Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not have a mobile phone?

57 replies

mrsruffallo · 03/03/2010 20:58

It is strange how many people are outraged when you tell them you don't have one. Or they say 'I've got an old one if you want'
No, I don't freaking want
I can't stand all the fiddling people do with them, or you are talking to someone and they answer their mobile

Who wants to be that accessible
It's pathetic
Maybe they have brain controlling devices inside

OP posts:
14hourstillbedtime · 03/03/2010 22:50

Nope - no mobile for me! No watch, either. And only learned to drive at 23 and now really have to as live in the States and if you don't drive you really can't go anywhere.

DH is forcing me to get a mobile now, though (went out and bought me one) I'm only accepting it cos of the likely scenario I am out somewhere when I go into labour and need to contact him!

Putting it right at the bottom of the bag when I've had the baby, though.

And you're right, Mrs R, can't stand people always fiddling with them and texting their friends when you're trying to talk to them - height of rudenss, imo!

Love the two earlier posters who mentioned their Luddite brothers - sounds like bliss to me! Now, if I could just persuade myself I could live without crap tele, life would be peaceful indeed...

runnybottom · 03/03/2010 23:58

Youse can't be proper luddites..youre on the fecking internet!

Original poster
mrsruffallo · 04/03/2010 10:26

14hours- I don't have a watch either. I haven't worked out my resistance to having one, bit gey by fine without one anyway

OP posts:
Tiredmumno1 · 04/03/2010 10:44

How the hell is it safer walking, have you not heard the recent stories how people/child killed by car mounting the path, and that poor little boy killed by the lampost or the little girl killed by a garden wall falling on her, so maybe you be better suited to a field with a tent (oh no strike the tent out, it may catch fire)

Tiredmumno1 · 04/03/2010 10:47

Sorry to sort of stray off a bit there, but are you tell me that you have never used a phone or been in a vehicle, if you have then your a hypocrite my dear, and its the biggest load of tosh i ever heard, jeez does it matter, and get off the comp, its sending brainwaves through making you talk crazy

Original poster
mrsruffallo · 04/03/2010 10:55

Tired mummy
Do you have statistics proving that more people are killed walking on the street than driving?
Thought not

Are you having a bad day dear?
You sound irate

OP posts:
TrillianAstra · 04/03/2010 10:59

YANBU to not have a mobile phone but from the way you are talking about them you are a weirdo.

Original poster
mrsruffallo · 04/03/2010 11:07

Wierdo?
I don't mind being called a wierdo actually, I think it says far more about you than me Trillian

OP posts:
TrillianAstra · 04/03/2010 11:09

I agree, if one person considers another to be weird it says something about both of them

sarah293 · 04/03/2010 11:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TrillianAstra · 04/03/2010 11:15

If you can't cope with a house telephone 'demanding' to be answered a mobile is actually better as you can see who is calling and choose to answer or not.

It also has a 'silence' button so you don't have to listen to it ring out, but the person calling doesn't know that you've rejected them.

Original poster
mrsruffallo · 04/03/2010 11:23

Nope, I think the man=in thing it says is that the labeller is happy to call anyone who doesn't think or live like them a 'wierdo'.

Says nothing about the person given the label.

OP posts:
MABS · 04/03/2010 11:28

yes Riven, was just about to say the same thing, vital when you have a disabled child i assure you.

Granny23 · 04/03/2010 11:37

YANBU I do not have one either and No, I do not want someone's old one. I value my privacy and at my age can no longer multi task with aplomb. When I am out, I am out. Leave a message on my answering machine and I will get back to you when it is convenient and I am organised. I have enough trouble remembering to take teeth, glasses, spare glasses, keys, money, emergency medication, and spare tena pads without adding to the list.

Quite often I cannot proceed with online transactions or surveys which demand a mobile no. and am forced to make one up. I think that mobiles are just a part of the whole survellance society in which we live. Like Tesco cards which keep a record of everything you buy. I do not have a credit card either - never had credit = no credit history = no one will issue a card to me.

