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

OK, so I've got my laptop on for the first time in a couple of days (it's too wet to do the gardening I planned to do) and have read the first page of responses. I'll read the others in a bit.

My Nokia 1200 is kept charged with £5 credit on tap. (PAYG). I ring myself every few months if I haven't used it, to keep the SIM active.

"I don't use a mobile". I have one for emergencies. I wouldn't say that keeping it switched off for weeks at a time before making a 30 second call to my daughter or taxi firm is what is commonly accepted as "using" it.

I totally agree with HelloGirl1. I mostly dislike companies who seem to enjoy making life difficult for people who can't use one or just don't want one.

I am NOT a technophobe. My first experience of using a computer was writing a computer programme for the MoD. It was to do with the Ariel satellite, in 1966 when I was 18. I have a Physics degree in Electronics. I queued to buy the first commercially affordable calculator in the mid 1970s. I taught myself to programme the Electron (baby brother of the BBC-B) I got for my kids in 1986. In 1994 I bought my first IBM compatible and taught myself to use Office when I sorted my mother's estate for probate and followed that by getting an NVQ in IT. I had a scanner, printer and internet before most people knew they existed. I had a webcam and I was on Skype like a flash. But that was for MY convenience (and amusement). I like emails. I have email "pen friends" across the world. I used to have to wait 6 weeks to get a letter reply from an old friend when he was working in China. My first email was to him. Most of my real friends and family are dead now. I wish my sister in Canada had an email address. I wish my brother in France had time to read his.

I like the internet. I used to have to peer at old scans at the LDS Family History Centre to do my Genealogy research, or order a specialist book from the Library to find out things. However, I still prefer to phone through an order for plants, if I can, and there is absolutely no way I would have my banking online. Too dangerous.

Fighting with the phone - "Let me show you this - where is it? Damnation, did I ask you to go there you stupid phone? Oh B---, lost it again. I'll email it to you later". And what good is a Parking App if you have no signal?

I agree, an MP3 player is disappointingly poor quality sound. At home I have my record deck, tape player and (also mediocre sound quality) CDs. But it's better than the thrum of the traffic during the interminable wait for a bus.

Aldom, I miss my mangle. It would take things too big to go in the washing machine, after I had washed them in the bath.

Skye17, a pocket diary is less than £5 and the calendar on my kitchen wall has beautiful pictures on it. With a faulty optic nerve in one eye and AMD in the other, I find written notes easier to read than a screen.

Muckand Nettles (love the name), last time I was in hospital - Sepsis in 2015 - mobiles were banned in the wards.

Rosie, First time I had central heaating was at the age of 42 - and I wouldn't be without it. But I rarely heat the bedroom except for maybe half an hour before bed. Too used to cold sleeping (with a hot water bottle and bed socks as I have cold feet). I first experienced a Duvet in 1974 while in Germany on business. Looked at it askance but couldn't believe how wonderful it was. Called a Continental Quilt back then. I always use a top sheet though, with a duvet/eiderdown (no cover). Changing a double cover is painful with my damaged neck and shoulders. Also, I only iron Linen, which creases if you look at it - with a steam iron. Most stuff smooths out as you wear it. My mum heated flat irons on the kitchen stove when I was young, back in the dark ages.

Mum2three, quarreling Wudgibars? Know all about that. They used to squabble about who would sit on my head (when they weren't busy teasing the Cockatiels). I miss them.

I have a smartphone. It is always switched off as it doesn't work at home (we are in a dead zone) I only switch it on if I need to make a call when I am out and about which is a rare occurrence. I have a payg on it so only pay for what I need and we have a landline.

ViceVersa, I have the WWW at my fingertips, here on my laptop. Why do I need it when I am shopping for carrots?

Rula, I did take my Nokia with me - and had it turned on - when I was climbing up my plum tree to remove a branch while down the allotment. Just in case. Then it got switched off again.

