AIBU to think mobile phones are NOT a necessity?

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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?

You don't have to have an expensive one but I think it would be very difficult to manage everyday life without one. Everything requires a phone number now, whenever you have an appointment they will call to confirm or send texts to confirm, banks could struggle to get hold of you if fraud is suspected, if you broke down in the middle of nowhere you'd be stuck, how would you ring the police in an emergency, call the bank right away if your cards were stolen? How would people get hold of you if something was cancelled? You don't have to talk to people all the time or have anything more than a cheap pay as you go, but it doesn't seem like a sensible idea not to have one at all nowadays.

I would say landlines are unnecessary and obsolete in this day and age
I’ve only ever found one place I can’t get a signal. And that’s on a train between Leeds and Manchester. A landline wouldn’t help.

There are plenty of places around here that have no mobile signal - I'm in rural Cumbria. Our local pub has no mobile signal, though they do have wifi. My in-laws are round the corner from us and their house has no mobile signal either - you have to go and stand at the end of the garden!

For children and teenagers

A mobile phone - yes.

An smart phone - no.

For adults - pretty much.

An iPad can work as a phone on FaceTime WiFi

Thanks. The trouble is that I have an Android phone and I don't think it will run FaceTime. I'll spend some time Gurgling later. I've looked before but not found anything.

You can get a signal of sorts in most places, but it's not much good if people fade in and out of the conversation. It's not the getting a signal at all, it's getting a quality signal which means you can hear everything the other person is saying (and vice versa)

Literally as I said. One place I have found I can’t use my mobile. Other people needing landlines for poor signal isn’t in dispute. I was responding the point of not understanding why people don’t have landline - simply because I have absolutely no need for one.

A lot of people don’t have landlines anymore so would be impossible for them.
I have everything on my phone so I’d really struggle without it

I would struggle to live without mine. I mean, I could live live, but I would have a more difficult life.

Times are changing. Mobiles and technology are a way of life and digging heels in and refusing to adapt is silly. In my DDs school the kids are sometimes told by teachers to get their mobiles out and take a pic or look something up (there are iPads in class available for those without smartphones or data)
Oi can't just walk into any business and ask for a job application anymore. So many want online applicants. Even simple factory work often requires computers to run machines. Many services encourage their customers to use apps.
So yes. Mobile phones or more specifically smart phones with internet access, are very much a big need these days.

It's hard to be without one now as systems are set up with the expectation that you have one - as others have said, banking, benefits, travel etc. Also there are social expectations that you can be contacted/will contact others while on the go. A good example early on in the thread was ringing work to let them know you'll be late. Also it's no longer considered acceptable to take/make personal calls on your landline at work but you need to have some way of being able to communicate on personal matters for eight hours a day.

So on balance yes you can live without it but you'd need to make an effort to set up alternative life admin methods and also generally the more personal ties and responsibilities you have the greater the need to have one.

My mobile and my laptop are my livelihood. I work for myself and without these two there would be no work. So an absolute necessity for me.

I don't use any kind of social media (facebook, insta, etc), haven't even had a tv for the past 15 years, so don't need my phone for that side of things. But having internet and being able to access my emails/bank/paypal 24/7 is an absolute must for me. Well, I could replace my phone with a tablet, I suppose. But it's just replacing one gadget with another.

Ironically, I almost don't use my mobile for actual calling (very little). But two weeks ago I had an accident and was stranded in a rather remote place. It was not life threatening, but it limited my ability to walk. No people around, cold and very windy day. I suppose it would have sorted itself out eventually, I would have waited and someone must have walked by at some point. But bloody hell was I glad to have my mobile with me then.

Things I use my phone for and the reason I prefer them to the alternative:-
1.Time telling (eczema means can't wear a watch)

1. Calendar (would lose or forget a paper diary)
2. Communicating (I whatsapp or email friends, family, work, school etc. I don't ever voice call anyone for a chat. I don't have a landline)
3. Apps - online shopping, ordering the groceries, banking (way way more convenient than the alternative)
4. Games - smaller, cheaper and more up to date than physical games for one player
5. Planning - notepad, calculator, etc

If I were to go "manual" on all of the above it would eat so much more into family life. I like spending the time with the kids.

You don't "need" almost anything. You could sit in your house every weekend with the lights off meditating or singing to yourself. But.. you don't have to because we have money and technology and stuff so you can make your life more interesting.

I don’t have a landline and there are no local home boxes. So my mobile certainly makes life easier. However I hate all the connectability with it. I spent far too much of my life wasting time on it because it’s so easy to do.

By 1995 my parents had mobiles and three landline phones in the house (2 downstairs and one up.)

