrolling, as so many have described. 😂

I have a landline and a desk top (which is what I'm typing on now). Apart from Mumsnet I don't use social media and have no interest in it. I manage just fine but I am of the pre mobile phone generation.

I was actually talking about doing most of that when out and about!

Especially after posting that they ‘live a simple life’ 🤣

Must admit some posts on here from PP without a smart phone are very much proving the point of a poster who suggested that some people seem to think that staying away from certain technology makes them somehow superior.

Yes an example of a smart phone being useful out and about. Travelling to London from oop North. Meeting a friend for lunch and table booked. Get to the tram stop and get a notification on my phone that part of my journey has been cancelled. It advised another train which would get me there an hour late. Being able to check out alternatives myself showed me a better journey that got me there only 5 mins later than my original train. Disaster averted. Wouldn’t have worked if I had to keep checking my laptop for messages every 5 mins and tram stops don’t have WiFi for the laptop to work and who wants to carry a bulky laptop everywhere 😂 I have a very small handbag which fits a phone, lipstick and keys certainly not a room for a bloody laptop.

I agree with your post here, and I think it is so important that those of us who are older do our best to keep on top of changing technologies, especially when people retire and are no longer forced to accept such changes when they occur in the work environment. It was acceptable from my parents’ generation (would be in their 90s now) but not for those who are going into retirement now, especially for those below state retirement age, like myself.

As it is, I’ve never used TikTok, but at some point I’ll make myself have a look. I have a friend (60) who lives alone, she has only come on board with a lot of the online world since lockdown and remains suspicious, whereas something such as Uber would make her life so much easier. I do think she will start to struggle in the next 5 years or so.

Yes im surprised at posters who effectively take their laptop somewhere....to use in the same way others would use a phone...
I dont work in an office and generally dont use a laptop at work. I took it to work today, because I wanted to get Harry Styles tickets and wanted to have 2 devices to increase my chances... it made my bag way heavier....and i didnt manage to get any tickets anyway!🤣

I frequently take my phone when im running either in a new or unfamiliar area...because I dont want to run with a laptop or A-Z! And I also like listening to podcasts, while I run

@ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy
So agree with you.

I couldn't be lumping my laptop round with me all the time!

And I don't scroll SM all the time when out and about... but can take a picture of something and send to a friend, and ask, would you like this for your birthday, that type of thing.
I'd be absolutely lost without my phone.

And yes to podcasts and BBC Sounds and other apps. I am just so so glad I am not too old to embrace everything a phone has to offer.
My DH stuck out against a smartphone far longer than me. He wouldn't be without it now!

Following. Sadly I can’t as a lot of this stuff is part of my career. But I wish I could separate work from life, like the old days.

But this is because you are using your phone like a 2010 blackberry.

You aren’t hyper connected and so you feel fine. You are still in control. Many of us can’t easily get back to this.

Phones are fine when you are out, I use mine out and about, that's what they were originally meant for. I couldn't use it in the house though, far too small and fiddly and that is the biggest iPhone, I couldn't sit scrolling on it in the house, it would give me neck ache

That's interesting. 😊 Yes, I used to have a blackberry!

I couldn't be without Whatsapp for close friends and children, let alone all the rest I've said.

Yes im surprised at posters who effectively take their laptop somewhere....to use in the same way others would use a phone...

Yes and equally bemused that they think this makes them superior or less under the thrall of technology. You're doing everything you can do on a phone but in a larger piece of tech and that is better because... erm....???

Well, I can't shop effectively on my phone, I like a big screen so I can compare stuff

Do you think that makes you superior to people who do shop on a phone? I don't get a sense you do, so my post wasn't about you.

You'd need a laptop/computer and a SatNav.

I was only converted by Google Maps being better than SatNavs that couldn't get further updates, so navigating new roads that didn't exist on there was fun. Now I use it mostly for work things, because it takes forever to get through their online system, and if the internet has gone down, so has the phone line.

And that's great. But it's not morally superior to shop on a laptop is it? I'm not sure what the meaning is behind your comment. Maybe no meaning

I once had to show my laptop to a ticket person at the barrier in a big railway station because I’d left my phone at home, I felt like such a knob 🤣

On a practical note, I have an electric car and wouldn’t be able to charge it when out and about without a smartphone. Not all that many chargers reliably take contactless payments, and most of them don’t issue cards.