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?

I assume there are public phones in the centre of my small market town, can't say I've noticed any, but I wouldn't want to use those either.

There certainly aren't any anywhere near where I live.

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?

The switchboard would have to call more than one building.

what about people with jobs that require lots of last minute changes to plans?

I'm not sure what you mean. As I said earlier, some jobs have evolved to make use of mobile phones, but that doesn't make them a necessity of life.

I have had to call dh on lots of occasions to come out of work quickly ( part of the territory with a severely disabled child). It isn't possible to be more organised about that. If he is not at his desk a switchboard wouldn't be able to find him on the very large site.

I suppose it depends on what you consider a necessity. Food, water, clothing and shelter are really all the necessities we have to have. I think many people would behave to change the way they live without a mobile now but of course there are still some, mainly elderly people would don't use them.

Isn’t it up to the individual whether a mobile phone is a necessity for them?

Hmm
Google maps
Payments when cashless
Operates heating, lighting at home
Downloaded tickets
Message and keep in touch with both grown up dc
Hardly ever use landline now
Text reminders from doc/dentist
Shopping lists on one note
Nectar app
Contact lists to hand
Step counter

I cd manage but it would be a huge step - like reverting to a horse and cart.

I'm not sure what you mean. As I said earlier, some jobs have evolved to make use of mobile phones, but that doesn't make them a necessity of life.

Not a necessity of life maybe, but a necessity of doing that particular job. So then the logical next question is 'is it essential to have a job?'.

I haven't RTFT but I haven't had a mobile phone for about a year now and it's such a pain. I haven't bought one in that time because I haven't had much money (I also resent having to buy a phone when it was someone else who broke my old one but that's another thread).

There are so many little things which it turns out you can't do if you don't have a mobile, some random examples: I wanted to reactivate a bank account I hadn't used for ages - needed a mobile phone number (not a landline) to send a code to.

Another time, I went to the doctor's surgery to see if I could get an appointment for something. There weren't any appointments soon, but the receptionist said that I could ring up the surgery I was at there and then on a mobile and the doctor could send a prescription to the pharmacy straight away. Couldn't do that.

Another time I looked into getting a railcard, but oh no the railcard I want is digital only and you need an app.

Obviously I hope to get a phone soon.

Pfffft... a lot of online services (banks, HMRC) have the double-login thing where they send you a verification text before you can get in. They won't email it, they insist on texting. Some landlines can report a text msg to you, some can't, and I might not be at home when they want to send the msg. Or else you can wait a week for a letter to arrive inthe post with the access code...

Some websites don't even work now as websites -- the onlin service only works with an app that you need on a phone (or tablet). Like my fitbit, or the app for managing my bike lights that runs ONLY on an Android system.

The Ebay App is the easiest way I have found to get pictures attached to listings. I can find workarounds, they take much longer than the phone app. So does bank transfer of money.

Strava: I don't want a Garmin when the app can do to track my run (don't even need to use Data to do that)

Twitter works best with mobile phone format (designed for the small screen).

I can login to my bank accounts much faster using the phone apps (fingerprint) than I can online (could get a completely different laptop with fingerprint sensor, I guess).

I'll be travelling in Netherlands soon & very pleased I'll have their NS/trainline equivalent app to use to get around, there are like 5 changes on the journey, each way. I can quickly look at all the booking information (ferry, AirBnB, conference location, insurance details) on the phone, much smaller item than a sheef of papers would be.

Phone is Not a necessity but so many things would be extra headaches to get done without.

Not a necessity of life maybe, but a necessity of doing that particular job. So then the logical next question is 'is it essential to have a job?'

Not really, because lots of jobs have 'essential equipment' and always have done. An anvil was a necessity of doing a blacksmith's job. A boat is an essential part of doing a fisherman's job. Needing a piece of equipment at work has no bearing on that piece of equipment's broader degree of necessity.

Is is essential I earn. I’m a single parent.

The job I created for the business I started wouldn’t be possible without a smart phone.

A smart phone is a necessity for me. That doesn’t mean it is a necessity for everyone, but this is right back to my point that I think an individual is capable of deciding whether something is a necessity or isn’t.

I use my phone for:

Banking
Emails (though I do have a laptop too)
Central heating controls (Hive)
Alarm clock (I have an alarm clock too, but phone is easier and more flexible)
Calendar
Money market information.
Satnav (just occasionally)
For weather forecasts.
For the news
As a cookery timer
For general internet browsing
Occasionally as a phone and to send texts.

Of course you could do many of those things in other ways, but a smartphone makes them so much easier and more convenient.

I grew up without mobile phones or computers during the seventies and eighties but wouldn't not have one now.

I remember back in t late sixties and early seventies there were still many homes that didn't have a landline. For those that did many calls still had to be manually connected by the operator. You were considered very high tech then if you did have a phone at home. There were no mobile phones as they hadn't been invented.

There were very few computers of any sort anywhere except occasionally in banks. If you wanted to do any banking you had no choice but to visit the bank in person.

All of that has gone now. Smartphones can do just about everything and are very convenient. It really is pointless pretending otherwise.

My parents have no computers or internet access in their house. Landline only, and just an old brick of a mobile phone. They claim they don't need any of it, but it is amazing how often they want my sister or I to look things up for them, arrange stuff, make bookings etc. All of which we usually do in front of them using smartphones.

