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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think mobile phones are NOT a necessity?

300 replies

Hypergear · 23/02/2020 10:10

Inspired by the thread regarding schools confiscating then.
So many people think they NEED a mobile phone now, and view it as a necessity and not a luxury (which I think it is). Yes they're great in many ways and can make life a lot easier but I just can't get my head around people who genuinely think they could not go about day to day life without. My DM for example, thinks there is no way in this day and age it's possible to live without one, this actually makes me lol as she never used one at all until around 18 months ago!

AIBU?

OP posts:
QuixoticQuokka · 23/02/2020 11:15

I had only just got home internet when my child was first home alone after school, I couldn't afford it before then. I then didn't want a telephone plugged into the landline because I didn't want cold callers. A cheap mobile phone was the best option for my child to be able to contact me and vice versa. If you have a child at school or in childcare then a mobile phone is a necessity as a parent, schools expect to be able to contact you at any time these days.

MarieQueenofScots · 23/02/2020 11:15

You can track any train through the National Rail Enquiries website - I do this if my non-mobile-using parents are coming to visit me - so you can see if they are running late or cancelled

Which is great if one party are meeting from there house. If two parties are meeting in a city for example how are they tracking the website....?

MarieQueenofScots · 23/02/2020 11:15

*their

Ponoka7 · 23/02/2020 11:19

"That’s why you hear older generations saying when I was young nobody had a mobile phone yet we managed life and were happy without it."

The majority of WC didn't have bank accounts. We all dealt in cash. The same people bleat on about Health and safety, car seats, even seat belts, political correctness.

I can remember the mistrust of microwaves. Seems ridiculous now.

GertiMJN · 23/02/2020 11:19

As I said I do think the make life much easier, but I don't think that equates to being essential

I have no idea what essential means to you?

what do you consider essential items in your home?

Because I suspect many of the individual elements you might identify as essential are combined into a mobile.

People are saying you don't need a smart phone to do internet shopping or banking you can use a laptop. The converse is that if you have a smart phone you don't need a laptop (or alarm clock, or sat nav etc etc)

It's often the function that is more essential so it is a spurious argument to focus on the mobile phone.

Very little that we own is essential

TheMemoryLingers · 23/02/2020 11:20

Which is great if one party are meeting from there house. If two parties are meeting in a city for example how are they tracking the website....?

Well, in the days before mobile phones, we simply arrived at the meeting place and waited until the other person turned up - which is what you'd have to do anyway, although I agree you could go for a walkabout/somewhere else with the luxury of knowing the ETA.

I also remember one occasion when I was about 20 and meeting a friend at the station - the friend had food-poisoning and couldn't come - she rang the station and they tannoyed me to give me the message. Obviously far less convenient than using a mobile - but we found ways round them before they existed.

AutumnRose1 · 23/02/2020 11:20

TheMemoryLingers

so I'm supposed to
a) know which train my friend is getting

b) have a smartphone myself so if I'm waiting in a bar or whatever, I know how long I'm waiting?!

AutumnRose1 · 23/02/2020 11:21

"but we found ways round them before they existed."

likewise washing machines. I doubt anyone would give theirs up now.

OP made a point about a thread I haven't seen. Schools confiscating mobile phones from students in the school day is a different point altogether. But I've had experience of friends with no mobiles and I'm not going down that road again!

recordbox · 23/02/2020 11:22

You can track any train through the National Rail Enquiries website - I do this if my non-mobile-using parents are coming to visit me - so you can see if they are running late or cancelled.

Haha. So at least one of the 2 parties needs a mobile phone here. Unless you are only counting train delays that happen before you leave the house to collect them Confused

TheMemoryLingers · 23/02/2020 11:24

AutumnRose1 Suppose you do both have mobiles in that situation - all that does is give you the convenience of knowing how late your friend is going to be. You still have to wait for them if they're delayed. Before everyone had mobiles, that's what we did - we just waited for the other person to turn up.

MarieQueenofScots · 23/02/2020 11:24

*she rang the station and they tannoyed me to give me the message

So used a landline. I.e some sort of phone was a necessity.

