Life can be particularly tricky for those of us who do not have a smart phone, so why don't I have one? I see so many people, especially the younger generation, spending all of their time on their phone to the detriment of so many other aspects of their lives. However, for those of us who do not have a smart phone life is a continual struggle as we try to negotiate life without one.
We have notice how smart phones can adversely affect peoples' behaviour. For example, whilst travelling on a bus or train we have seen young mothers with their child in a pushchair scrolling on a phone. The child too scrolls on a screen, and often not a single word passes between them for the entire journey.
I do have a tiny mobile phone which I use to send texts and make phone calls when away from home etc. It also allows doctors, hospitals, dentists etc to contact us via a text message re: appointments, which suits us fine.
I have an instagram account, but instagram is supposed to be for smart phone users only. Somehow I have been able to manage an account from the computer. I cannot do all of the fancy things that others can do on instagram, but it keeps me in touch with my grandchildren, family and friends.
Recently I purchased an item from Amazon which was unsuitable. They sent me an email with a QR code to scan into my smart phone so that it could be returned free of charge. I wondered if I could use my small digital camera and looked on the internet for information. It said that it had to be done on a smart phone, and that a standard digital camera would be unable to scan a QR code. For me there was no alternative, but to give my camera a try. I told the assistant at the Post Office that I only had a photo of the code on my camera, and she said let's give it a shot, and low and behold it happily worked😁
I suggest that there will come a time when we can no longer work our way around living without a smart phone. But for me and many others the progression of the A1 revolution is frightening. Criminals are making £millions by scamming and phishing innocent people all over the world. A Russian gang has recently held M&S, Harrods, and the Co-op to ransom for several weeks losing them all £millions and £millions of loss.
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I made the switch from landline to flip phone mobile in 2014. I resisted smartphones until 2019. when my burner phone died and I broke down and bought an iPhone. But I am very mindful that technology is a good servant, but a bad master, so I don't use my smart phone the way young people do, constantly on it for everything. I only use mine for -- actual phone calls, texting, the weather app, the calculator app, the magnifier app, occasionally the flashlight app, and looking at my emails. And the camera -- what a boon that has been to always have an easy-to-use camera with me! Recently my city has discontinued physical parking meters that take coins/credit cards and now everyone must use a smart phone app to pay for parking on city streets. That has been a learning curve for me and I still don't like it, but what are you going to do? Got to move with the times. I still don't know how to scan Q Codes though. Someone has shown me how to do it a couple of times, but I can never seem to remember how.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed reading your answer Debra, and do admire the fact that you only use your phone when you really need to. I think that doing that shows that you have a very strong willpower judging from what I observe on a daily basis. The parking problem is exactly the same here, but I still manage to find ways around it. For example one of our town centre car parks allows you park for free after 2.00pm - a lot of the shops and business were complaining that people were not visiting the town. Now when we visit our nearest city we catch the bus - it saves petrol in the car, drops us off right in the centre, and we have free bus passes that we can use every day after 9.30am.
DeleteThis is a particular bug bear of mine. Same as you I do not have a smart phone and always pay in cash for messages to try to keep cash alive. Most large companies are trying to bring in a cashless society because it's more profit for them but scammers are conning people every day of their life savings due to smart phones... and most companies changing to international call centres and local bank branches shutting down, where you can't see anyone face to face. Also smart phones and social media platforms are destroying society, aided by the super rich, facilitating fake news as truth, mass migration, rogue states and normalising extreme views or promoting plain crazy individuals (who should really be locked up ) into positions of great influence they never had before. It is Pandora's box.... and it's already open.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that there is another non smart phone blogger out there. I wonder how long we will be able to continue without - difficulties keep cropping up on a regular basis as everyone assumes you have one. Our landline has just been digitalised but should there be a power failure the phone doesn't work. Reception for mobile phones on our hilltop is poor so that could be a huge problem should we require an emergency in the middle of the night.
DeleteHello Rosemary, Another smart phone resister here. Right now I do not even have a cell phone as mine was third generation, and that has been discontinued so I need to upgrade if I want to have a cell phone at all. I have been looking at either getting a simple but newer cell phone, or finally getting a smart phone. Some of the issues you mentioned such as not being able to scan QR codes are part of the equation. I have not needed to scan one yet, but I know the time is not far off.
ReplyDeleteMy real problem is that so many places such as banks require cell phones to send security codes, and I have no way to receive them. Even if I get a Taiwan phone, the American companies will only text to American phones. Even common websites like e-mail are always trying to text codes to change passwords, check identity, or whatever.
Still, I have been several months now without a cell phone, let alone a smart phone, and I have not missed them much.