So yes, I would argue that smartphones are becoming increasingly essential. They will become more so, not less. Times change always.

Needing a piece of equipment at work has no bearing on that piece of equipment's broader degree of necessity.

I would see it from the opposite viewpoint, that if its essential to a person's job then it IS essential, unless we were going down the route of it not being essential to have employment. Or of only having employment where there is no essential equipment, and I don't think there is any job that doesn't have essential equipment of some sort.

It's pointless arguing about whether they are essential. They absolutely categorically aren't, because there are people who don't have them! Saying 'But I don't have a landline' or 'But it would make my job impossible' do not mean it's actually essential for people to have mobiles. You could get a landline. You could choose a job that doesn't require a mobile. It is extremely inconvenient not to have one though.

The only sensible question is whether you think the downsides of mobiles outweigh the conveniences. Have one or don't have one. The snide "Apparently some people think mobiles are essential " attitude doesn't make you morally superior.

They absolutely categorically aren't, because there are people who don't have them! Saying 'But I don't have a landline' or 'But it would make my job impossible' do not mean it's actually essential for people to have mobiles

I’m not saying it’s essential for everyone. I’m saying it’s essential for me.

Not a necessity of life maybe, but a necessity of doing that particular job. So then the logical next question is 'is it essential to have a job?'.

It's a necessity for my job, and moreover, a necessity for many of my clients to communicate, since they are deaf and can't use landlines without having to use an adapted phone.

I suppose I could give up my job. And deaf people could give up trying to communicate with others in a straightforward and quick way in the modern world. 🤷‍♀

Depends upon your life , what you do and what responsibilities you have , the world is a very different place now than it was 10 - 20 years ago , and many people are expected to work on the go , I certainly am and a much larger proportion of my time would be wasted if I had to return to use the office phone constantly, times money etc etc .
I also save a lot of time problem solving by sending a photo , not able to do this easily without a mobile phone
Not sure what you do for both work and play op but I know my life and many others are much more efficient for having a phone
Many a time I can respond instantly with a decision that couldn't have been made without a phone

An example of why phones really are a necessity- I was meeting my grandmother in a town in the middle of our respective villages. Both getting different buses. My bus was held up due to an issue and I couldn't get hold of her to say I was going to be late, or if the bus hadn't been able to run I would have had no way to let her know I couldn't come. Because she doesn't have mobile phone.

So how did people manage in those situations for the whole of history before mobile phones, Juanbablo? It's not necessity, it's convenience.

An example of why phones really are a necessity- I was meeting my grandmother in a town in the middle of our respective villages. Both getting different buses. My bus was held up due to an issue and I couldn't get hold of her to say I was going to be late, or if the bus hadn't been able to run I would have had no way to let her know I couldn't come. Because she doesn't have mobile phone

You are mistaking convenience for necessity. I hate to keep harking back to The Days Before Mobile Phones but this kind of thing happened all the time, and the greater availability of phone boxes made no difference if two people were on their way to meet up.

If someone didn't turn up, you waited.
If someone didn't turn up after a reasonable time based on the type of journey, you went home again.

Yes, inconvenient, PITA, etc. but no one died of it.

OP, what's your view on indoor running water and electricity? I didn't have them growing up, not for the first 6 years anyway. I'm only 29... We had a manky well, which you filtered and boiled the water from, or in better times, a cold stand pipe outside. Cooking was done on wood or coal, as was all water heating. Light was provided by the fire, paraffin lamps or candles. This was my mothers choice, not forced upon her.

Clearly they're not essentials, right? We were just fine without them only 25 years ago; most of history has been fine without them. Yet, today, I'd bet you'd call them an essential. Times change. Today, a phone is an essential- and my mobile is £10pm all in, where as a landline would be £5/7 pm for the right to have it and then calls on top of that.

Lazylinguist, in the situation Juanbablo described one party simply failed to show up at the meeting place and the other was left wondering why.

Of course much of it is convenience. Convenience can cross the line to become essential though.

You could argue that having a washing machine is down to convenience because we could all just go and wash our clothes in rivers or in the sink. Most of us would consider them an essential household appliance though.

You could argue that having a washing machine is down to convenience because we could all just go and wash our clothes in rivers or in the sink. Most of us would consider them an essential household appliance though.

There are still launderettes in existence, so clearly not everyone thinks a washing machine is essential.

Memory "The switchboard would have to call more than one building."

are you my friend who didn't have a phone?

there's only one switchboard for the whole place. I could be in any room in any building. Why would any other member of staff be expected to know that or to run around and find me? If you're going to say "no one expects them to" - well, no, but I think it's a reasonable expectation for an adult who has any responsibility for anyone else to have a mobile unless they are home or near a work phone all the time.

I'm not saying a mobile phone is a necessity for everyone. I do think, especially given how modern workplaces work, that most of us need one if we have anyone in our life for whom we are the emergency contact.

If I took a job where I couldn't discreetly check a mobile, I wouldn't be anyone's emergency contact. Though as long as mum and bestie are with me, I wouldn't take that kind of job!

I imagine people with children might feel the same as I do.

then again, I think you're arguing for the sake of it now.