Can someone in their 50s exist with no internet?

[Bad80sPerm]

This. I don’t have home broadband so no laptop.

i could go to having just TV/Radio etc as my entertainment

Would you find if difficult?

I think I could probably manage entertainment without the internet, as you say normal Telly, radio and reading would be fine, although any kind of outing, theatre visit or even children's clubs are booked online.

Communication, as a family we use WhatsApp to video call more distant relatives, I suppose you would get back into the habit of actually talking on the phone.

Health, everything from our GP is through an online form.

Banking, local branches have been closed so it's through an app.

Paying bills, everything from utilities to council tax is online.

Even registering to vote is an online form.

I suppose you could visit the library ,or an internet cafe (do they even exist anymore?) and make use of the computers but their opening hours are being drastically cut, so,
No, I don't think I could manage without internet access at home.

My folks (70s) do have internet but won’t pay for anything online 😔 they miss out on a lot of things that would benefit them and they spend a lot of time making phone calls

I don't think it's a good idea for someone in their 50s, no. Things move very quickly and I don't think you would want to get left behind.

I don't use Snapchat, Tik-Tok or any of the AI packages but I think I probably should do. My parents retired in the early 90s without using computers in their workplace and never got to grips with it all in their retirement. I think they missed out and I don't want that to be me, being completely lost in 5 years time because I haven't bothered to get to grips with newer things.

I guess if you are saying you would still have your phone with data so it would just be things like smart TV you would miss out on, or you would use your phone data for iPad then you would probably be OK.

And my 86 year old mother practically lives online. And her husband, 88, has taught himself how to fix/programme computers.

And Yellow Pages no longer exists. I don't know how you find companies now without the internet.

I’ve thought about this a lot. I grew up without it and started using internet at about 18. Quite an early adopter. I read a lot as a child.
Yes I’m posting on here, but I increasingly think life would be much better if the internet had never been invented, or at least mobile internet. I wouldn’t want to be without mobile phones, they are very useful, but I think when smart phones came in it ruined everything.
The more you need an app to go everything the more reliant we become on it. It’s a viscous circle.
I never shop online if I can help it, as I hate online shopping, but the physical shops are closing, or have little stock so sometimes I’m forced to.
The GP surgery has gone from being able to call and make an appointment to trying to get everyone to do it on an app. You used to be able to walk into a bank to arrange a mortgage, now most of the branches are closing, same with Post Offices.
Bit by bit we become slaves to our phones. My teens can’t be bored, and if they feel the slightest bit awkward in any situation they take out their phones.
They find it hard to speak to people in shops or ask directions because they do everything on their phones.
People are losing the knowledge and ability to buy a train ticket from a station, use a map, look something up in a library. I wandered London with an A- Z when I lived there, getting lost, exploring. Now I’d just use a map app. I travelled the world not knowing what I’d find. Now I can see anywhere on Google earth.
Maybe I’d be happier if we could rewind to the days of brick phones, and maybe a clunky desktop computer for going online?
I think it’s the constant connection and total reliance on smart phones that worries me.
We went and stayed in a caravan last year that had no 4g signal. It was lovely. I felt calmer and much more relaxed.

I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to.
people in their 50s are still working, and although we grew up without it, it’s been a fact of life for 30 years.

my sister is sort off the grid, doesn’t have a smart phone, no broadband, no internet banking etc. However she does go round to my parents house to check her emails and use their PC and if she wants something online will ask me or them to buy it for her.

i don’t think it’s possible to be completely off line.

Have you got a smart phone?

I agree with this. If I could, I'd choose for smart phones to not exist.

I've contemplated getting rid of mine, but compromised by setting up rigid limitations using Lock Me Out app. It's made me halve my phone usage and read two books since 1st Jan instead of doom scrolling.

Many towns no longer have any banks. Post offices are closing so they're no substitute for the stuff you can't do via an atm. Even if you have a bank in town, if you work 9-5 you can't get to it.

Town centres are dwindling and many out of town shopping centres are poorly served by public transport so you would have to be more reliant on a car.

And there are no medals being dished out for making life harder.

