Wi-Fi and a Smart Phone are Necessary to Function in the 21st Century

Well, it's a relief I'm not the only person without a smart phone, but I must relent. I shopped online before Black Friday, and was overwhelmed with the deals and options. I found myself loading up a really expensive (> $1,000) order. Reason overtook me and I didn't go through with it. Still I need to upgrade. Eventually I'll order a good starter smartphone, perhaps in the $250-300 range.

Over the last 10 or so years, as mobile applications become more sophisticated, I find myself using my mobile more than my laptop.

OP, most people over 70 don't have one.

Does dial up internet even exist anymore?

I have a smart phone, and my partner does as well, but the property on which I live is well off the road and in what is almost a dead zone for cell phones. I have no land line. I abandoned it years ago. To make a phone call successfully, I stand at the back or front door, or I go and sit in the car. If the phone rings, I rush to one of the doors. Trying to call or answer the phone anywhere else is a recipe for disappointment.

A couple of years ago, I had a repairman in, and as he was driving up the very long driveway, he noticed that his cell phone signal was getting weaker and weaker. I told him a yarn about this property having weird vibes and strange things happening (which is partly true, as anyone who reads the ghost story threads will already know.) I'm almost sure he believed me.

R5: I’ll bet Best Buy can sell you a booster or relay of some kind. You put it somewhere where you have a good signal, and a clear path to your home. You might need to put it on top of a pole or high up on a tree. If they don’t have such a device, let me know and I’ll invest one! $$$

My sister, who works for the phone company, is also in a dead zone. She had to get service through a different provider than the one she works for, because her own company has a dead zone where she lives.

R4, yes, dial-up still exists! My sister answers trouble-calls from Appalachia and they have dial-up there. (Along with outhouses and whale oil lamps, no doubt.)

R3, I’d guess it’s over 80. The 70 year olds I know have them, though don’t utilize them to their potential, I’ll acknowledge. And they have the oddest sense of humour. One of my fears is, with technology changing so fast there’s days, that I’ll become an antiquated dinosaur 🦕 soon enough.

Don’t own a smart phone, don’t have WiFi. A landline and laptop are all I need. I’m no dog that has to be at everyone’s beck/call. And I enjoy the scenery and notice the infinite wonders of the world around me while the rest of the oblivious shlubs have their faces firmly placed in their smartphones.

Well, a laptop takes you halfway there, I must admit.

Just think of all the productivity improvements we’ve gained since the 1990s due to the internet, and then smartphones. Things that are partially or fully obsolete: Travel agents; map makers; big box stores; taxis; newspapers; telephone help desks for practically every product and service; first class mail deliveries: the phone book; home phones; fax machines; telegraphs; office space; reservation systems for everything; and on and on. Even doctors are doing telemed, though I have found it to be no substitute for an in-person OV.

The worker should be sharing in these gains, as had been true during the era of strong Labor. Instead, the benefits have gone entirely to the 0.1% and those people with the foresight to own stock in the right companies.

For $150, I can buy a very competent one from Xiaomi and I never look at any other brands. Only fat, old, antisocial people don't have smartphones. Or even if they have one, they won't install any useful apps on it. Just stick in the mud and stay in the cave, troglodytes.

My sister’s husband was an early adapter of mobile phones. So early, that it was useless. There were no apps; people didn’t expect you to have any of the capabilities that a mobile phone would one day provide; and every call, inbound or outbound, was really expensive. He only kept it briefly.

Probably 20 years later, his widow, my 70 year old sister, got a mobile phone but treated it as an “emergency phone” and had it turned off, most of the time. I think it’s only been the last couple years that’s she’s using it more to its potential.

I remarked once that I was bothered that my email was screwed up, and she remarked, “when do you ever get anything important via email?”. Of course, I’d say every day, but not in her case, apparently.

I recently turned 40 and have no mobile by choice (NMBC? lol). I just don't want one. I have a landline and a PC, all my friends/family know to email or just call the landline and if I'm out I'm out and will get back to them )lately I'm not out much at all). I just don't want a phone. It's another monthly bill, another object of distraction that I don't need. I don't judge people who own them at all but I dunno, for myself I had to either draw a line or accept I would be glued to the thing all day every day.

R9 yes, we can get a lot more done these days and in record time but we’re more stressed than ever

Pierre? Are you ok? Everyone is worried about you.

Yeah I am so glued to my phone these days I am exhausted. I like it a lot, it's a phablet but really, with work from home, it is a drag. I need Google Authenticator to get into certain platforms on my work laptop (they took our company phones in January). My former office mates have a WhatsApp group I was sort of forced to join to be polite where they post shit all day about what they cooked, lame jokes, memes...you name it. Delivery of any food is by phone. Time differences, calls...laptop is only partially used for the real work. I honestly want a second smartphone to use just for me and tell NOBODY I have it.

i was a hold out until 1 1/2 ago. and relented. but i still use my laptop for most everything but the smart phone is quite handy for so many things but i cant text well and struggle with most apps.

With the smartphone I find I actually spend a lot less time on the phone that I did in the old days.

And I do not have the phone interrupting me all the time like it did then.

R16 - why? Just play around with them. I really do like some features. For example, for news I often go to Facebook (don't laugh bitches) and see the latest BBC newscast or CNN. Hardly use the TV at all.

R14, I was just wondering the same thing.

R19 I thought maybe if we posted in a thread that shows up in his thread watcher, maybe he’d notice.

I don't know how anyone can function without a smartphone/internet these days unless they're a hermit.

Most people these days would be unemployable if they didn't own a smartphone.

I use my (smart)phone far more often than I use my actual laptop. I'm on it now.