I don't drive now. No money followed by optical neuritis and cataracts for years before treatment was offered got me out of the habit and practice. Before those problems, pre SatNav, I found my way to where I wanted to go by checking a map beforehand. Hayling Island and Poole on my motorbike in my youth, later around Cornwall, to Welton, Lincs and other places by car. My husband didn't drive. If one had been invented I would have carried a mobile with me then, for emergencies, like when a spark plug popped out. I had to walk back, find it and replace it instead of ringing a garage... My daughter has an IQ of about 140. She used to work a mile from here before WFH and she comes the 40 miles to visit me about once a week or so, and has to use her SatNav every time! Drive it once and I knew the way. And my IQ isn't 140. The rare occasions I go somewhere new (by train, bus) I check things out on Google maps and online timetables before I leave, make a few notes. Trips to Hartlepool looking for a property to buy 25 years ago, no Smartphone, no problem. No property either, as it happens but that is another story.

I've just had to answer the phone! My daughter responding to the email I sent a couple of hours ago, asking if she is coming down tomorrow after work. So inconvenient, the landline. I had to walk around the sofa to answer it.

Must get the dinner on. I'll continue trawling through your replies later on. Bye for now.

My father is almost 81 and I’m so pleased he’s got his mobile . It’s invaluable to him and myself and my brothers

I have a very basic mobile phone to use for my Tesco online shopping order.They send me a security number for my payment by Debit card.

Aely I have the WWW at my fingertips, here on my laptop. Why do I need it when I am shopping for carrots?
Well, maybe not when shopping for carrots, but if I'm out and about, I can use Google Maps as a navigation aid, or if I'm visiting my FiL in his care home, I can use it to find out the football scores for him, or if I'm waiting for an appointment, I can browse on it or play a game to pass the time. Just a few examples.

I think this discussion is getting vey polarised. I think all of us develop and use technology to suit us and what suits one person doesn't suit another.

As a simple example, I rarely watch television, and never have. If I lived alone I would not own one. I do not watch television on my computer. I rarely go to the cinema. I am simply not a sitter and watcher. When in front of my computer, as now, I am interacting with it, not ust watching.

I make no judgements on people who enjoy watching television. DD worked in the tv industry for 20 years.

The same with Satnav v maps, except there is no 'v'. I use both. I like to see the context of any journey on the map down to quite small detail, but I can remember in the pre satnav days, being given directions that were not entirely correct. DD and two friends missed a party because the map someone drew me was woefully inaccurate and I found myself driving along small unsigned country roads for over an hour trying to find the right address.. Then there were one way systems, closed off town centres, etc, that you couldn't know about untl you reached your destination and couldn't work out how to access your hotel.

On modern roads, with the need to be in specific lanes, or take specific turnings, that look completely different from what is on map or are completely different because they have been changed SatNav is invaluable.

But the point, at the end of this interminable post, is that there is no virtue, as the OP seems to be suggesting, in not using modern technology, nor in using it. All of us adapt what suits us and ignore the rest and that is that.

I love my phone and do absolutely everything with it.......shopping, banking, email, messaging, seeing video/pics of family social media etc. in fact I'm using it as the moment to post this! As long as you have all the protocols and safeguards in place it's no different to using a tablet or pc. It was an absolute godsend when I found myself in hospital during Covid lockdown with no visitors allowed. . I was able to video call family and friends, play games, watch tv and keep in contact with everyone via social media. Without it my enforced stay would have been much more difficult to cope with. We have control over the devices-switch sounds off, don't rush to answer etc. it's only as intrusive as you allow it to be. And all this for £10 per month! Bargain if you ask me

Having had a few i-phones and smartphones, I find the Samsung Galaxy smartphone, mentioned by a few posters above, the simplest and best value good mobile.
The shop assistant should set it up for you, as you request.
As others have said, if there's something you don't know how to do after that, just Google it.
Good luck.

Aely

ViceVersa, I have the WWW at my fingertips, here on my laptop. Why do I need it when I am shopping for carrots?

Rula, I did take my Nokia with me - and had it turned on - when I was climbing up my plum tree to remove a branch while down the allotment. Just in case. Then it got switched off again.

