Do you take your phone everywhere?

[Estermay]

I have read people astounded that others do not take their phone everywhere. I don't. If I am going out to a barwith friends I leave it at-home. No point losing it, which i would if i took it. Or if I am popping out to the local shop I leave it, I don't need it.
So do you take your phone everywhere?
YABU = yes I do
YANBU = I dont

Same.

It's permanently on silent though and at the weekends rarely comes off of airplane mode.

If I take my phone out at the weekend, I don't need to take a handbag. I'd rather have a phone in a pocket, than an annoying handbag over my shoulder.

It's been a real relief not having to take my phone with me everywhere I go now that I have a smart watch. I can make calls, receive messages, pay for things etc just using my watch. So I don't have the panic of feeling I'm completely cut off if a family member has an emergency. But I'm not fully at the mercy of my phone.

I went for a meal the other day. Not a massive place but a nice sized bar restaurant. One person behind the bar. One in the floor doing all the food all the plates all the tables all the bills etc. I don't imagine they would have had the time to be answering the phone and passing messages on as well

I bet busy serving staff having to answer the phone to pass on messages to you because you didn’t bother to being your phone out really makes their evening!

Phones are useful. If you went out to a bar and for some reason it was closed and you had to go somewhere else/felt ill and wanted to be picked up earlier/were having fun and wanted him to come and collect you later-being able to quickly tell him that would be sensible.

Some of these replies make me laugh. I am not so anxious that I plan my life around the worst things happening.
I have never rung a bar or had a message passed on. I suggested DP would do that in response to posters saying but what if your DC were rushed to hospital at deaths door.
The truth is most of the time phones aren't needed.

I take my phone everywhere, yes. It's not like it's any effort to put in my bag along with my purse and my house keys. In fact, as my phone can also be used as a debit card, I'm more likely to leave my purse at home than my phone.

I use my phone for:

• paying for things in shops/cafes/pubs
• reading books
• reading the news
• listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts
• accessing my supermarket loyalty apps
• self-scanning supermarket shopping
• taking photos of random things I find interesting or funny
• storing e-tickets for football matches, theatre, gigs and train journeys
• tapping in and out on the transport system
• ordering a taxi
• finding my way around
• looking things up if I need to find out whether there's something nearby (eg a public loo, a bus stop, a particular shop)
• entertaining myself while waiting for a bus or for my mates to turn up at the bar
• answering a question (eg when DP and I are trying to remember the name of that actor, you know, the one who was in that film, with that other fella, who was also in that thing with that woman who used to be in The West Wing)
• a diary/calendar of my appointments
• making notes of stuff I need to remember
• a torch
• a mirror
• emergency calls

To me, if you have a really small device that does all those things, it seems like a bit of a waste to leave it at home all the time.

Some of the replies make you laugh you're not so anxious that you plan for if something horrible happens to you ? For those of us who have been alone and needed help in an emergency it really isn't funny

I take it with me everywhere. It’s my method of paying, I use it as a camera, and I just shove it in a small shoulder bag with my keys, glasses etc or a pocket. Also my kids are little so I do like to be able to be contacted. Not a big deal if someone else doesn’t have those needs though!

I think you might feel differently if you were raped and left with no way to raise the alarm personally. I think having some way of contacting people in an emergency is the single best thing about mobile phones, and I am so grateful they exist as my children grow up purely for that reason. When I was a teenager there were many a time when I was in a sticky situation and had no cash for a phone box. I don’t understand why you have a mobile phone if it’s not mobile with you, why bother then?! It’s literally the most useful thing about them!

@Estermay

you are a very lucky person if you do not have to plan for worst case scenarios. Many of us legitimately have to consider what happens if we get sick when we leave the house. What happens if we aren’t around other people to ask for help? What do we do if the situation doesn’t warrant an ambulance, but we also can’t get ourselves home or to the hospital independently? Saying that you just don’t plan for the worst to happen means you have never experienced the fear that comes with sudden incapacitation. Maybe you will continue to be lucky, but you should be careful not to imply that people who do understand the need to take precautions are overly anxious.