I know a few older people who do not have smart phones & do not use the Internet
No email
No WhatsApp
No Internet browsing

Their choices are limited & they probably miss out on better deals

Their communication is limited to face to face, phone calls or letters

They have to ask other people for help

However, they still manage , so far

If you have any kind of bank account or phone line no, you need to be able to contact the provider if there is no mobile or landline available. Most people don't have landlines these days but if your mobile goes down you won't be able to find contact details for anything...not as if we have the Yellow Pages for O2 or hospitals or dentists or anything any more.

To be honest our reliance on the internet scares me. Especially considering our power comes from Russia via Chinese infrastructure.

Bear in mind that landlines are being phased out so people are increasingly needing Internet access to make those phone calls.

He's setting himself up for a lot of problems, or at least inconvenience, in his older age.

He's doing what's right for him and that's all that matters.
At least he won't get scammed or ripped off.

I registered to vote by filling in that card they send in the post. I didn’t even think to do it online.
Im glad some pp recognise that being so dependent on the internet is a worry. At the end of the day my early experiences make me realise I could cope. I remember life before. In 30 years there won’t be many people who would have any memory of pre internet life. I’m not sure that’s good for us as a species.
It’s not equivalent to, I don’t know, wanting to wash by hand when washing machines have been invented. The internet, and especially mobile internet has completely re shaped business, travel, culture, work. Everything. And the sense of privacy we used to have is different. Now we just accept that everything we do is tracked and our data collected. There’s no point even worrying about it as there’s nothing you can do.
I sometimes wonder if teenagers could just get an implant in their wrist and be walking phones they wouldn’t think twice. Already their phones are like an extension of their bodies. Not just teenagers actually.

A friend of mine (in her 70s) has no Internet, no computer/laptop, no TV, landline only, listens to the radio for entertainment and reads a lot. Loves gardening and writing poetry.

Shes highly intelligent and a fascinating lady....however she does struggle with day to day "annoyances" which occur simply because she's not plugged into 2025

I suppose that depends if you think it's harder or not? Some people might like the slower pace of life. I think you'd live more efficiently and do lots of tasks in a trip. I'd probably buy less as it would take more effort.

Banks have closed around me, so I do have to travel further. Accessible by train for me if I didn't want to drive. They are open on Saturday morning, which is fine if you don't work six days.

I do enjoy the convenience of online services but it is still possible to live without it. Even if we choose not to live without it, I think it's concerning that some people don't seem to have the knowledge or skills to be able to access services any other way. Everyone should be able to do that.

No way. I don’t want to have such a grim existence.

I'd be out of a job, as I work in IT and am dependent on it for that.

I can easily go a weekend without it, though. I might have to do a bit of planning ahead to make sure I'm not doing something that needs tickets online or anything, but I have stayed in places where the connection was so poor, it was easier not to bother. Or camping.

This I cancelled my broadband subscription as had no need for it but have plenty of data on my phone and can use as a hotspot for my table if I want

I don't watch TV or Netflix though at my house

You don't need internet to make calls. Even a " dumb" basic mobile will make calls even if it's not internet capable

This is so odd to me, why people in their 50s? It's not old, they will still be working, most likely. So using emails and all manner of other digital services. And if they have DC they'll likely have teens or young adults, digital natives who might want to stay in touch via cloud hosted things like emails and WhatsApp.

I'm in my mid 40s, my siblings are all in 50s, I cannot imagine any of us living life without the internet. Nor my late 70s/early 80s parents and in laws. Sure you maybe don't want a broadband connection but would you really not want any kind of access to all the services which are now down exclusively or more easily via the data (internet) on your phone or tablet?

In my 50s I probably could have lived without internet. But I had a great village style shopping centre practically outside my front door with a library just up the street and a community of good people. I was working so I was out and about anyway. But still I used the internet.

Now in my 60s and living in a less central spot I could not get by without the internet. I use it for food shopping, banking, Christmas shopping, latest news, making hospital/doctors appointments , forums like these, renewing library loans etc.. last week the internet was down in my area for 3 days and while manageable for that very short period, it was also annoying. It’s also great for news about what’s happening in my local area, and for news generally.

Also, I’d hate to have to pick up/re learn how to use the internet after a prolonged period away from it, as it moves fast and develops quickly.

I don’t see how anyone manages these days without internet access, or indeed a smart phone. It’s a real problem for elderly people on limited means to buy the technology they need for day to day admin.