Coping without a smartphone

[Underpinning]

Posting for traffic.

If you don’t have a smartphone, how do you manage without a banking app/google maps/whatsapp?

I’m seriously contemplating it but wondering how easy it would be to manage without those things.

Have you got a laptop at home that you can have your banking and stuff on because let's face it, most things are internet based now. Everyone managed with bog standard phones at first and many elderly still do whilst getting family or friends to complete anything online

My friend made a big thing about having a brick phone. It didn't last long!

Yes I have a PC which has mobile banking. And I suppose you can get text messages with OTPs. But often you seem to need apps for verifications.

I know they make life a lot easier but lots of us managed without one before they were available!

Yes but you could put money in a parking meter then, now it's all apps

Just the bog standard text app on a phone, no OTP needed

Sorry I called it an app but I meant message function

The best idea I've heard is to have an old smart phone on 'your desk' (in a drawer!) with apps on and WiFi only, used for specific tasks.

Then a regular non smart with a SIM to carry around everyday.

I've just taken all the rubbish, inc browser, off my smart phone and basically hardly ever use it but still have e.g. parking app in my pocket if required

neither of my parents have one. The difference for them is that they’ve never had one, so they haven’t ever used the technology to know what they’re missing. They have mobile phones but never ever turn them on. They have a desktop computer and an iPad mini so old that it can’t be updated, so they can’t access many websites properly.

they do their banking through the bank’s website or in person (bank is five miles away).

they don’t buy anything that needs verification really. Just M&S and Amazon online, and then not often. The parking where they live still accepts coins, or you pay by card.

they’ve never used WhatsApp, for example. They’re not on social media. They are however very involved in the community, and all of the groups they are part of have a WhatsApp group. My mum is the secretary of her local WI for example.

I think you’d miss having a smartphone loads, having already had one.

My issue is taking photos. The iPhone is improving tremendously with regards to photo quality. If it was wasn’t for that I’d happily give it up.

I don’t do anything involving money on my phone. Use on-line banking on my desk-top and do all my on-line ordering on there. Damage limitation should my mobile be stolen

Parking will be the thing that I’ll have to do by phone eventually, but at the moment all parking round here will take a card and many will take cash.

What I value on my smart phone is: Google maps as a sat nav; browser for reading papers while waiting for appointments;”findmy” for DH to meet me without having to exchange texts about where I am; monitoring my activity levels.

That’s a good idea @PondWatering

I’m on various WhatsApp groups which are a load of waffle and nonsense, but also some with my DC and others with friends and I’d really miss those. But a pared-down phone could work.

You know that you can turn off notifications for selected WhatsApp groups? The waffle and nonsense is a lot less annoying when it’s not pinging for attention

Yes I’ve done that, thanks @MereDintofPandiculation

But somehow I feel I have to check just to get rid of the unread messages thing.

I've never had a smart phone and I don't want one. Given what we know about the 4 foundational harms to young people (addiction, social deprivation, sleep deprivation and attention fragmentation), I certainly won't be giving one to DC either. If they get to 18 and want to buy one themselves with their own money, that'll be up to them.

To answer your questions:

(i) I've never used a banking (or anything other kind of) app. I do all my banking online at a desktop computer or laptop. There's absolutely no requirement for it to be on a phone.

(ii) I've never used Google Maps or any other kind of maps on a phone. I look up where i'm going in advance and try to have a sense of the place. I have paper maps / A-Zs which I actually enjoy looking at and using. If driving, my car has a Sat Nav so I use that. Otherwise, if i'm lost, i'll ask someone. Once or twice i've called up someone on the phone and asked for directions. It's never been a problem.

(iii) WhatsApp - it's not true that WhatsApp is only available on smart phones. I use a simple version of WhatsApp on a Nokia feature phone under license from a company called HMD. It uses a very secure operating system called Kai OS X. By the way, the handset costs £50 or so and there are many far cheaper (Nokia 800 Tough) and my monthly contract for unlimited calls and texts from Vodaphone is ~£12 / month. I never use 3G/4G/5G, and only access WhatsApp where I have Wifi (home and work, usually).

I'm occasionally asked by a company / service / organisation to 'download an app', for one reason or another. If I explain that I don't have a smart phone they can always find an alternative. If there wasn't I would probably complain vociferously that they are discriminating against people who don't have a particular technology and it is their responsibility to accomodate them in another way. It hasn't happened yet..

Some might think that i'm being needlessly difficult and avoiding the requirements of the modern world out of some esoteric point of principle. Perhaps I am! I'm not against technology - I work in a technology-adjacent field and regularly use advanced scientific computing. But, I also value free space, free time to think, reading books, not doom-scrolling, not being contactable, not seeing my emails all the damn time, interacting with real life people, daydreaming, being bored, being lost (sometimes), not being a puppet of tech companies, spending quality time with my family and DC, etc etc.

Good luck

That’s so interesting @gldd. I need to investigate a WA friendly Nokia.

I do a reasonably long drive weekly. Google maps is the only thing that helps me avoid traffic issues and road closures. I have a sat nav, but it’s nowhere near as nimble.
Also it’s my camera. I don’t want to have to carry a camera everywhere.

I have a smartphone, but I use it a as you would a "less smart" phone with the bonus of having a camera.
I think it is dangerous that people carry around so much about themselves in one device that could break/get lost/stolen in a heartbeat. Banking and NHS stuff... no thanks.

My dad does not have a smartphone, and does not go online at all.. which is a good thing as he would be arguing with everyone.

I did this for a year when on maternity leave and got a Nokia brick. Things that got me back on a smartphone were: bus times, being able to email on the go (mixed blessing but very useful for me for work) and maps. I'd really struggle without one now but I find it hard to put down when I'm tired and I sometimes take the browser off to help fight the addiction to scrolling

Smartphones mean people who are on holiday are actually at work, people who are at home are actually at work, people who are at work are actually talking to their friends and family and shopping and doing life admin. No one is actually fully where they are. I'm currently on holiday but finishing something for work that before technology made things more flexible would have had to have been done at work and would have taken about 30 mins. I'm having an epic battle with logins for it daily at the moment and waiting for calls from customer service. It's taken hours.

I was telling my DD that there was one workplace that I left in 2004. We weren’t allowed to have the means to sign in to emails from home. That privilege was reserved for managers. Imagine!