This phone obsession I hate!!

I also click on Google and up come all sorts of news articles local and national, recipes etc which I I end up reading. Some really interesting however, others not so. I then forward those of interesting on. Something to do at 4:00am when I’ve been awake for over an hour.

I've never been on facebook, my daughter got me on whatsapp, I'm really not great on these, keep clicking on things and deleting stuff...and the smart phone I was using was an old one ,now it doesn't work so that's put an end to whatsapp...

My daughter got me onto WhatsApp when she went on holiday and I was house sitting. I’m terrible with a mobile phone, though…keep phoning people by mistake!

MayBee70

Blondiekins

Every morning I wake up and switch on my phone. Firstly I go to my whattsapp messages then emails then perhaps the news or the weather all thats fine but then I click on Facebook. Half an hour or more later Im so annoyed at myself for the time Ive just wasted watching reels and being sucked in by click bait articles and Ai generated stuff. I HATE it! Facebook was great when all you saw was your friends and could share photos etc but its not the same now is it. I probably speak for most of us that we have become addicted to this hand held device in our lives. But for the forums I follow Id gladly delete Facebook on my phone. Trouble is the forums I follow are diet and drug tapering advice ones so very important to me. I know there are ways to stop getting things but you have to click not interested in each individual topic which takes the time I dont want to spend but then annoyingly something else just turns up in its place. What can we do? I feel trapped and not IT literate enough to stop the cycle. Facebook of course is great for forums & advice so I dont want to delete it. That said my phone via goggle is also great for answering questions but Im starting to HATE my phone because its listening all the time and it seems like theres no escape. Can anyone relate.

Be careful what you wish for. I’ve been banned from my Facebook account and I miss it so much. Part of me felt it would free up my time but I depended on messenger to contact people and I loved sharing pictures on pages I was interested in; Ladybird books, old toys, old books etc. I stupidly tried to log in when I was tired and had forgotten my password; too many attempts and I was banned for life.

Surely that's not right! Can you appeal? Dud they not send you an email so you could reset it.

After reading the scamming thread I decided to change my passwords and, of course, couldn't get into my email account because I'd forgotten it.
Then sometimes i make a typo and think what's wrong, I'm locked out.

That's a pity if you use it for hobbies and interests. I only tend to look at hobby groups and a local group to find out what's going on (although I mostly avoid contributing to that!).

We've got WhatsApp groups and, of course, overseas phone calls are free.

I was on things like Ladybird Books, Old children’s books the corrugated iron appreciation group etc. I really miss it!

the corrugated iron appreciation group etc.
Is that a real thing? 😲

The only way I keep in touch with a couple of cousins is via Facebook. Not often but at least I know they’re still alive ! I like some of the historical threads with old photos of places I knew. I have never and would never post anything remotely ‘political’ - how on earth do you get banned ? Not trying to be rude, just wondering.

nanna8

The only way I keep in touch with a couple of cousins is via Facebook. Not often but at least I know they’re still alive ! I like some of the historical threads with old photos of places I knew. I have never and would never post anything remotely ‘political’ - how on earth do you get banned ? Not trying to be rude, just wondering.

By forgetting my password and stupidly doing it several times because I was tired and I panicked.It happens with one’s mobile phone, too, if you type in the wrong password ( my partner got locked out of his phone recently).And then a friend had a friend request from me even though we were already Facebook friends. So she told Facebook my account had been hacked which it hadn’t been. She was trying to be helpful. From what I’ve been told Meta is all AI so you can’t explain yourself to a real person. And yet I’ve complained to Facebook about people that send you friend requests pretending to be someone they’re not or make vile racist comments or report a sales ad that is pretending to be a well known company
and they do nothing about it.

I love the new AI function when you want to know all kinds of useful bits and bobs. For example, I get itchy in wool, but wanted a little boxy navy cardigan with just 8% wall. so I googled, "how can I make wool clothes less itchy? and there was the answer. I use it for stuff like that all the time. I love google maps to go exploring when people say they are going to such and such a place. Facebook is to keep up with people, say about 20, who I rarely if ever see but it's lovely for that. I'm on two boards like Gransnet, and I am now seeing people who I've met. whats not to like" I never have been tempted by dark corners or spend time on things not worth it.

MayBee70

nanna8

The only way I keep in touch with a couple of cousins is via Facebook. Not often but at least I know they’re still alive ! I like some of the historical threads with old photos of places I knew. I have never and would never post anything remotely ‘political’ - how on earth do you get banned ? Not trying to be rude, just wondering.

