I don't use a mobile phone. Am I unique?

I am mid 70s and don’t consider myself elderly! I love my I phone and use it constantly - e mails, FaceTime, photos, mobile banking etc. Like it or not we are living in the 21st century - keep up!!

Barleyfields

My mobile phone isn’t a nasty thing, nor is it heavy. On it I receive photos of my grandchildren, who live some distance away, and little messages, thanks to WhatsApp. It’s a lifeline if you need help in an emergency and can’t get to your landline, if you have one. Texting is no different to typing an email.

Absolutely! I think some people on here seem to see it as some kind of virtue signalling not to have one. If you don't want one, fair enough, but don't imply that those of us who do are glued to them 24/7 or that we don't use other forms of communication.

Not half! Mine is my son’s old work phone, which he was allowed to keep in exchange for a donation to charity when he was given a new one.

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I wouldn't be without my mobile! It has my diary on it and sends an email to remind me of appointments on the day, I pay for goods, send and receive emails, and it is a lifeline when I am out and about - used it several times to call 999 when I have witnessed accidents. I even take it out in the garden in case I fall and have to summon help.

My mobile phone isn’t a nasty thing, nor is it heavy. On it I receive photos of my grandchildren, who live some distance away, and little messages, thanks to WhatsApp. It’s a lifeline if you need help in an emergency and can’t get to your landline, if you have one. Texting is no different to typing an email.

I don't have a mobile phone. I have NEVER had a mobile phone. Nasty things. I have a reason though. I am disabled with a rare and nasty condition. My communication is mainly typing, which is still fast, thank God and the surgeon who operated on my hands.

They are heavy to hold, and I cannot imagine having to text. I have been told I HAVE to have one. I am housebound. I don't need one. I have my computer. I have a speech problem anyway, so don't even use the phone unless I have to.
I think I am on the winning side. I have noticed that people store all the information on their smart phones and it seems some do not commit anything to memory.
That will not help them later in life. As long as I can remember the passwords I haven't signed, and can still type on this keyboard which has lost half the letters I shall continue to live without one.
I do know that you really need a smart phone to look for a job, because I helped my carer and the government site which keeps your work record must be accessed by a smart phone. It surprised me, and gave me insight into why there are so many unemployed.

Cariad no mobile phone thefts where I live and as mine is accessed by my finger print, no access if it was stolen (unless they chopped the right finger off).
Your evidence for them being a health hazard please?
My phone is on me the majority of the time, hence ‘mobile’, very grateful I was too last year when I tore a ligament gardening and couldn’t move, I rang MrJ indoors!!

i have a smart phone, seldom use it, purchased and payed monthly by my son, take it out in case i get stuck, i have epilepsy, son has a tracker on it, so he knows i am okay, use it when i go on holiday, when people ask for mobile number i tell them i don't have one. if anyone want's me they can call my house phone. i don't need lot's of apps, photos or shopping online, i have a laptop for that.

Would be lost without my iphone! My whole life is on it! Docs appts, reminders, banking & much more! Also GransNet, Facebook etc. Emails, texts & even phone calls to family & friends. Have a landline that Surgery insist on using. Only have that as cant have Broadband without it. Never use it myself only as I said when Docs use it! Mobile is in my pocket all the time as when I had a blackout thanks to some dodgy meds it was the only way I could contact my son by using Siri. Maybe I am strange at 80 loving my mobile & dreading being without it but thats just me I guess!

So disrespectful.

Quoting Rosie and her Maw:
I am perfectly capable of turning my phone off in the cinema, in the theatre, dining with friends or at any function and turning it on and using it if and when necessary. Grant us some intelligence!

Not everyone has your intelligence I'm afraid though. I went to a funeral last Friday and a mobile rang twice. the vicar had to pause.
At my brothers funeral, the same persons mobile rang twice.

Put it in your pocket or bag rather than walking around with it in your hand.

Another one here that thinks "I've got a computer = I've got enough".

Time and again I see how thieves are stealing peoples smartphones off them when they're in their hands when "out and about". Maybe that's something confined to big cities? - but not a risk I'd want to take personally. The way so many people use their phones for everything = they've had their phone stolen and their access to their bank account stolen and the thief might be using it and so on. If I had my diary stolen = I've only lost my diary. If I had my purse stolen = I've only lost my purse etc.

For where I am - ie "the land that time forgot aka back of beyond" = if I need an emergency phonecall there's probably someone nearby that has a phone on them/will do so. Cue for the other day I got caught at the wrong end of a 2 hour bus gap (!!!!) and three different people offered use of their phone to phone for a taxi and I duly got one back.

Also - why would I want to have a smartphone physically very close to me anyway - there's quite enough health hazards without adding that one to the list and I'd have done that to myself!

