Not using email

Jess20 I imagine it's almost impossible to have been in employment in the last ten years and not be able to use email, almost every job would require some sort of technology. Refusing to use email when you actually have it and can provide an email address is just plain weird

Whist I agree that many of those who are employed or have been employed should be able to use email, there are certainly people who don't have work related email needs (farm workers, window washers, cleaners, etc).

I have an email used only by family - no excess stuff, just family.

My husband has an email that he uses only for work, I have access but don't muddle in his emails without a record keeping need.

We share an email for junk, travel, NHS, other stuff if we're forced to provide an address- we typically don't open it but weekly.

I believe people should accept not everyone likes email, mobiles, or text. However, if one is forced to give email access the email box should be opened and sifted on a reasonable weekly (?) schedule.

As the secretary to our small voluntary Residents Management Company, I have, over the past year, turned nearly everything over to being on line. Has saved us so much money.

When flats are sold, we have to send to vendors solicitors a very large amount of documents, this used to be carried out by photocopying, then posting. Now all of these documents are sent by the clock of a button on my laptop saving the cost of paper, electricity, toner and postage.

In our 25 flats, all but eight now have supplied me with their email address, which means that our regular newsletter gets sent to this that way, again saving on that photocopying.

All our flats are owned by people of retirement age , the oldest one will be 100 this year. I really fail to understand people who do not live in the time they are living with regard to technology. Reminds me of a couple of aunts I had when back in my youth, back in 50's who were too scared to use a telephone.

I think in many instances that boasting about not using modern tech is a way of covering up that they have never learned to do so Not necessarily that they don’t want to. Might even benefit from the offer of help with the basics

I have a friend like this too. Recently she wanted to book tickets and accommodation for a show in London. She asked another friend to do this for her and faffed about so much about the dates that they wasted most of the afternoon.

My sister who lives in Italy uses no modern technology and seems proud of the fact. 👎 She relies on her daughter who lives nearby and me to do any emailing for her. She has not had a good life or a happy marriage and because of lack of funds is stuck away from almost everyone, including lifelong friends. She does write a lot of letters that don’t always reach their destination.

Because if her failing eyesight she does use a Kindle. 👍

She’s has sadly brought her loneliness on herself, which saddens me.

My mum was always very excited to tell anyone who would listen that she’d never touched a computer (she died two years ago). But she was always very happy if we found her a cheap cruise online! I have very little patience with people who are completely able to master at least basic technology and just refuse to do so. And then brag about it!

I have a good friend who uses her smartphone for everything. But her husband won't use a smartphone, relies on her to communicate with AC etc. His basic phone got cut off by the network supplier because he hadn't used it for 3 months. Then their landline went down, and he remarked that they could manage with her phone until the landline was fixed.
She REALLY went for him!

We bought our first computer - a ZX80 - in 1980, a home laptop in 1984, and I first used email in 1990 and went online in 1995. I couldn't wait to get a smartphone after seeing DD with one - only to find that dyspraxia and smart phones are mutually antagonistic, but I keep trying, but stick as far as possible to using emails for communication.

My son's MiL, now nearly 90, doesn't use a computer or smartphone, but uses a standard mobile phone and texts a lot.

I know two women who share an email address with their husband Unfortunately they don’t always get the message if I want to ensure message gets through to one of them I txt to their phone number and let them know they are not allowed to go on WhatsApp
Read what you like into that ‼️

I imagine it's almost impossible to have been in employment in the last ten years an not be able to use email, almost every job would require some sort of technology. Refusing to use email when you actually have it and can provide an email address is just plain weird! I do know someone who hasn't ever used the internet. She has a record player and recently upgraded to a VHS video player someone set up for her. I wonder how she's going to cope with using the phone in future. It's not easy to communicate with her as it is, she can't even retrieve a message on her answer-phone!

I wonder what else we will have to master in the next 20 years?
It certainly doesn't pay to fall behind.

I worked in an IT environment in the early 70s and onward - not as an expert but as a user. I appreciated the speed, accuracy and convenience of it and have stuck with it since. I can't imagine life without it - personal banking, ordering goods, researching holidays, planning routes to strange places. I'm involved with several organisations with emails-a-plenty going on, I wouldn't be able to join in without them. I can email at midnight and not disturb anyone. During Covid I learnt to use Zoom (and other platforms) - I hated it at first, but soon got used to it.

I read emails several times a day - so easy either on laptop or mobile phone (thought replying on the phone is fiddly). And I reply promptly, otherwise I might forget.

My hubby (also an IT person in his 20s) leaves it all to me.

In our u3a we have many folks who won't embrace technology, whether for shopping, communicating, banking and so on. One highly-intelligent 80-year-old ex Senior Solicitor was our Chair for 4 years. She could READ emails but never learnt to reply to one. When the local Nat West closed she changed her bank to the local Lloyds. When that also closed she had no idea at all how to withdraw cash for herself - had never even SEEN the cash machine on the wall outside - or deposit cheques. I had to take her to the machine and demonstrate - she was gob-smacked!!

I won't say I'm a wizard with it all - especially when they change the system - but I'm determined to try to keep pace. I could have 20 more years on the planet (or more) and things are going to change even faster.

My two DDs MILs do not drive - or rather, they used to do but haven't kept it up. They rely on their DHs or if he is ill they pester their time-strapped sons to drive them. One couple even still have two cars!!! And neither families can use a computer at all. One pair is still in their mid-60s.