By forgetting my password and stupidly doing it several times because I was tired and I panicked.It happens with one’s mobile phone, too, if you type in the wrong password ( my partner got locked out of his phone recently).And then a friend had a friend request from me even though we were already Facebook friends. So she told Facebook my account had been hacked which it hadn’t been. She was trying to be helpful. From what I’ve been told Meta is all AI so you can’t explain yourself to a real person. And yet I’ve complained to Facebook about people that send you friend requests pretending to be someone they’re not or make vile racist comments or report a sales ad that is pretending to be a well known company
and they do nothing about it.

Thanks for your reply. That is scary, isn’t it? I quite often forget passwords. I know what you mean about friend requests,too. It is sad but I only accept people I definitely know and even then you get people pretending to be people they are not !

I have to admit to using my phone too much when alone .
But when I'm with a friend and they are glued to their phone instead of talking I feel really annoyed .

I can never find my phone, even though it is the only phone i have access to at the moment. It is at the bottom of my handbag, or I left it in the kitchen.

My dyspraxia makes using a fiddly mobile phone difficult. It is a mind as well as fingers problem. My only social media is GN, and occasional use of Facebook to find local workmen. I do everything on a computer, mainly by email.

I have sites I use and subjects I am interested in but they and social media go in different directions and rarely do the twain meet.

i would think the answer to the OPs problem is to give her smart phone to someone she trusts for a month and buy a 'dumb phone' and use that for necessary phone calls. When she reclaims it, after a month of cold turkey. She sets limits. keep the dumb phone and keep it in the bedroom, ban the smart phone. That way she will need to be out of bed and downstairs before she can use it in the morning and will not be able to use it once she goes up to bed.

CariadAgain

Maybe get an easy "smartphone". eg Chattie seems to be the easiest by far (I'm not able to use smartphones myself). That seems to have only what one actually wants - so I have bought one...but confess to not having tried it yet.

I don't know whether it "spies" on you - like other ones do - or no. I should think there's a reasonable chance your privacy will be respected on one like that.

Now, I’m sure it’s coincidence, but yesterday my friend and I were chatting, and this morning posts about two of the ( quite obscure) things we’d been talking about appeared on TikTok! It is coincidence, isn’t it……..?

( Incidentally, I started looking at TikTok to see recipes from the excellent Cheryl Bakes Cakes, and now find twenty seconds or so is just about my attention span.)

Daddima

CariadAgain

Maybe get an easy "smartphone". eg Chattie seems to be the easiest by far (I'm not able to use smartphones myself). That seems to have only what one actually wants - so I have bought one...but confess to not having tried it yet.

I don't know whether it "spies" on you - like other ones do - or no. I should think there's a reasonable chance your privacy will be respected on one like that.

Now, I’m sure it’s coincidence, but yesterday my friend and I were chatting, and this morning posts about two of the ( quite obscure) things we’d been talking about appeared on TikTok! It is coincidence, isn’t it……..?

( Incidentally, I started looking at TikTok to see recipes from the excellent Cheryl Bakes Cakes, and now find twenty seconds or so is just about my attention span.)

Alexa? Siri? We’re definitely in Big Brother land now aren’t we?

Shades of that meme that's going the rounds of someone telling a joke and the person talked to laughed - and Alexa laughed and Siri laughed and the tv laughed (or was it the fridge).

No chance of me getting smart appliances in this house.....

Perhaps purchase a dumb phone? Cheap as chips.

We've one in husband's office, I use when I must use a mobile.

My dear hubby who is the least IT/Device user has now become totally addicted and spends hours scrolling market place etc. I hate it - I don’t even like my own usage much and I do everything on my phone … seems a lot of us are finding this difficult.

62Granny

I had a dream the other night that I had gone to my old church, ( not a regular attendee these days) it was very full but I kept picking my phone up to look at different things, I remember thinking shut your phone down or the priest will tell you off😂😐

😂 I love it! Do I recognise a fellow partially lapsed Catholic?

I feel your pain, Blondiekins. I get driven crazy by the amount of posts not by friends. I'd like to see a tab where I can just see the posts my friends have written rather than every group I don't belong to or Adverts that really aren't relevant to me. I am afraid I watch far too many reels about cats, dogs and sewing but my biggest frustration is that my finger twitches and I find I have moved onto the next reel without finishing the one I was watching. As you can't fast forward or rewind, it means going back and watching it all again if it was interesting or informative. Ah well, a first world problem!