My gran died just as mobile phones were coming on the market, and I remember watching Tomorrow World with her when these were being discussed, she turned and asked my DH if he wanted one and when he replied that he would she decided to wait and see his before she got one. She was almost 92.

i have a mobile phone and it is not clumsy or expensive. it is £5 monthly for all calls and texts with sky. It is a sim free phone with the sky sim in it.

I just loath the word “humble” - it is so very Charles Dickens’ Uriah Heep. Just yucky 🤮

And also all this talk of washboards has brought to mind comedy actor Paul Whitehouse and his old music hall “cheeky cock-er-ney comedian” parody/sketch from the Fast Show. His catchphrase was “ ‘Ere!… …where’s me washboard?”

Indigo wrote I boil up the copper and I use a wash board for stubborn stains.

That’s a bit too cutting edge for me. I prefer taking my washing down to the river and bashing it on stones.

An elderly friend in her 80’s learnt the hard way that she needed to take her phone with her when she went out and about. She was walking in a park when a big dog that was off lead collided with her, knocking her over. The owner didn’t see it happen and my friend rolled down a hill, smashing into a fence at the bottom. She had lost a shoe in the fall and was covered in mud but worse, she was in great pain and unable to get up. She eventually crawled her way up the hill to where someone came across her and called an ambulance. She fractured her shoulder and was out of commission for months. If she’d been even more seriously hurt she possibly wouldn’t have been found for hours.

MayBee70

I have a bit of an obsessive personality eg when I smoked I chain smoked. Although I don’t use my mobile phone much I have my iPad on all of the time. First thing I do in the morning is turn it on to check what’s happening. So I did resolve today to have days in which I don’t turn it on or, if I do just check for any messages. I think it’s stopping me from reading books. I should be reading a book now but I’m just browsing the internet. I know it’s my fault for being this way but I’m sure I’m not alone in being like this.

No, you're alone. None of us are reading and commenting!

Indigo8

Aldom

I often wonder if the people who seem to be so proud of not using a mobile phone own a washing machine, when two dolly tubs and a mangle did the job.

I boil up the copper and I use a wash board for stubborn stains.

I walk down to the river, beat clothing on rocks.

It seems to me very silly and selfish to leave your mobile at home when going out. Silly because you may need to summon help. Selfish because someone may experience an emergency and desperately need to contact you.

RosieandherMaw

Claremont

It's not about 'humble bragging- how incredibly rude, as per usual. Some of us don't want to become slaves to our phones. With a tablet, you use it when you want to, and then you go in the garden out in the woods, seeing friends, go to Conferences and all sorts of activities- and you just leave them behind.

Modern technology is great, but not being slaves to them. Fair enough.

Hilarious!
Washing machines, hoovers, coomets, freezers, electric kettles, dishwashers, cars, computers (whether ipads, laptops, desktops or in the form of a mobile phone) - so taking advantage of modern gadgets and appliances makes us slaves to them ? Glued to them ?
How many of us spend a lot of time at "conferences" or did you mean meetings?
I am perfectly capable of turning my phone off in the cinema, in the theatre, dining with friends or at any function and turning it on and using it if and when mecessary. Grant us sone intelligence!
Totally ridiculous- do try to keep a sense of proportion !

Am I the only one who now has the Monty Python sketch in their head
The bragging sketch.

www.google.com/search?q=monty+python+sketch+%2B+bragging+how+poor+you+are&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e4366b2d,vid:ue7wM0QC5LE,st:0

I have a bit of an obsessive personality eg when I smoked I chain smoked. Although I don’t use my mobile phone much I have my iPad on all of the time. First thing I do in the morning is turn it on to check what’s happening. So I did resolve today to have days in which I don’t turn it on or, if I do just check for any messages. I think it’s stopping me from reading books. I should be reading a book now but I’m just browsing the internet. I know it’s my fault for being this way but I’m sure I’m not alone in being like this.

Claremont

It's not about 'humble bragging- how incredibly rude, as per usual. Some of us don't want to become slaves to our phones. With a tablet, you use it when you want to, and then you go in the garden out in the woods, seeing friends, go to Conferences and all sorts of activities- and you just leave them behind.

Modern technology is great, but not being slaves to them. Fair enough.

@ Claremont I'm not sure you understand the term, my fault for omitting the hyphen
It's not "humble bragging" but humble-bragging sometimes even written as one word
gerund or present participle: humble-bragging
make an ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement with the actual intention of drawing attention to something of which one is proud .

" she humblebragged about how ‘awful’ she looks without any make-up "

Rula
Why do people talk about a mobile as if it’s an inconvenience 🤷‍♀️
I have my phone either in a pocket ( at home) or in my bag/ car when I’m out.
I was very grateful I had it when the lock jammed on my shed door with me inside.
I was very grateful when indoors I broke a bone in my foot and couldn’t move.
I was grateful when my car broke down in a one way traffic system in a very busy area.
Like the majority of us I could go on and on about how much we value this wonderful invention.