It wasn't until the late 80s/early 90s that you could plug in phone extensions. The old style landline sockets had to be professionally installed and you couldn't just add extra phones. There weren't any cheap landline phones you could buy in those days, either. If you wanted anything other than the phone you rented from BT, it would cost you upwards of £40 - a lot of money in those days. The new style phone sockets were installed on a phased basis, so that will be why there was a period when some people were still sitting in the hallway while others had extra phones in other rooms.

YABVU
For me it’s as essential as a car. My life is very restricted due to disability. It would be far worse without. I wouldn’t be able to do many things you take for granted without it. Such as popping out in my car in the late afternoon / early evening. Or going somewhere a short drive away. Or go for a short walk. I can only do any of these things because I can call my dh, who will come and rescue me (when is home from work) if I become unwell. I often phone my dh or dd when I’m in bed and they’re downstairs.

I'd want my child to take one to school with them (not to use in school) if they were traveling to and from on their own definitely. How could they get in touch with me if something happened on the way to or from school otherwise?

I also think it's not really possible to keep in touch with people these days without a mobile. Barely anyone I know has a house phone these days, how would I contact my friends? Write them a letter? Of course there is social media but I think that's worse than mobile phones imo.

A very basic phone is a necessity. There are no phone boxes anymore.

so it's no longer considered acceptable to take/make personal calls on your landline at work but you need to have some way of being able to communicate on personal matters for eight hours a day.

I don't agree. Plenty of people work in places where they can't have their mobile phone with them and they don't have a desk with a landline. As long as there's a number people can call in an emergency, there's no need to have a mobile phone with you all day at work.

People have got out of the habit of being organised, in my opinion - I am not saying that's a bad thing if they are happy to rely on mobiles, but it clouds their view of how necessary they are in a thread like this.

People feel they have to text others during the day with information and instructions, whereas with some forethought these things could be communicated before the start of the working day; or they're not that important and could wait until the next day.

Unless you have a SAHP in your family who sits at home all day and the other person works in a single location you’d probably struggle. We regularly have to call one another/au pair about last minute changes in pick up arrangements along other things. Obviously the school will call on the off occasion of illness/accident. Sometimes trains are cancelled or were asked to stay late last minute and it’s good to be able to let each other know. When we have to stay someone overnight last minute mobiles are invaluable for finding a hotel and what have you. Most people are so mobile these days that they need a constant phone and internet connection.

@TheMemoryLingers what about people with jobs that require lots of last minute changes to plans? Or people who are so busy that they can go days without actually seeing their spouse? Unless you have a very routine life you’d struggle to prearrange everything.

Organisation and public transport are on occasion mutually exclusive.

“ As long as there's a number people can call in an emergency, there's no need to have a mobile phone with you all day at work.”

My elderly mother could call the main switchboard who would have no idea which building I might be in, out of 5. How would that work?

Yes, I do want to get to mum quickly if she has an emergency. Call us needy 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can survive without one (well, not for work, there is only one landline, no extensions) - but I have just been rejigging my personal contracts for mobile and broadband.
The new mobile service has 500 minutes, but I can upgrade to unlimited for £1 a month. Looking at my broadband statements, the landline 'all calls' option costs about four times more than the new mobile contract (on top of the broadband element).
Once the new mobile is up and running, I will be dropping the landline, or having it to use for incoming calls only.

As other posters have suggested, it's the landline that's fast becoming an expensive waste of space; its cheaper to stop having a landline rather than not having a mobile.

I have a land line and a mobile.

When I make calls from my house I tend to use my land line as I find it more comfortable to hold.

Mobile is handy for all sorts of things when out and about, not least a plain and simple phone call when necessary, good luck looking for a public phone box if you need one.

There are still phone boxes in a city centre in a city where I live.
There is NO way in hell I would touch any of these. I don't think I am only one as the only people I ever saw using them are druggies shooting up or rolling... Or calling their dealer. Nope. Nah. No.

Oh and also - a phone makes me feel a lot safer when I’m out walking or running alone. It’s nice to know that if I went down and hurt myself, I could call for help and tell people exactly where I was too. I did once fall down and damage all the ligaments in my ankle which was agonising - I had someone with me on that occasion but it’s very reassuring to know that I won’t be stuck if I do it again! I run in the woods alone and if I did fall on a cold day I wouldn’t want to be stuck stationary for too long in relatively minimal running gear.

My mum used to have to park in a very dark and intimidating spot for work and do late shifts as well - she was a nurse. She used to call me on her mobile while she walked to the car so she felt safer.

I think modern technology like phones has done a lot to make women feel safer, personally.