I have a smartphone and every night it stays on and charging. I'm on FB, Instagram, Blipfoto and also Snapchat but only for the filters and I don't send or look at stuff. I can access my emails and use WhatsApp for messaging. Oh, and I follow Gransnet. Obsessed? Me? Never.

I don’t spend much time on traditional social media sites (and more on Instagram than Facebook). My downfall is mostly emails from news outlets, podcasts and Substack. I can be lost for hours down these rabbit holes! WhatsApp groups can be very time-consuming too - I’m involved in a couple of organisations as a volunteer committee member, and get tracked into all kinds of online discussions that can end up taking hours over the course of a day.

I know we call them phones, but they do loads more, don’t they? Mine replaces newspapers and magazines. It’s my camera, my alarm clock, my radio and music centre.

Like how I don’t like to see people ‘glued’ to their phones - I noticed it recently on a long train journey when the scenery was stunning, but few people seem to notice. And yes, I resent it when friends constantly pick up their phones to check who is messaging them. I’m not sure we’ve quite developed the new protocols and manners to go alongside for these devices.

So many services are digital these days, that I think portable devices are here to stay. But I wonder whether, like a lot of things, our use of them will peak? Especially as the experiences increasingly spoiled by all the advertising and spam?

Blondiekins I could have written this. I’m exactly the same. I wake up and reach for my phone which is usually on my bed at my side because not only do I reach for it first thing in the morning I’m on it every time I wake up during the night.
It’s bad I know I really must try and resist it because it’s taking over my mornings.
The same as you I’m there doom scrolling the hours away when I should be getting up and doing stuff. I’m 68 and retired last year due to illness and of course lying there in bed recovering it’s the only thing I had to do except watch tv or reading. I haven’t read for years can’t concentrate.
It’s a habit I’ve got into that I can’t seem to get out of so you’re not on your own.

Blondiekins

Every morning I wake up and switch on my phone. Firstly I go to my whattsapp messages then emails then perhaps the news or the weather all thats fine but then I click on Facebook. Half an hour or more later Im so annoyed at myself for the time Ive just wasted watching reels and being sucked in by click bait articles and Ai generated stuff. I HATE it! Facebook was great when all you saw was your friends and could share photos etc but its not the same now is it. I probably speak for most of us that we have become addicted to this hand held device in our lives. But for the forums I follow Id gladly delete Facebook on my phone. Trouble is the forums I follow are diet and drug tapering advice ones so very important to me. I know there are ways to stop getting things but you have to click not interested in each individual topic which takes the time I dont want to spend but then annoyingly something else just turns up in its place. What can we do? I feel trapped and not IT literate enough to stop the cycle. Facebook of course is great for forums & advice so I dont want to delete it. That said my phone via goggle is also great for answering questions but Im starting to HATE my phone because its listening all the time and it seems like theres no escape. Can anyone relate.

blondiekins please don’t worry, you’re not alone, but I use my iPad, my old iPhone is too small and old to do that on. I’m 80 next year btw. I think all this started when the energy costs became too much so I would stay in bed doing all I would do on the ipad downstairs and keep warm, until hunger drives me to get up! I don’t sleep well at night anyway and I usually sleep late, so this is an extension of that! I still work, VERY flexible hours from home, doing what I love, so the very first thing in the morning I check through and read my emails …some need a reply, so I do all that. Then comes the news… read all that, in particular my obsession with the goings on in the US and Trump! I don’t often get stuck down a rabbit hole with that, but sometimes I find myself on X mentally or otherwise ‘shouting’ at the injustices! That I know I should stay out of …but occasionally I get mad enough at all the stupid Anti Vaxxers, Trump eulogisers, etc! I don’t get sucked in by click bait now, got wise to that years ago, but I do often find myself on all sorts of shopping sites etc, as and when I think I might need something… then I can end up ‘browsing’ … I also run a small group on FB messenger, and have to respond to DMs from friends and family there, etc, rather like What’s App I suppose. A lot goes on there as both my sons live away and one with his family, my grandchildren in Japan… so messaging with a time difference usually means the morning…in bed! You are not alone… at my age I sometimes feel guilty for spending so much time on the net, but also WHY NOT, I mostly enjoy it! And it’s warm and comfy. If downstairs there are always so many things to do I do feel guilty, but up here tucked away is my haven. I live alone of course!

You don't have to scroll through. Just see if there are new posts on the forums you follow. If not, switch off.