Each to their own, of course, but it seems very foolish to me to not make the effort. to keep up with changes.

i would also like organisations who ask you for your preferred frm of communication to act on your preferences.

I always ask for emails rather than texts as I have problems using smart phones because of my dyspraxia and numbness in my finger tips. I check my emails regularly, Yet time and again I am asked my preferences, state that I prefer emails - and then get nothing but texts, which I may not pick up for several days.

Fran p
The reason people don’t want to answer phones anymore is because phone calls are looked upon as an intrusion into your life whereas emails can be sent and received day or night just sitting there for the person to read when convenient .with a phone call ,whatever you are doing at the time like cooking dinner,watching tv etc is interrupted .

I have elderly couple as neighbours. The husband had a stroke and was carted off to hospital in an ambulance one night. We took the wife to visit the next day, and on the way back learned of her dilemma. Her husband was the only driver, we live two miles from the nearest supermarket, with no nearby bus. How was she to do her shopping? Constant use of taxis would be very expensive, and we are not around all the time. Someone had given her a smartphone, but she only knew how to make phone calls on it. During the course of the trip home, with my husband driving, I set her up with an email address and then a Morrison's account. Her husband is now home, but unable to drive, and she does all her shopping online, I am so proud of her!

Bonnybanko

I received a hand written letter recently from. a friends daughter after I sent her flowers for her mums funeral it was a thank you letter with very kind words and so nice to receive. I wouldn’t have thanked her for an email at this sad time.

You would have been upset if someone emailed you a thank you?

I too have a very close friend exactly in this position. She doesn’t/wont use email but dictates a message for her husband to send to me! We’ve been friends for fifty years since we met a Uni. Been through a lot together - but unless we phone, I have to communicate via her husband!! She is certainly not far from stupid- but has this aversion to technology 🤦🏼‍♀️.

To join certain organizations they insist on an email address, which the client does not want to use but there is no way to get round this obligation.

I am the secretary of our local WI. I keep records of our 46 members. Everyone apart from one 70 something lady has email. Our oldest member is 98 and absolutely on the ball with IT. The non-email lady seems to pride herself on not owning a computer or even a mobile phone. Her daughter has tried to teach her but she refuses. I find it annoying because, as she is on the committee, every time records are updated, I have to print everything off for her. At least she lives nearby so I don’t have to go trooping off to the other side of the village. Another rant over!

My sister is 81 and will not use a computer at all. Thus we seldom connect as she lives in Ireland. Landline telephone connection seems poorer now and is to be eliminated, I read recently. At 86, I hate smart phones as they are small, slippery for arthritic hands and expensive but am being forced to rely on them. I telephone my bank as there is no branch within reach, but the answering time can be up to 50 minutes. For years, during their teens, I was unable to communicate with my grandchildren as they did not use email at all. Now grown up, the thank me by email. Modern technology seems to have made all communication more difficult, not easier. Passwords are a nightmare and double verification of one's existence a real nuisance. Only Amazon makes online shopping simple.

I imagine it's almost impossible to have been in employment in the last ten years an not be able to use email, almost every job would require some sort of technology. Refusing to use email when you actually have it and can provide an email address is just plain weird! I do know someone who hasn't ever used the internet. She has a record player and recently upgraded to a VHS video player someone set up for her. I wonder how she's going to cope with using the phone in future. It's not easy to communicate with her as it is, she can't even retrieve a message on her answer-phone!

The digital divide stats tell us that not everyone has a computer, and the age group is not always older either. But, while I have this and a smart phone, the screen and the app on the phone makes it not so easy to manage emails. What is wrong with people that they are too lazy to pick up the phone for those who don't have email? This is what is forcing people to have one that they do not really want.

I think some people almost take an inverted sense of 'pride' in not engaging with new forms of technology

One reason why some people claim not to "engage" with technology is that It gives them an excuse not to be drawn into unpleasant things or doing favours which they wish to avoid.

I am always amazed at the threads on Mumsnet where someone reports getting a nasty text or email or whatsapp from some neighbour. My neighbours dont even know my name let alone my phone number or email address.

If you dont listen to voicemail or have a smart phone then you can be very difficult to contact. I have made an art form of being "difficult to contact" when it was something I didnt want to hear about. Eventually the person trying to contact you will either do it themselves or give up.

We were having this conversation over Christmas. A friend of ours won't have a computer or a smart phone. He is 80. About 10 years ago he was scammed online. This made him so anxious that in the end the GP told him to avoid his computer and his anxiety would go away which it did.

Now he is much older, understandably, his more modern daughter would like him to have WhatsApp so she can add him to family chats and to be able to video call him so she can see how he is as she lives at the opposite end of the country. He just refuses point blank. Now he is becoming less able to get about, he is finding lots of services aren't available to him without an online service. It's a tough one and I can see it from both sides.

If you run a business or organization of any kind then emails are far preferable to texts as a means of communication. You can prepare them in advance and then send out a mass distribution.

I have a series of "stock" emails which I use to respond to customer queries and can be quickly cut and pasted in. Saves a lot of time and being drawn in to potentially contentious problems.

Texts are all very well if you are on the move and want to tell someone you will be there in x minutes or are running late. I dont rate them for detailed communication.