I don't drive now. No money followed by optical neuritis and cataracts for years before treatment was offered got me out of the habit and practice. Before those problems, pre SatNav, I found my way to where I wanted to go by checking a map beforehand. Hayling Island and Poole on my motorbike in my youth, later around Cornwall, to Welton, Lincs and other places by car. My husband didn't drive. If one had been invented I would have carried a mobile with me then, for emergencies, like when a spark plug popped out. I had to walk back, find it and replace it instead of ringing a garage... My daughter has an IQ of about 140. She used to work a mile from here before WFH and she comes the 40 miles to visit me about once a week or so, and has to use her SatNav every time! Drive it once and I knew the way. And my IQ isn't 140. The rare occasions I go somewhere new (by train, bus) I check things out on Google maps and online timetables before I leave, make a few notes. Trips to Hartlepool looking for a property to buy 25 years ago, no Smartphone, no problem. No property either, as it happens but that is another story.

I've just had to answer the phone! My daughter responding to the email I sent a couple of hours ago, asking if she is coming down tomorrow after work. So inconvenient, the landline. I had to walk around the sofa to answer it.

Must get the dinner on. I'll continue trawling through your replies later on. Bye for now.

IQ makes no difference whatsoever to whether one can use all the modern stuff - eg smartphones etc. I'm not in your daughters league, but not forever away from it - at 130 IQ - but my mind just doesnt work that way to use "modern tech" and, as it's not MY choice to do so I'm not going to try and force it down avenues it struggles with.

My erstwhile brother on the other hand has an IQ of 80 - but he doesnt seem to have any problems using smartphones etc - despite the fact that is LOW.......!

I don't get it why he can and I can't - and logically one would think it would be the other way round - ie him incapable and me capable re technology. But it is what it is and I prefer my mind to his anyway and it has its advantages - ie seeing the bigger picture and making sense of it. Last I knew about him was he'd comprehensively wrecked his health in a variety of ways - and a lot of it was his own fault (loadsa sun/smoking/unhealthy diet/etc) - so I'd rather be me than him....

When people say if you cannot do it, just google it,they are assuming the instructions found online work.

My experience is that frequently these instructions do not work and often the reason is some tiny technical issue that unless you are completely au fait with how the phone or other device works, you will not know. And if you know that much about the phone you will not be looking up the problem in the first place.

Interestingly, at our “newish” general hospital it is often all but impossible to use a mobile phone or send a text.

I have an iPhone which I carry in case of emergency. I take photographs with it but have never made or received calls. It costs me £8 per month so is just about worth having.
I don’t use my landline either but have to pay for my internet. I much prefer to communicate on my iPad.

I don't feel "virtuous" in not using a mobile. I am happy to keep my old Nokia in my handbag just in case. I actually wish they had been invented in the 1970s. It would have stopped some rows between me and my boyfriends! Like when one failed to turn up as expected. He could have phoned me from A&E where he was getting a horrendous gash on his leg fixed up, caused by kick-back from the kickstart on his motorbike when he was starting the journey to see me, or the row between me and my (eventual) husband as to who was at fault when we both went to a different cafe, neither of us knowing the alternative existed. A quick "Where are you?" call and it would have been sorted. I could have swapped numbers with school friends when they all departed town at the end of our studies. Few of us even had a landline available to us back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

It is the assumption by companies and Government agencies that we all have a Smartphone, or a mobile of any sort which is constantly switched on and on our person, which I hate. I can't see the screen properly or use a touch screen accurately. they are an uncomfortable size for small, liable to cramp, hands. Also, for some reason, even my picking up a Smart phone will sometimes cause it to malfunction. Perhaps insufficient screening. I had the same problem as an Electronics Engineer. I could build a circuit, somone else would have to test it as gauge needles would swing wildly at my approach once the power was on.

I don't have Smart Meters either. Well, I do, but they are in dumb mode. On my own in a 2 up, 1 down dog kennel of a house, I know exactly what I have on and where. I phone through power readings. It takes about a minute every 2 months or so. If I need something on, it is on, if not then it is off. I don't need a phone to open my curtains, switch lights on or operate my central heating. I have legs and hands. If I ever become incapable it might be different. I don't have a video doorbell. I am usually here and there is a little window in my front door.

