Can I continue to live in the "modern" word without a smartphone?

In My Humble Opinion
21

OP, I think you’re confusing the gadget (smartphone) with the behaviour you don’t like (constantly checking said smartphone). I have an iPhone which spends most of its time in my handbag.

There are two scenarios when I bring it out. Firstly, to use it for it’s ‘mobile phone’ purpose, e.g. take or make a call, send or recieve a text. Secondly, to use it for its ‘smartphone’ purpose, e.g. look something up on the web, play a game to help pass the time, etc.

Apart from that, it sits happily in my bag (well, I assume it’s happy, I’ve never heard it complain).

I, too, have friends who are addicted to their phones and I find it extremely rude when they come around to my house for dinner and check their phone every half hour or so. But if I’ve managed to resist turning into a smartphone slave, so can you!

22

Relax. You’re good. I’ve never even owned a CELLPHONE in my life and I’m still alive and manage just fine. : p

23

Imagine lil’ Teddy taking a hard stance that the IBM Selectric I is the only typing tool he’ll ever need. Bah and harumph to these newfangled “word processors!” And that lil’ Teddy grew up to be Ted Kaczynski. And now you know the rest of the story.

24

I don’t agree with the whole “Internet is making us dumb” thing. I have observed how my six-year-old daughter interacts with the Internet, and I think it’s really a good thing. It encourages reading and various other skills in order to get to the things in which she’s interested. She goes on YouTube and watches videos other kids have made with their Littlest Pet Shop toys, which is a kind of creativity I think is really good for kids.

OK, you can say it’s different for adults. But what adult hasn’t broadened and deepened his/her hobbies and interests using the Internet? For example, I get a lot of recipes online and then make them in the “real world” of my kitchen. That’s not just thinking, that’s thinking and doing. And I think this is true for most people: they find things online they want to do, they meet people online and then get together in real life. Sure, people waste time online, but in most cases it’s a healthier waste than good old TV. The Internet gets people reading, writing, commenting, and thinking. It connects people all around the world–for example right here on SDMB. I think it’s been an incredibly healthy thing for the average person.

As to whether you need a smartphone, I say “no.” I am a writer and online so much anyway that I could go back to a regular cell phone, but I have an iPhone because… why not? There are times when I need maps and whatnot, and it’s not that much money to have that extra convenience.

I think a cell phone is pretty much a necessity to have for safety and convenience in the modern world. Plus, it can replace a land line (I will never have one again), so if you need a phone at all, it might as well be a cell phone.
I think

25

My cell phone (which I bought reluctantly about 4 years ago) does only one thing: make and receive phone calls. The main thing about it is that it costs the same to use in the US and Canada and that is where I am for all but three weeks every year (when I am in Barbados). I could, for a fee, add texting, but I’ll be damned if I start texting from a telephone keypad. My thumbs are already sore from tendonitis or something. I guess I might like a built-in camera, but we can’t have everything.

I do not think the internet makes us dumber. I recently read that wide literacy was denounced as destroying memory, rather the practice of remembering. I suppose it does too, but the gain far outweighs the cost. I don’t check my email every five minutes, but several times a day, if that is convenient. Otherwise, once a day usually.

Technology is for use and I use the part of it I want. So if you can’t text me, that is your problem not mine. I am currently looking into an e-reader. Mainly because my house is overflowing with books. The problem is that many books are not available in Canada (certainly not from B&N, which I prefer because it would allow me to load my own books and papers and thus have them always available). (Yes Amazon allows that too, but charges you a buck for the privilege.) I wonder whether if I told my computer I was in the US, it would make a difference.

26

I’ve had one since last summer, and when the contract is up next year I think I’ll be going back to a dumbphone.

It’s kind of nifty and useful, but I’m not sure if the added monthly cost is worth it for me.

27

I have a plain old cell phone and a prepay plan. I use the phone so infrequently that I generally pay about $100 per year. Wi-fi is so prevalent now that I can contact most people via email or chat through my tablet PC.

28

I took the opposite tack - I didn’t use a cell phone until smart phones came out. I had a cell phone, because Mr. Athena needed one for work and it was like $10 more for me to get one, but I put it in a drawer and literally only took it out if there was some reason for me to have it. Like, I had to meet a friend at an unspecified time and she said “I’ll call you 15 min before I’ll be there” I’d go “sheesh OK, I’ll go see if I can find that damn phone.” I really don’t think the ability to constantly be able to make phone calls/be called is worth the hassle of carrying the thing around. And I still don’t.

But once smart phones came out, that changed. The ability to not only make/receive calls, but also send/receive emails, check the Internet, read my Kindle books, take pictures, etc. all with one device pushed it into the “OK, it’s useful enough for me to carry it around” level.

29

In answer to the thread topic, yes, you sure can.

This entirely depends on the person. A smartphone is merely another tool, among other things-- if their quality of thinking was limited before, it will certainly be limited after, while the reverse is also true. There are many people who use them as tools for practical information and teaching, as well as for social reasons, gaming, media, enterprise, reading, and many others.

If anything, it just enables a given behavior, but I don’t believe it modifies anything that wasn’t already in place. By extension, it doesn’t mean that if the person didn’t have a smartphone, that they’d be doing something more “productive” or “worthy of their time”.

Communication and social interactions evolve. The same was said about print/books, cinema/movies, email, etc. and now smartphones, but they all have their pros and cons. Social relationships have and always will change, as a given. I think it’s narrow to judge in a vacuum, as there is certainly more depth to why the technology has been adopted so broadly and at this rapid pace.

