To think a smart phone is an essential?

[picklecustard]

So every time I see the debate about free lunches for poor families on Facebook and social media, there are always people who comment about the same families being able to afford ‘non-essential luxuries’ sometimes it’s Sky Tv sometimes cigarettes and booze, but one example that consistently gets mentioned is having an i-phone/smart phone/phone contract.

Quite baffled that in this day and age people consider possessing a smart phone as a non-essential luxury. I know few people with a landline nowadays and a mobile is the point of contact for most. It’s also far more useful in the case of an emergency as you always have it with you. Access to the internet via a phone is also a necessity to most- when I needed a job most vacancies were advertised online and needed to be applied for online, I don’t drive so do my food shopping online (as well as finding recipes online), doctors appointments are booked much more easily online for my local surgery, my bills and banking are managed via apps and online, my children’s school only send letters via ParentMail app or email so all news/forms/payments and everything relevant to their schooling requires my iphone. And that’s just a few examples. My phone is genuinely an essential for everyday living and I’m surprised people don’t see it that way!

Smart phones are not essential, I’m in my thirties with two children and I don’t even own a phone. I’m just not a technical person phones bother me too much. My husband has two and they drive me mad beeping and ringing all the time.

Smart phones are definitely not an essential.

YANBU

A smart phone (or device of some sort) is essential these days.
UC credit is online. Both my DCs secondary schools use various apps for communication and homework.
Parents evening was done on zoom.
Over lockdown, and still now some weeks, Chuch is on zoom (essential for my MH)
A phone is the easiest (for me) way to access all of this. It's far from top of the range though!

I'm in the yes to a smart phone, no to an expensive smart phone camp. I pay £6.99 per month for my Samsung phone, now out of a contract that i paid around £20 per month for, which included the actual phone.

I think it's appalling to deny what feels like a necessity for modern life to people who are already struggling, but I don't think top spec high end kit is necessary, that's a luxury for those who can and choose to fund it.

I don't see Sky/Netflix etc as necessities but that's probably because they don't interest me personally, so they seem like luxuries. A chocolate budget? That's a necessity.

Maybe I'm lucky so far that nothing I do absolutely requires a smartphone, as I really don't want one, and hate spending money on technology I don't want. Even my laptop was a second hand reconditioned one (inexpensive) and that replaced one I'd had for 10 years but got so slow it was almost unusable.

I'd think a smart phone is essential but there is a difference between a top of the range iPhone/Samsung on a £50 month contract and a Huawei type phone on a sim only contact for £10 a month.

Smart phones are definitely not an essential.

Spoken with the naive privilege of somebody who doesn't rely on the medical system and having to jump through hoops they deem necessary

As per my earlier post, my consultants would only see me via an app that had to be downloaded to a smartphone.

A smart phone is essential. I don’t think the OP was implying that everyone having the latest iPhone was essential.

UC is done online. Job searches need to be evidenced online. If you are isolating - deliveries need to be ordered online. Banking - online. Plus it has the added bonus of actually being a phone. Computers/ tablets don’t do that too.

On a side point though - my parents were in a lot of debt when I was growing up. My mum came from a very poor working class family with 7 children. She (for better or worse) wanted us to have the ‘nice’ things she didn’t have so that mean games consoles, TVs in bedrooms, CD players, etc - and then hiding from the bailiffs. I think the desire for those types of luxuries really increases when you know you can’t afford them. I rarely ‘treat’ myself to things when I have money but when things are tight, I do find I desire those luxuries more than I would usually. It isn’t surprising that families fall into those traps - wanting to provide nice things to our children, wanting to keep up appearances, wanting some escapism, etc.

Internet access (via a suitable device) has become much more essential that it was before the pandemic and even then accessing many services without the internet was difficult. Libraries do provide internet access, but many have now closed, are only open during working hours and many people are some considerable distance from one.

Covid has cemented the smartphone as an essential. I’ve had doctor’s visits where I check in from outside using an app and then it pings when you can come Inside. I suppose they must have a phone number people can use instead, but people are at least going to need a cell phone for that.

A smartphone is not an essential. I didn't have one until earlier this year when my 15 year old brick mobile gave up the ghost.