ArcticFox · 04/03/2010 11:50

Re driving vs walking, not sure about generally, but in Superfreakonomics they have the evidence that more people are killed drunk walking than drunk driving (takes into account both victim and driver)

so........even though morally, it's still despicable, you as the drunk person are statistically safer driving home drunk than walking.

TrillianAstra · 04/03/2010 12:12

And far more safe going somewhere closer instead or getting a taxi

The death rate for drunk walking vs drunk driving is per mile I believe, not per minute. Which makes perfect sense if you thinkt hat you are drunk, in place A, and need to get to place B (home).

Did they group together everyone who was "over the limit", or did they take into account that the people who were "drunk driving" were possibly only slightly over the limit, whereas the people who decided they were too drunk to drive and wlaked instead may have had a much higher average level of alcohol in their system?

ArcticFox · 04/03/2010 12:25

TA- You're right. The statistic they quote is that "drunk walking leads to 5 times as many deaths per mile than drunk walking."

It doesn't take into account degrees of drunkenness so your average walker could be drunker than your average driver.

I guess I was just throwing it out there, wondering if anyone had stats on driving vs walking overall.

However, as the OP will no doubt point out, if there were no cars, the walking death rate would be lower than it is at the moment.

Morloth · 04/03/2010 12:37

I have one, but only answer it when I feel like it (or it is the school or DH), same at home, sometimes I answer the phone/doorbell sometimes I don't.

Caller ID is one of the best inventions ever.

SaorAlba · 04/03/2010 12:53

My OH doesn't have a mobile either. I don't mind most of the time, but if something happens and I can't meet him in the exact time and place that's planned, then I feel that he has no right to be angry at me about the situation.

Today, for example, he hasn't yet called me from work, which means I can't ask him to pick up salad on the way home for our lunches tomorrow. Therefore, if he's unhappy at having no lunch tomorrow then he's being unreasonable.

These are obviously minor things. News of car crashes, houses burning down, injuries etc would clearly be more important to convey quickly.

Provided you are happy not to be contacted and will not be upset when you miss out on vital news then YANBU.

Original poster
mrsruffallo · 04/03/2010 20:10

I think cars/ vans etc should only exist for the really necessary things in life, like emergency services, delivery of white goods, moving etc
I do believe most deleiveries should be done at night

And please pedestrianise particular areas where cars have been given more space and comfort than people- Oxford Street and the area around Greenwich market for a start

OP posts:
nancy75 · 04/03/2010 20:17

i dont have a mobile, not for any kind of mind control reasons i just don't want one. if i'm out i don't want to be having a chat, i will be talking to whoever i am with. i have a landline people can phone me on that.

i actually think phones have made people a bit rude tbh. if i am meeting friends they always moan about my lack of phone, generally along the lines of "what if i'm going to be late, how will i let you know?" i'm sure people were more puntual and less likely to change their mind at the last minute before mobile phones.

sarah293 · 05/03/2010 08:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

diddl · 05/03/2010 09:24

I agree Nancy
I like to chat in the comfort of my own home, not in the street/shop whatever.

I do understand that some people need to be contactable "24-7".

But for those who don´t, we can choose not to be.

ArcticFox · 05/03/2010 09:41

Nancy75, I definitely agree with you on that point. People now think nothing of texting or emailing to say "i'm going to be 20 mins late" 5 minutes before you're due to meet them, whereas before mobiles, they wouldn't have been so casual as risk would be that you'd have left by the time they got there.

The other annoying thing is people who take non-urgent calls or check blackberry constantly if you're out with them.

diddl · 05/03/2010 10:06

That´s really rude isn´t it ArcticFox.
Why do people do that?

If you´re visiting someone/out shopping with them/out for a meal,why would you keep checking your phone?

Swipe left for the next trending thread