If anybody is daft enough to steal my handbag containing my phone, I still have access to my bank account - but nobody else does - and a landline and laptop to cancel cards and continue living my life. I don't even use a contactless bank card. I carry just enough cash and a non-contactless card. So secure. Not virtuous or luddite or set in my ways, just secure.

I had to open an account with a different bank to avoid contactless. My old bank told me if my contactless card was stolen I couldn't lose more than £300 and would get it refunded eventually. I prefer not to lose it in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for all the responses, positive and negative alike. Nothing more to say about it I guess, so TTFN.

I sympathise and share many of your problems Aely, but I can see the other side. As technology changes and becomes ubiquitous we need assume most people have it.

Nearly 30 years ago I can remember getting very frustrated with clients who didn't have telephones. Almost everybody had them and making arrangments to contact those who didn't was a hassle.

We have to accept that if the number of people with something is running into the 90% plus - and smart phone ownership is now 94%, then it is reasonable to assume everyone has one and that those that do not are in too small of a minority to make much provision for.

watermeadow

I have an iPhone which I carry in case of emergency. I take photographs with it but have never made or received calls. It costs me £8 per month so is just about worth having.
I don’t use my landline either but have to pay for my internet. I much prefer to communicate on my iPad.

You can get a cheaper than that.

Aely

I don't feel "virtuous" in not using a mobile. I am happy to keep my old Nokia in my handbag just in case. I actually wish they had been invented in the 1970s. It would have stopped some rows between me and my boyfriends! Like when one failed to turn up as expected. He could have phoned me from A&E where he was getting a horrendous gash on his leg fixed up, caused by kick-back from the kickstart on his motorbike when he was starting the journey to see me, or the row between me and my (eventual) husband as to who was at fault when we both went to a different cafe, neither of us knowing the alternative existed. A quick "Where are you?" call and it would have been sorted. I could have swapped numbers with school friends when they all departed town at the end of our studies. Few of us even had a landline available to us back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

It is the assumption by companies and Government agencies that we all have a Smartphone, or a mobile of any sort which is constantly switched on and on our person, which I hate. I can't see the screen properly or use a touch screen accurately. they are an uncomfortable size for small, liable to cramp, hands. Also, for some reason, even my picking up a Smart phone will sometimes cause it to malfunction. Perhaps insufficient screening. I had the same problem as an Electronics Engineer. I could build a circuit, somone else would have to test it as gauge needles would swing wildly at my approach once the power was on.

LOL at electrical stuff sometimes malfunctioning near you - laughing in recognition - as it sometimes happens to me. Even my own mother shocked me by saying "Was that you?" when the streetlights all went off in my street one time when she was in my house.

As for if my (** awful) last employer got me particularly upset and angry = well it might have been coincidence (or might not) that all the computers near me stopped working at once a couple of times when they'd got me particularly angry. Not a good idea of theirs to have a policy of deliberately upsetting members of staff they would like to have resign "of our own free will" (so they didn't have to pay any compensation for it).

Belated response to CariadAgain - it's our magnetic personalities, obviously!

Re not wanting a mobile phone (as opposed to OP who was presumably talking about a smart phone,) I thought this might be relevant in connection with Gene Hackman not being found for 9 days after his death
But the latest and most poignant detail – doubtless, anyone with elderly relatives – is that the 95-year-old actor, who was also reportedly suffering from advanced dementia, probably didn’t have a mobile phone, meaning his friends and family couldn’t easily check up on him
According to a close friend of the French Connection star, Hackman “was uninterested in technology “
Worth pondering. .

Elowen33

I like the convenience of a phone when I am out, I use it to pay for items, listen to podcasts, take photos of clothing in shops to compare prices later, it holds my lists, access medical records and order prescriptions, holds loyalty cards as well as being able to be in contact with others.

My DH lost his during our house move two weeks ago. He can't access his bank account or his Tesco credit card as he did everything via app, He doesn't know anybody's phone number to ring them. The inconvenience has been crippling.

I'd just advise people to have other means of accessing your accounts, data, contacts, etc.