Why should I cater to you? Look up how to set up your own phone.
For Android, It goes something like this. I have an older s10e, so things probably changed a bit.
- Go to Settings → Sounds & notifications → Do not disturb.
- Press the + Add schedule button.
- Select the Days, Start time, and End time.
- Press Done, then toggle On to use that schedule for DND mode.
I set mine to no notification for texts or emails from 8pm to 5am. The phone will ring though. If it’s important, people will call me.
My phone is an Android, and it has a feature called Do Not Disturb that I think could be customized to do what you want. I have it set to activate around bedtime and deactivate at my usual waking time. It will block all calls and texts unless they come from people on my Favorites list, which are family and close friends whom I’d want to answer if they called at 2 am.
Ninjaed by @enipla!
ETA: This should have been a reply to @doreen, of course.
My cellphone lives in my purse, which lives on the front passenger seat of my car, which lives in the garage under my townhouse condo. It gets turned on maybe once or twice a week, if I need to make/receive a particular call, hire an Uber, order a pizza, or read on the Kindle app while I’m waiting somewhere.
But how do I stay in touch?!? I keep a landline which harvests most of the scam and spam calls, and is the number I give out generally; only a few persons/offices get my cell phone number. With at least one cordless phone on the landline on each floor, all displaying caller ID, I can choose whether to pick up or let the call go to the answering machine – or quit after four or five rings when it’s a garbage call.
I don’t text unless I absolutely have to; I’d rather get an email.
This system works just fine for me. After all, cell and landline both are for my convenience, not anyone else’s.
Now, get off my lawn!
We got rid of our land line a couple of years ago. It was totally unreliable in the winter (plows would tear up the pedestals). So we would be down for a week, maybe two.
I put a cell phone antenna on the roof and a repeater from that inside. Works well.
Now I don’t have to enter work, home, cell on forms. Saves a little money as well. My work number ports to my cell. But it’s rare that I get a call from work. We use Teams or email.
Since I was already carrying my cell with me, it makes things easier.
Is that a safe place to keep your purse? You must have a pretty secure garage.
As you are aware, it is unlikely that the phone will do exactly what you or I wish. At least without regular monitoring. The options are basically a no-frills non-smart cellphone, or a loaded - you got yourself a new hobby smartphone, with nothing in between.
Same with computers.
Many/most? people seem to enjoy fiddling around with their phones on a regular basis. If you spent some amount of time on a regular basis checking your phone, you’d likely become more familiar with how various settings work, and you would not find it an imposition to have to remember to adjust your phone periodically. But, since you and I prefer to only touch our phones when needed, it is more likely that it will be more of a chore to learn how to do certain things, ad remembering those processes won’t stick.
My 33 yr old was in town over the weekend. My wife commented on how I jerk awake when my alarm goes off (which is not anything I’ve perceived to be a problem.) My daughter took my phone, started to enable some sleep cycle setting which would have the alarm gradually increase in volume. And she said, “You can track your sleep patterns!” To which I responded, “I have no desire to track my sleep patterns. I know if I slept well/enough or not.”
And she was showing me how to swipe the screen in various directions to open various things. I am perfectly happy to never learn what swiping the screen does. Whatever features that enables, I’m happy to do without.
Deciding whether or not to adopt new technology is a choice. Many folk who readily adopt such technology seem not to understand why people might make choices different than theirs.
Yes, I do. The garage door runs up and down on an electronically controlled motor and can’t be opened from the outside by hand. I live in a very safe area; in fact, some years ago I drove to spend Christmas Eve with my mother and came home the next day to find I’d left the garage door open, door to the house unlocked, and no one broke in.
This! THIS! If new tech works for you, you go, girl. But if I decide I don’t need/want it, I’m not going to waste my time on it.
Just for the record - yes, there is a paucity in fine differentiations in cell phone features, but there’s a decent number of what I consider “mid range” phones. Things like the iPhone SE or the Pixel phone ‘A’ series generally get you about 80% of the bang of a “big buck” phone, with a price being in the $4-500 ish range. I can’t justify to myself buying a phone near a grand, and I can’t stand the sub $200 phones. But it’s always something of a precarious market with comparatively few entries compared to either end.
A second option, and one that’s increasingly the fix for a lot of people, is as new models come out, you buy the last remaining new now 2 generation old phone. So if company releases model H phone, now it’s time to buy the (generally steeply discounted) E model, since the F model has much more modest discounts.
Or, as many here do, don’t bother if work or other circumstances require a more-or-less current phone.
I’ve lived with my gf for 20 years now. During that time we’ve never locked any of our doors (Plot twist: we have no keys).
You’re fortunate to live where that’s possible.
Hear, hear! I am not intimidated by computers or tech. I used to program for fun. But for certain tech, I just don’t care. I don’t deny the benefits people point out. I just value them way less, if at all.
We will lock and turn off the water if we go away for a long vacation. It’s rather pointless though. We are remote, have some ceiling to floor windows, and plenty of big rocks in the yard.
As far as new tech goes. A lot of people like to be on the bleeding edge. That’s fine. The problem is if you don’t at least keep somewhat up to date, you could be left in the dust. I need to update to a newer model cell phone, but the new ones are bigger than I want. I need to do it though…
True. I keep my desktop and laptop (two each) computers up to date because I need them for my home-based work, including redundancy in case of failures. Same same for maintaining multiple printers/scanners needed for work; lose one and I’m not screwed. All my tech is at a level that works for my life as I have it structured. The cellphone is a few years old; when it ages enough to need replacing I’ll pick a level of tech that does what I need.
What people may be missing is that there are those of us that don’t care if we’re left in the dust re: certain tech advances.
You don’t buy those new-fangled gadgets like cell phones–you stick with the tried and true landline. And you never have to worry about getting unwanted texts–since you don’t receive any texts at all.
That’s completely fine. However, if you then get pissed off at the way everyone else behaves because they adopted the new technology and you did not, and then you complain about problems that are already solved because you want to adopt some of the new tech but not all of it - don’t expect anyone to take your complaint seriously.
Well, yeh, of course. That’s as obnoxious as sneering at someone who refuses to dance on the bleeding edge. Live and let live, dammit!
Right. If you don’t want to adopt this newfangled tech, then don’t. You don’t need a smartphone, or to enable internet or text on it.
If you choose to adopt those features, and start complaining about the way people use them because you don’t want to bother learning anything more than the bare, bare minimum - that’s on you, not everyone else.