--Jim
Hello Jim - I have been completely taken by surprise at the replies received. Although in a minority it is interesting to know how others also view the threats that the AI revolution holds.
DeleteI do appreciate how very difficult it must be for you having to deal with your affairs in the States from Taiwan.
I am grateful that my little cell phone continues to work, when as you mention, websites are always texting new codes to change passwords, and to check your identity etc.
Hi Rosemary. I do have a smartphone to use when I travel all the way across the country to visit my aged mother (just turned 94!). But I resist using it for anything else. I tell them all I am an old lady who doesn't know how to work it... and it doesn't listen to my finger... all of which is true! Usually there is still a way to get through without having to scan the codes... but I don't use Amazon much and try not to have to return stuff either. I agree with you that the obsessive use by the younger generations is bound to have a negative social impact... and if you talk to teachers you will hear it has. I do find it really offensive that everything is now structured for the smart phone screen and my computer has to be "scrolled" to get the entire message read on its open page... we are in the minority and where the money is the "trends" will follow blindly.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting about this! We also have regions of our country that have no cell phone reception due to sparse population and hilly terrain. Land lines still exist around here and I am keeping mine!
Really interesting to hear from you Daydreamer and to know how you too cope with the problems posed today by the AI revolution. The smart phone is a revolution which is changing peoples conceptions and attitudes, especially the young. For example many young boys are now growing up with misogynistic views as a result of what they are seeing and learning on their phones. Influencers too are having a huge impact on young girls lives and not for the better.
DeleteI have a smart phone and use it more than I should. It annoys me that if it "beeps" I need to check it to see if it is just an email I can ignore or a family member or friend needing something. Doug just has an "old fashioned" cell phone but must upgrade this year as 3G (whatever that is) is being discontinued. Hopefully he will be able to get another non-smart phone.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Doug will still be able to use his cell phone. We are 5G here but where I live, due to being so high up I can only get 4G, but my cell phone still works - fingers crossed that Doug's phone will continue working too.
DeleteUnderstand where you are coming from Rosemary. So many older people are not interested in having a smartphone at all, those that have don't know how to use it very well.
ReplyDeleteBoth my husband and myself have always had a smartphone and use it for all purposes. We buy a new one every two years.
As long as I can get by without one then I will continue without. I wouldn't have an issue using one, the worry being that it appears to become very addictive.
DeleteDear Rosemary,
ReplyDeletesince many years I own a smartphone - I think since I was able to buy it for a reasonable price.
I agree with you on the very threatening (and seemingly addiction-forming) parts of the smartphone - and would never allow a young person one too early - then I would discuss again and again how to use it.
And neurologists are convinced that it can damage young brains. Thus I am very happy that the triplets, almost 6 year old, don't have one - and will not get one in the next years.
It is as with so many things: one has to be very strong not to over-use it. I am very disciplined, and "on guard" not to use it only because I don't know what to do (which seldom is the case :-)
Of course I am very angry when I see a mother or father not being attentive to their children - or, in the underground, a beautiful young girl and opposite a beautiful young man - staring on their smartphone, not tentatively at one another. Using it to banish boredom (I think that boredom is a first step to creativity) - or worse: to compare themselves to photoshopped "beauties" on instagram.
I say: "If I would believe in the existence of the devil (by the way: as of late I start to wonder), I would see him chuckling because he finally found an irresistible string to pull people into his spell".
But even if I do not like the smartphone: it is there. Thus we have to think how we can make young (and old) people how to use it wisely.
I see that some of my friends don't have one, and as they aren't for the same (not unreasonable) reasons on WhatsApp, they do not get photos or quick encouraging words easily. Come to think of it: during the time of Corona I saw the rise of so many text-news, very often added by a photo, a comic, a joke - and I loved that. One felt connected.
But of course I see the dangers. Yet wouldn't miss mine. But know when not to run to it every time a "pling" pops up.
Dear Britta - where I live they have WhatsApp group which I had thought I might be able to join when our computer was upgraded recently. However, although I can get WhatsApp on the computer it still requires you to have a smartphone - foiled again by technology. I had thought that it could be useful especially if one of us needed help.
DeleteApparently many youngsters excessive smartphone use, particularly texting and social media, is having a negative impact on young people's writing skills. This is due to the informal language, abbreviations, and lack of attention to grammar and spelling often used in text-based communication.
I do appreciate how very difficult it will be to keep the triplets away from smartphones - as an aside it is hard to believe that they are now almost six years old - the time has flown since they were born.
To discourage excessive smartphone use in young people, I believe that it is very important to set clear boundaries but also encourage alternative activities.