I have four DC over three different schools so that is exactly why I need my mobile phone to do the school run. The eldest often will call asking why he hasn't been picked up yet or something like that.

Some of these replies make me laugh. I am not so anxious that I plan my life around the worst things happening.

It's not about planning for the worst, it's about taking a very simple precaution that may one day save your life.

If you've never had an emergency that required you to use your phone, then you're incredibly fortunate imo. Maybe don't be so arrogant as to assume it will never happen, though.

It makes me laugh that some people have close family, support network and no nasty physical or mental health issues that they don't need their phone all the time.
I have to keep using my phone at work today to check my teen hasn't done something horrific. Her MH is a state this week. There is no one else around.

I do take it everywhere but I feel that now we all have phones people are more likely to change / cancel / amend plans at the last minute, so I need my phone on me in case something changes and the person I'm meeting needs to get in touch e.g. telling me they'll be late or can we meet in a slightly different place etc. I feel like I have to have my phone on me because people are so used to everyone being in instant contact and able to see messages immediately.

It pisses me off when plans change or people flake out at the last minute. I like making a plan and sticking to the plan! It annoys me when I get texts saying "still on for later?" etc. YES I AM BECAUSE I HONOUR A PLAN WHEN IT IS MADE!

just had to get that off my chest. I think mobile phones have made people more flakey.

Glad I am not the only one to have picked up on this...

Everywhere, in case I get an emergency call or need help, and also I use it as a wallet.

I take mine everywhere. They aren't just phones anymore are they? That's very much a secondary function nowadays. I very rarely talk on mine but I use it for just about everything else.

It's a clock, diary, notebook, camera, calendar and photo album. It contains my music, podcasts and audio books (which stream directly to my hearing aids so I no longer need to carry earbuds). It has loyalty cards and some payment cards loaded on to it. I download cinema/theatre/travel tickets to it. It's a mobile bank, shop and a pocket encyclopaedia. It contains my medical history. Quite often in a pub or restaurant I will use it to order and also to pay the bill. And all of this is synched with my iPad so it it ever gets lost or stolen or broken I can cancel the phone without losing any of my vital info.

Well, haven't you just won the lottery of life. 🥇🥇🥇

I'm not an anxious person either. I just think it's common sense to make things easier for yourself in case of an emergency.

How do you know you won't need your phone? I needed it last year to call 999. And all I was doing was taking my bins out. There was not a happy ending but at least I know I did everything I could.
I am now even more conscious of always having my phone handy.

My phone goes everywhere with me, but not because it's my phone. It's my music player, my wallet, my satnav (which I often use to check traffic even if I know where I'm going), my book, my brain extension.

I'm very rarely contactable on it, it sits on silent, the only people it vibrates for are DP, DD and my brother, because I know that if they're contacting me when I'm out, it's likely important, Every one else gets to wait until I notice the missed call and feel like talking to them.

This is a really interesting point. People talk about being free when they don't have a phone but I don't understand that mentality. You aren't at its beck and call - look at it when you want!

I have a watch but have it set to only notify me when I get a call or message/whatsapp. If I don't know who it is, I cancel the call. If I want to respond I do and if I don't, they can wait. My phone is usually on silent unless DD/DP have gone away as I don't want to miss them. All notifications are pop up only, no vibration or sound so I'm still "free".

I get it to a certain extent. I don't have my work email on my phone despite the fact that I probably should, as I can't resist checking them, and then I spend the next x amount of time thinking about work.

I don't have to check my email, I could just ignore it until the next day, but something makes me, so I've taken it off my phone to remove the temptation. So I get that some people just can't resist the temptation to answer the call, reply to the WhatsApp etc, so they feel freer when they don't have their phone with them.

I take it everywhere because I use it to pay for everything. I’ve used Apple Pay for about 8 years now, never have cash or cards with me.

What if your DP has an emergency, like a flat tyre? I like to know I can contact and be contacted. Like insurance - you have it just in case