ArishMell ยท 70-79, M
I don't.
Most of my telephone calls are via land-line (I need a reasonable broadband service for my computer uses, and no those do not include using it as a substitute television).
My portable telephone is a simple 3G one on PAYG. Its primary function is speech telephony, text a rather inefficient second. Its few auxiliaries I don't often use, include a low-quality camera and more useful alarm-clock. It's not connected to the Internet, though theoretically could be, assuming you could read any web-site on a screen smaller than a playing-card.
I had a so-called "smart-'phone" some 5 years ago; an LG2017. Could not get on with it: a heavy, clumsy and very confusing contraption full of gimmicks I neither need nor want; but lacking its most important facility, that of making and receiving telephone calls readily and easily. I paid off the 2-year contract and sold the 'phone after only a few months.
As for the adjective, using it in its American meaning, it is not the telephone that is "smart" but the people who designed and programmed it. The instrument is only a box of electronics.
Most of my telephone calls are via land-line (I need a reasonable broadband service for my computer uses, and no those do not include using it as a substitute television).
My portable telephone is a simple 3G one on PAYG. Its primary function is speech telephony, text a rather inefficient second. Its few auxiliaries I don't often use, include a low-quality camera and more useful alarm-clock. It's not connected to the Internet, though theoretically could be, assuming you could read any web-site on a screen smaller than a playing-card.
I had a so-called "smart-'phone" some 5 years ago; an LG2017. Could not get on with it: a heavy, clumsy and very confusing contraption full of gimmicks I neither need nor want; but lacking its most important facility, that of making and receiving telephone calls readily and easily. I paid off the 2-year contract and sold the 'phone after only a few months.
As for the adjective, using it in its American meaning, it is not the telephone that is "smart" but the people who designed and programmed it. The instrument is only a box of electronics.
exexec ยท 70-79, C
My flip phone works fine
plaguewatcher ยท M
I was an early adopter. But the more I learned about how they peak and Pry into your life?
I was showed How they Are perfect tracking machines
And really great for corporate advertisers I gave up, like many others Went away from my Reall computer, I do use a pad, but itโs not connected via a Phone chip
I was showed How they Are perfect tracking machines
And really great for corporate advertisers I gave up, like many others Went away from my Reall computer, I do use a pad, but itโs not connected via a Phone chip
rrraksamam ยท 31-35, M
I have one.
It has a secure OS though. I don't use it like regular people do.
I usually use my laptop for browsing and stuff
It has a secure OS though. I don't use it like regular people do.
I usually use my laptop for browsing and stuff

SW-User
I have a smartphone but use it only for emergency calls, because it's a tricky user unfriendly piece of.... plastic. I can't imagine trying to access SW with it.
zonavar68 ยท 56-60, M
Until three years ago I could still get a standard copper-pair phone line with a real fixed-line phone service but now that's no longer available so the only feasible way to have a phone is with a mobile. I have a smartphone but have a second sim in a non-smart phone. Feature phones as they are called now are getting harder to find. I want a Nokia 800 tough but Nokia doesn't make that model anymore.
I refused to accept an iphone my work tried to make me take and use. I use Android (based on linux) not crappy Apple IOS.
I refused to accept an iphone my work tried to make me take and use. I use Android (based on linux) not crappy Apple IOS.
WhateverWorks ยท 36-40
I went many years without, but itโs not practical anymore for what I have going on
SumKindaMunster ยท 51-55, M
Really?
Good for you.
So you need to go somewhere, you drag out the Rand McNally maps?
Paying bills by check?
Grabbing the yellow pages when you need a pedicure?
Good for you.
So you need to go somewhere, you drag out the Rand McNally maps?
Paying bills by check?
Grabbing the yellow pages when you need a pedicure?
View 5 more replies ยป
Bellatrix2083 ยท F
@SumKindaMunster I always make sure I have enough with me before I go into the shop. It also means I cannot overspend. What's a CC?
SumKindaMunster ยท 51-55, M
@Bellatrix2083 Credit Card
zonavar68 ยท 56-60, M
@SumKindaMunster I cut up my credit card recently (as per a post here) and the account is shut down. I always use cash as much as possible for in-person purchases. I would still have a landline phone if it was feasible but now all I can get is a voip phone since landline copper back to the telephone exchange was destroyed when the NBN took over from Telstra's landlines and normal phones plus ADSL went away.
drhhh ยท 46-50, M
It's the best thing you might ever done
ronnie ยท 56-60, M
I don't have any mobile phone. Point blank refuse to use one and never will have one.
zonavar68 ยท 56-60, M
@ArishMell No because they'll just say they offer me a company phone and I refuse to take one. I never look at company emails, etc. outside of work unless I need to sort something out for myself and I use my private (not work) email account for that. I'm not on-call 24/7. It's better to claim it as a work-related expense on my tax return.
ArishMell ยท 70-79, M
@zonavar68 Ah,, I see.
Quite right too, not looking at work e-mails when outside work. No-one needs be in touch with work all the time - with obvious exceptions such as on-call times in the emergency services.
Or if a member of a voluntary rescue organisation, though strictly speaking, that's not "work" but either an extension of one's hobby or in community spirit.
Quite right too, not looking at work e-mails when outside work. No-one needs be in touch with work all the time - with obvious exceptions such as on-call times in the emergency services.
Or if a member of a voluntary rescue organisation, though strictly speaking, that's not "work" but either an extension of one's hobby or in community spirit.
PhilDeep ยท 51-55, M
I much prefer a laptop to using my smartphone, but it certainly has its uses when on the move. Other than that I like to keep it at a distance.
durinsBane1983 ยท 46-50, M
i have two smartphones but hardly use them, except to look at the odd notification or news alert.
CrazyMusicLover ยท 31-35
I started using one in 2016. The main reason was that I wanted a phone with OS to be able to scrobble for Last.fm ๐
Repete ยท 70-79, M
My phone is a dumb flip phone .
I have an iPad that I use , itโs the only thing I have to get on the internet with .
I have an iPad that I use , itโs the only thing I have to get on the internet with .
smiler2012 ยท 61-69
@Bellatrix2083 ๐ exactly the same here do not need a mobile phone full stop .

