This isn’t an attack on people with smart phones. Rather, I wonder how many others like me are on the Dope, either using basic cell phones or none at all.
I have a cheapie flip phone on a pay-as-you-go account. The vast majority of the calls I get don’t get answered. I’ve programmed in the numbers that matter: family, friends, doctor, dentist, boss. Chances are any other callers are telemarketers or the occasional wrong number. And when I’m not home, I don’t really care that I can’t check in on FB or my email or even the Dope. I rarely text - it’s definitely a pain on the number pad. I’m not a luddite - it’s just not important to me to be that connected.
I’m sure my age plays a part, too - I’m 63. So get off my lawn after you weigh in.
I have a flip phone on a pay-as-you-go plan. I load it up with $100 each year and it has never run out of credit.
I don’t do any social media and I have no interest in keeping up with email every second of the day. The only people who may need to contact me for something immediately are my wife and kids and if I’m not at work I am almost always with them so I’m reachable 99% of the time without needing the cellphone.
I probably should have mentioned that my flip phone is our old land line number and we no longer have a land line. Even at that, it’s rarely used. I just now spent 6 minutes talking to AAA and that’s the most I’ve used it in months!
At the moment, I also have a pay-as-you-go flip phone. I’m 38.
However, that may change soon. I went to log into my account at Virgin Mobile, and discovered that they’ve basically become a shill for Apple. They’re in a transition process to get rid of all non-Apple products. They claim that people with existing plans will be grandfathered, but I don’t really trust that as a long-term thing.
Plus my current phone is about 6 years old, and it’s starting to act a little wonky. I’m going to get a new phone soon, and I’m going to switch companies while I’m at it. I MAY get one of the sub-$100 smart phones – I’m not sure yet.
^^^ I think I may be Gus Gusterson’s secret sock account and don’t realize it. I totally could have written that post. Except for the 49 part.
I think if the technology had taken a different evolutionary tack, I’d have been an early adopter instead of a foot-dragging luddite, though: if I could buy a device the size of a cellphone that would run MacOS X (the real one) and I could plop it into a cradle at my desk and it would connnect to my full-sized monitors, keyboard, mouse, printer, external hard drives, etc, and it was the only device I needed and would run FileMaker and Photoshop and compile code and run virtual machine environments containing Windows and Linux (and, of course, would have a bloody #^@!@ file system with, you know, folders and files and stuff) but when uncradled would behave more or less like an android or iPhone, sure, I’d have one. But I don’t want my digital life sprawled across two different environments.
Smart phones still seem to me to be like 8 track tapes or SyQuest cartridges: an interim technology that is transparently not the final one for its niche because of all its limitations. I’ll admit they do some cool things though.
I suspect that there’s a large overlap between the set of people who don’t use smartphones and the set of people who don’t use Internet message boards. Both are fairly common, but I imagine that the set of people here who don’t have a smart phone is pretty small.
It may well be a small number, hence my question, but I personally know at least 1 Doper who doesn’t have any flavor of mobile phone. That did surprise me.
I’ve got a smart phone, but honestly, I could get along with a basic flip phone. The bells and whistles on a smart phone are nice, but I don’t use the majority of them. I don’t’ text very much. I only find myself checking Facebook and/or playing Candy Crush when I’m bored.
Is there a clear dividing line between “flip phone” and “smart phone”? I don’t do social media, much prefer to do email on my computer, and find posting on this MB using my iPhone to be mostly a PITA.
But I use my iPhone a lot for:
Getting directions and checking traffic
Checking weather forecasts
Stock quotes
Pictures
Real estate apps
things like that
Can any of those be done on a “flip phone”, and if they can, what’s the real difference? If you have internet access on your flip phone, does that make a smart phone?
I doubt you were thinking of me but I don’t have or use any form of cell phone.
My wife has the iPhone [whatever number we’re now on] and I very rarely use that. What’s more, I never text and correspond with my known associates via email on my laptop. (Not surprisingly I’m also not into social media.)
Some people are… -shocked is too strong a word- but genuinely surprised that I make do without one. To the young folk out there, there really was a time before cell phones and people somehow managed.
Then comes the, “What do you do in the case of an emergency?” question. I don’t know. I guess I’d figure something out.
I think I could get some internet access on my flip phone, but frugality constrains me, as does the teeny-tiny screen. It has a camera, but no way to download directly, and again, such a tiny screen makes it close to worthless for pictures anyway. I guess I’m thinking in terms of a phone that makes calls and can text, but isn’t much good for any real on-line use.
I wasn’t going to post because I love my smart phone. However, that said, I was talking to a young lady at the liquor store one day. We were trying to exchange numbers so she could call me when a special order came in. I happened to tell her I left my phone at home. To which she responded:
“Careful! It’s dangerous to leave the house with out your phone!”
Wife and I both have flip phones. I upgraded from a supermarket phone to a monthly plan because I could never remember to buy more minutes. I’ve never yet made a call from it, nor received one, and hope I never do, as it’s for emergencies.
I had a smart phone for a while and then I had to buy a new car and I realised that I will have car payments again so I went looking for ways to clear up some money. I realized I never used the smart features on my phone and that if I downgraded phones and got a pay-as-you-go account I could save $85 a month. So that’s what I did.
I have a simple talk and text phone. I’ve had it for years and it serves my purpose. My husband and daughter both have smart phones. Once in awhile I think about maybe upgrading, but we just replaced my daughter’s and shortly after my husband’s. I can’t afford another phone right now and I think the wireless bill is ridiculous enough already, but they are used a lot.
I think that the line between smart and dumb phones used to be blurry, in the days before the iPhone, when the smartest phone out there was some sort of Blackberry or the like with a bunch of features crammed into it. Heck, even my earliest cell phone had a couple of games built in. But now, the touchscreen phones have pretty much dominated the smart market, and the dumbphone market is mostly made up of folks who don’t want extra features at all.
I do not own a cellular telephone of any variety. I have never needed one. I have never wanted one. My position isn’t one of protest. The situation has just never come up. It’s a little like the Dentist. I would go if I had a problem. But, it’s been well over 40 years now & I have never had a need. No chipped teeth, no cavities, no need to go.
I should probably add that when my employer discovered that I do not own a cell phone, he threatened to buy one for me for “business purposes”. I’m not worried… He’s too cheap to actually do it.
I’ve got one, but have considered not replacing it when I need a new one. I really like the slide out keyboard, and think few smartphones still have that. We were discussing apps last week after golf, and one guy pulled out a non-smartphone w/ a slide out keyboard. Said it was really cheap. Something I will seriously consider when I need to get a new phone. I have very few things going on that can’t wait until I get to a computer.