I think with most people who object to it, they haven’t found many reasons to integrate such tech. into their lives, which isn’t surprising. They don’t have a real grasp of how it works or how it can benefit them, aside from their basic level of interest (be that an occasional email here or there, or sharing photos with the family). It’s mainly a lack of perspective, but with that, many people are content/comfortable with their lives, and don’t actively search for reasons to do things any differently, if they currently work. That’s fine, but what it means is that they typically overlook any other associated benefits, or assume its excess or even damaging when others do.

I think balance is the key, ultimately-- some people function better or worse with such devices. Personally, I’m curious, love technology, and actively find ways to integrate it into my life, along with readily sharing it with others who are interested. I haven’t had one person complain that their life wasn’t better off because of it. I’ve met and maintained many friendships because of it, and I’m 100% positive we, as a society, will continue to progress with more technology in mind, not backwards-- so in a sense, there is no real incentive to downgrade or ignore it, other than for personal reasons/objection (which I personally think it’s fine, once it’s not a knee-jerk reaction).

If I find my life has swung too far one way, then it’s upon me to swing it the other (moderation)…not just with technology, but with anything.

30

I agree. If you don’t want to have a smartphone or don’t think they’re worth the cost, don’t bother getting one. But it’s not an issue worth taking a “stand” on.

31

I’m on Boost Mobile, so the Android plan is only $5 a month extra. I haven’t bothered since I have a Android tablet and I’m rarely more that 5 minutes from a free wifi hotspot. My feature phone phone already has text, email and a camera. I already have a portable gps

32

My husband and I just got smartphones for the first time last week. We got them through WalMart’s Smart Talk plan, which made it financially tolerable to us for the first time. We LOVE them. I must say though–I feel like it is a new obligation in my life. Whereas I used to be able to blithely ignore the condition of my Gmail inbox and Facebook page for hours on end, now I have a little device that chimes every time something happens and I can’t figure out how to turn those notifications off…

Other than that, it’s a hoot and a holler and will really come in useful while traveling. There are some darned handy apps. AroundMe, Google Drive, and Google Goggles are my top 3 right now.

33

Oh, I suppose you’re now using those fancy semaphore flags, huh? What, smoke signals weren’t good enough for you? You trend-followers disgust me.

34

That’s just the latest version of Socrates vs. the written word.

“For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.” (Phaedrus 274c-275b)

35

I, for one, do not one one of those infernal wire-less devices. That Marconi is one of the Devil’s own minions for harnessing the spark of Satan for trans-mitting who-knows-what across the ether, possibly even to the Spanish! Only the Almighty, through the power of prayer, has dominion over communication beyond the range of the voices that He doth blessed us with.

36

Hitler never owned a smartphone. Just sayin’.

In seriousness, I held out against getting a smartphone for years just because I didn’t want to pay extra for features I’d rarely use. I had a cell phone on a cheap voice-only plan and almost never even sent texts from it. A couple years ago, my then-current phone was dying and I decided to upgrade to a smart phone. I had several friends with them and was constantly seeing people do very cool, very convenient things so I took the plunge. I certainly don’t need to have a smartphone, but there are so many times I’ve been able to use mine to save myself huge amounts of trouble that I’m glad to have one.

Even more so, I wouldn’t want to be without a cell phone. Having been able to call my family and let them know I was fine and not to worry about me during the shootings at Virginia Tech five years ago is worth every penny I’ve ever spent on any cell phone or plan

37

Being Luddites, the wife and I have resisted getting smartphones. However, we did eventually cave in to getting a laptop and a netbook to supplement our PC, and we did finally upgrade to a DVD player from videotape at one point. And our recent trip to the US impressed us with the many novel uses of smartphones that we could have taken advantage of had we had one such as tourist-site audio talks and GPS service. So we’ll probably soon move on to one – or two. (I got my first “dumb” phone less than two years ago.)

38

I can think of one occassion where we really needed a Smarthphone. Trying to find a good restaraunt in St. Augustine. So it’s not worth the expense, I won’t go with any carrier other than Verizon because they’re by far the best at having service in rural areas. Breaking down in southwestern Wisconsins an AT&T phone would be a brick. And it seems a smartphone is not something I’d want to shove in my pocket; a flip phone isn’t noticably bulky. And the battery live. The people I was on a camping trip liked checking their emails, but at the end of the trip I could still make phone calls but their batteries were dead.

39

But carrier pigeons are organic and aren’t likely to cause forest fires. Don’t you care about Mother Earth?

40

I’m cheap. The questions I ask are, “Is the benefit worth the cost? And is there really a benefit for me?”

I have no landline. I use a cheap, pre-paid cell which I keep with pretty much 24/7 (It’s gotten to a kind of security blanket). When I socialize, I want to do it face to face. I can’t see any reason to upgrade to a much costlier smart phone.

The rest of my technology is the same way. My desktop is a ten year old HP Compaq running Linux, and it’ll last five or six more years. I use broadcast TV, Netflix and library DVDs and CDs for entertainment. I won’t replace my ancient TV until it wears out, which will probably be a long, long time. My music collection consists mostly of MP3s ripped from CDs borrowed from the library, and several hundred cassettes that I hang on to for both practical and sentimental reasons. I do have DSL, and now I"m spoiled. I could never go back to dial-up.

If you like these things and you’re willing and able to pay for them, knock yourself out. Most people don’t really need the latest gadgets and gizmos with all the bells and whistles, but a lot of 'em find it nice to have. I don’t need up-to-the-minute cutting edge technology and won’t try to squeeze the money for it out of a very tight budget. And anyway, I’m a little proud of getting what I really wanted and needed for the fewest bucks possible. It’s very satisfying getting what you want and need for next to nothing. Okay, so maybe I’m bragging a little …