SW-User
I held off for years, but I do have one now.
smileylovesgaming ยท 31-35, F
I use a laptop mostly
benfaltiger004 ยท 51-55, M
I have a smartphone .. but I hardly use it for anything other than what a phone is intended to be used for.
But yes, having a smartphone is helpful when my family need me for anything or for something important.
I rather walk with my head up and looking around enjoying my walk rather than looking down in my smartphone (like most people do nowadays). The phone may be smart, but it makes people look dumb and act dumb.
But yes, having a smartphone is helpful when my family need me for anything or for something important.
I rather walk with my head up and looking around enjoying my walk rather than looking down in my smartphone (like most people do nowadays). The phone may be smart, but it makes people look dumb and act dumb.
ArishMell ยท 70-79, M
@benfaltiger004 I couldn't agree more!
Though it's not the 'phone that is "smart", but its designers and programmers.
Sitting at the front of my favourite town-centre cafe, I reckoned at least the half the passers-by were openly carrying these things, with many either rabbiting into or tap-tap-tapping on, them. When scaffolding was in place for a few months on the shop front opposite I wondered how many so absorbed would crash head-first into one of the poles. None did, so perhaps their instruments had radar or sonar...
One of the daftest I saw was most certainly not dumb at all. Not only could she talk, she was loudly loquacious. This was a young woman sitting about ten yards from me on a busy railway station platform; 'phone on her lap, 'speaker turned up, her waffling excitedly away in a foreign language while facing not the telephone but a train standing with its engines running noisily, at the far platform. I have no idea if the woman at whom she was speaking heard anything clearly, but I heard her get an occasional word in edgeways.
Though it's not the 'phone that is "smart", but its designers and programmers.
Sitting at the front of my favourite town-centre cafe, I reckoned at least the half the passers-by were openly carrying these things, with many either rabbiting into or tap-tap-tapping on, them. When scaffolding was in place for a few months on the shop front opposite I wondered how many so absorbed would crash head-first into one of the poles. None did, so perhaps their instruments had radar or sonar...
One of the daftest I saw was most certainly not dumb at all. Not only could she talk, she was loudly loquacious. This was a young woman sitting about ten yards from me on a busy railway station platform; 'phone on her lap, 'speaker turned up, her waffling excitedly away in a foreign language while facing not the telephone but a train standing with its engines running noisily, at the far platform. I have no idea if the woman at whom she was speaking heard anything clearly, but I heard her get an occasional word in edgeways.
benfaltiger004 ยท 51-55, M
@ArishMell Ohhh That's another thing I hate about these phones and people ... they are not considerate about others around them.
Feel like just slapping them and asking them to shut up sometimes.
Feel like just slapping them and asking them to shut up sometimes.
ArishMell ยท 70-79, M
@benfaltiger004 I have been in a situation where actually, the 'phones did shut everyone up!
I belong to a club that offers accommodation for members and guests, and one evening was the only member among a guest group of about a dozen people. Their leader was busy on a lap-top, apparently for work or study. A couple using another were probably watching a video. The rest were all engrossed in "Solo Tap-Scroll-Tap-Scroll". Perhaps searching for thumb-arthritis remedies.
Barely a word between any of them for nearing two hours - they ignored me and I felt I could not try to converse with them, so found something to read. Eventually I went to the pub, leaving these digital Trappists to their eerie silence not at all natural for a bunch in their late-teens / early-20s.
Maybe they were "talking" to each other but had lost the skill to do so by voice....
I belong to a club that offers accommodation for members and guests, and one evening was the only member among a guest group of about a dozen people. Their leader was busy on a lap-top, apparently for work or study. A couple using another were probably watching a video. The rest were all engrossed in "Solo Tap-Scroll-Tap-Scroll". Perhaps searching for thumb-arthritis remedies.
Barely a word between any of them for nearing two hours - they ignored me and I felt I could not try to converse with them, so found something to read. Eventually I went to the pub, leaving these digital Trappists to their eerie silence not at all natural for a bunch in their late-teens / early-20s.
Maybe they were "talking" to each other but had lost the skill to do so by voice....

SW-User
Yeppers ๐
StygianKohlrabi ยท M
probably a good idea. I end up doing computer work on my phone and watching YouTube in bed, which is just a bad habit