I don’t have a landline. You’d have waited an awfully long time for me Grin

MarieQueenofScots · 23/02/2020 11:24

Suppose you do both have mobiles in that situation - all that does is give you the convenience of knowing how late your friend is going to be. You still have to wait for them if they're delayed

You’d make the decision together whether the meeting was still on.

If it was I would be using my phone to work rather than waste time.

TheMemoryLingers · 23/02/2020 11:26

Unless you are only counting train delays that happen before you leave the house to collect them

Well, if the delay doesn't happen till you've already left the house, it's not likely to be a very significant delay.

AutumnRose1 · 23/02/2020 11:26

TheMemory yes, but with the advance info, I at least know if I should stay in the office and have a rough idea of how long they will be.

or in the case of some delays, we might be able to call it off. It beats sitting alone in a bar thinking "WTF is going on".

My mum would say "we'd have given it an hour and then gone home". Sure. But it's much nicer to be able to actually know what's going on.

GertiMJN · 23/02/2020 11:26

TheMemoryLingers I don't understand the argument of "what happened x years ago"

By that logic nothing would change. You wouldn't be at a train station because trains aren't essential. You could be walking or travelling by horse and carriage.

vampirethriller · 23/02/2020 11:27

I don't have a landline any more, no WiFi, so my mobile is the only internet I have and only way to contact family etc/be contacted. And everything is online these days- bus timetables, opening times etc, all info for the local children's centre is via Facebook for example, there's no computers in my local library now and no payphones for miles. So my mobile is a necessity.

TheMemoryLingers · 23/02/2020 11:31

So used a landline. I.e some sort of phone was a necessity.

Well, in those days there were plenty of phone boxes so as long as you could drag yourself to one when you were ill, you could phone.

You’d have waited an awfully long time for me

Again, back in those days we applied judgement to a situation - if I hadn't been tannoyed I'd have asked whether any of the trains from wherever it was had been delayed and if not, I'd have given it till the next train arrived and then assumed something else was wrong and gone home, to await a letter/telegram/carrier pigeon. Grin

TheMemoryLingers · 23/02/2020 11:32

I don't understand the argument of "what happened x years ago"

The question asked by the OP was, are mobile phones a necessity or not? No one is arguing that they are not convenient.

Ellmau · 23/02/2020 11:33

If one person has a phone and the other doesn't, train stations are one of the few places that do still have phone boxes.

AutumnRose1 · 23/02/2020 11:33

Normally I consider myself a Luddite

this thread sure makes me think again Grin

MarieQueenofScots · 23/02/2020 11:34

I have the misfortune to know someone who vociferously complains about people “addicted to their phones” and brags about his lack thereof.

Of course what he actually means in practice is “I’m not paying but I’ll use the convenience of yours”.

Last time I saw him during train issues he was making hinting comments such as “I really could do with knowing what the trains are doing before we arrive”.

Dontunderestimateme · 23/02/2020 11:36

They have become a necessity as most of us have our lives organised around relying on them now. I could cope without mine. I could also cope without my car, electricity, and lots of other things but I wouldn't want to.

BarbaraofSeville · 23/02/2020 11:36

there is NO landline with Virgin fibre

There is because we have one, because the mobile phone signal in our house is not reliable enough to use.

AutumnRose1 · 23/02/2020 11:36

Marie I used to have a friend who would say "can't you just look up such and such on your phone". Didn't have a fucking phone herself.

then expressed amazement one day, after being 2 hours late to meet me, that there were no phone boxes at or near the station, in spite of the fact that her friends had been telling her for years.

she has a phone now.

mencken · 23/02/2020 11:36

a text and talk job is very useful and makes you contactable. Also far less hassle than the smart brick - charge lasts a week or more, fits in a pocket without dragging trousers down (the arse brick look is not pretty), stands being dropped, cheap and no-one will mug you for it. Also won't stop working when Apple etc hack the software to make you buy a new one.

internet access is also pretty much essential now. But not everyone needs it outside the house. That is the difference that MN can't cope with.

some do need it for work of course.

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