However, access to the internet and a suitable device to do it on is essential. If you have DC this is probably a tablet or a laptop rather than a smartphone - most of the work set by secondary school is very hard to access if you only have a phone. Second hand reconditioned laptops (which is what we have) are cheaper than iPhones.

Well its not an absolutely vital essential, but I would say they are a very important part of day to day life these days.

I am on a low-ish income and have a nice phone. We are not hard up thankfully and if push came to shove it would be one of the first things to go if I wasn't able to put food on the table but I use it for just about everything - kids school stuff, banking, work, household admin, keeping in touch with school and childminder who use email/whatsapp/social media.

Of course I wouldn't die off without it, and I could definitely get by with a more basic version but I do think life is very difficult these days without some sort of smartphone. I work long hours and its also helpful to be able to do these things on the go/in my lunchbreak etc. I couldn't do that with a laptop or a PC.

@m0therofdragons

In our friendship group I’ve observed that the friends who have a house mortgage free worth £800k with good incomes have old iPhones 6s, dh and I are comfortable with above average salaries and good sized house and have an iPhone 7 and I’ve just got an 11 as a treat following my bonus (I don’t have an iPad or laptop other than work provided and use phone for all banking etc). My friends who live in a council house have iPhone 11s each and are on the waiting list to upgrade to 12s. Their dc both have their own iPads and they have MacBooks.

The poorer friends seem to feel the need to never “deprive their dc” whereas mine only got their own tech due to covid and homeschooling - cheap chrome books.

I wonder if anecdotally there is an insecurity that leads to this but overall it does fit a stereotype and that’s why people can get cross.

Many people on benefits long term (and of course there are exceptions) are those who have limited qualifications yet we expect them to all be great at budgeting and making what we would say are “good decisions”; perhaps this is an unrealistic expect that sets people up to fail.

This is very much the case in my experience. My husband and I are a lot better off than our immediate friend group (e.g. In conversation they talk about going for a job with a HUGE salary - about 10k less than I earn).

However we have older phones on sim only contracts and the oldest car in the group, the cheapest TV subscriptions etc... So not only are we richer, our life choices aren't obviously more expensive (except for holidays - which we also do on the cheap!).

I got these habits off my parents - not that I enjoyed their attitudes overmuch as a child. I found this really interesting re: the mindset - www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor/

I'd say a device and the internet are essential, a smartphone a huge advantage.

Smartphone are absolutely essential for everyone under around 70.

Those saying you can have a cheap one - only to some extent! For example, I had to use Whatsapp for work, but my phone couldn't have any more apps. I don't think work should force you to get certain apps on your personal phone, but that's the way it is sometimes.

I volunteered to help with registration for an event. I thought it would be with pen and paper, but again you had to download an app onto your smart phone.

A lot are saying internet access/a device are essential but a smart phone not.
The smart phone in my hand is my device, it was a lot cheaper than a laptop/tablet even second hand, and it covers both functions of being able to access the internet and a phone which is needed too for things like job applications.
I only got broadband last year as I couldn't justify the expense, so in order forr DD to do homework etc it was done on her phone via a hotspot from mine, until it became that she was using so much data I got broadband instead. One teacher didn't believe her that we didn't have broadband and she couldn't do a particular piece of homework because the connection wouldn't upload what she needed to until I got involved. It was after that I got broadband.
The problem though with this cheap smart phone (£60 2 years ago) is that quite honestly it's crap. Downloading the NHS t&t app rendered it useless as it used too much memory or processing and the phone doesn't have the capacity for it, it just crashed constantly. It doesn't have some functions or can't support sites that have a lot of info on them, it just crashes. Indeed is fine but the gov jobs site freezes and the phone crashes. You do have to pay more for better functionality. It's on PAYG and I put £10 a month on for a package of calls, texts and data. When this one breaks completely I'll get a similar one again, but I have been gifted a second hand laptop now.
I can see why people applying for jobs, needing certain apps and needing a phone as a phone may get a better smart phone so that it actually does what you need it to do. Doesn't specifically need to be an iPhone or whatever but it does need to be good enough to do what you actually need it to reliably.

sometimes it’s Sky Tv sometimes cigarettes and booze, but one example that consistently gets mentioned is having an i-phone/smart phone/phone contract.

There is a smartphone and there is a smartphone.
www.carphonewarehouse.com/huawei/y5p.html#!colour=black&capacity=32GB&dealType=pm
www.carphonewarehouse.com/apple/iphone-xs-max.html#!colour=spacegrey&capacity=64GB&dealType=pm

The former? A necessity, I would call it, nowadays when dealing with different organisations.
The latter example? Not so much.

I can't imagine I would be willing to pay 70 a month on a contract. I have cheap phone and still grumble🙈

Having been poor it’s essential for expensive items to do two things and for them to get as much wear as possible. Laptops become useless really quickly. But in a house with a working adult you can often pass on smartphones fairly easily - they get the new phone, old phone goes to the other adult, then next upgrade to one of the kids. If you have a smartphone with data then you don’t need to worry about a landline / wifi, and if you get a decent system word processing apps are as cheap as chips which makes them powerful in terms of schoolwork. Indeed I have just submitted my latest uni essay via mobile (having completed it in it’s entirety via a free word processing app).

@Ifailed

I think you are mixing up having Internet access with having a smart phone. Over 90% of English households have broadband internet access and can therefore do all the things you mention with a laptop, PC, tablet etc. Most will also have this provided by a phone line, so probably also have a landline number. Given the cost of a smart phone over, say, a cheap 2nd hand laptop, having one is not essential.

You can use Whatsapp on your computer ONLY if you have it on your smartphone as well. This is now how many friendship groups, voluntary groups and even some colleagues communicate. You will be excluded if you don't have it.

"Given the cost of a smart phone over, say, a cheap 2nd hand laptop, having one is not essential."

My current smarthone cost around 100, but the one before was 10. Both of those are cheaper than a laptop.

@GameSetMatch

Smart phones are not essential, I’m in my thirties with two children and I don’t even own a phone. I’m just not a technical person phones bother me too much. My husband has two and they drive me mad beeping and ringing all the time.

Smart phones are definitely not an essential.

What do you use then? A laptop?

I agree OP. I mean technically it’s possible to get by without one but bloody difficult.

I think it’s an extension of this snobbish trope that the well to do use to stigmatise the poor: 15 years ago it was flat screen TV. It purports to be against the fecklessness of the undeserving poor but in reality it’s usually affluent people who object to their status symbols coming within reach of ordinary people.

"Yes, a smartphone is an essential item in 2020, and I say that as a late-adopter who didn’t have one until 2015."

Same here. I really tried not to have one, but I was forced to in the end.
I'd tell people that I wouldn't have internet once I was on the go somewhere and to text me, but they wouldn't listen and would email for urgent things so without a smartphone I didn't know what was going on.

It's very hard to manage without internet access especially if you have any interfaces with schools, medical services, benefits/social services/job centre etc. Or to just keep in touch with people.

From a standing start, a smart phone is the easiest and cheapest way to access all these things, you can buy a cheap phone for £50 from CEX and sim for a few pounds a month.

If you are well set up with a home computer, land line, broad band service (all expensive), other family members with internet access and you can manage your life the old fashioned way by phone and post, that's lovely. But a lot of people on benefits don't have these to start with, they just have the phone in their pocket and they are expected to interact with online systems.

"From a standing start, a smart phone is the easiest and cheapest way to access all these things, you can buy a cheap phone for £50 from CEX and sim for a few pounds a month."

I had one for a tenner and yes, if I had to choose one device, it would make more sense to get rid of the laptop than the smartphone.

My cheap smartphone happily runs dozens of apps quickly. It's a Motorola G7 power.

Android tablet - £80

£44 for 30 GB of data lasting 90 days - £176 a year.
EE mobile WiFi device that is plugged into the mains turning it into an always on connection , nearly as fast as broasband. Can watch YouTube videos but admit can't stream more data intensive stuff as would eat data but don't need to anyway.

A Nokia candy bar phone each (2 x £25)

£10 each roughly every 6-8 weeks PAYG Tesco mobile.
Half price texts and phone calls to several numbers
Triple credit

It's enough to keep in contact with whoever.

For a year it is way less than an iPhone.

I could afford more by why would I. Trendiness and appearances mean nothing to me.

So, no, I don't see a smartphone as essential.