It isn’t, really, and in one sense what kind of phone someone does or doesn’t have is none of my business. But let’s face it, in a social context, some may think that it’s something to celebrate that there is still a segment of humanity that can go into a restaurant or some other social gathering and actually interact with the world instead of obsessively poking at some stupid gadget. I don’t accuse everyone of this, but there is certainly a substantial number who do this. For example, something common among teens that was cited in a recent sociological study was that instead of enjoying the dishes presented to them in a fine restaurant, their first obligation is to take a picture of each one and tweet it to their friends, because they can. And then, presumably, engage in further electronic messaging during the meal.
Some time ago I was at a wonderful high-end Japanese sushi bar with a friend who had recently acquired a smart phone. While I watched with interest as the chef expertly prepared the first spectacular round of sushi, this friend was busily engaged in poking away at his phone. And then when the chef came over and presented him with the first dish, he completely ignored him – oblivious to the world! I had to jolt him back into the real world while the chef stood there looking annoyed.
Not to get too serious in a not-very-serious thread about smart phones – which I already admitted to owning – when this kind of behavior becomes epidemically associated with a particular device, it’s not entirely misplaced to say that the device is an agent of certain kinds of non-traditional and putatively anti-social behavioral changes.
Also 63, also with a flip phone, through Virgin Mobile. I use it as much as I want, and most years, it costs me ~$120. For the year.
This year, because I’ve been calling my Congresscritters on the way home from work on my cell phone (my wife drives), I’ll probably spend close to $200 this year on cell phone service.
I’ve got Web access from home and work, and wifi locations aren’t that hard to find away from home. (Like, any MickeyD’s or Starbuck’s.) I’d be paying a rather substantial amount to get Web access for the slim fractions of the day that I don’t already have it.
No smart phone. A very basic cell that can maybe accept texts, I am told can take pictures, but doesn’t really matter since I so rarely use it. I still rely on my old-fashioned landline.
My wife and I have Verizon LG flip phones. Our 700 minute plan costs about $70/mo. I do have a HTC Windows smartphone, which I bought to use during travel to Vietnam. Now I use the GPS and the map functions. The main reason I have held off is because I have not needed a smartphone and the flip phone is small and fits nicely in my pocket and doesn’t need charging every day. I see people carrying around phones the size of planks. However, I find that a smartphone has useful functions like traffic PLUS my HTC has a four inch screen, so it is a big improvement over the behemoths that are out there. I think I will connect it up and ditch the flip. I already have the SIM card and the cost will be only $10/mo extra. If I want Android, I am considering a Samsung S4 mini, available on Ebay for about $70.
I may be the Doper Fairy Chat Mom referenced above, I have land line and nothing else. I’ve used cell phones before (while living in the UAE) and used Blackberries for work purposes, but simply did not bother to get another phone.
May have to consider getting a cheapo flip phone for travel and when I’m at the soccer fields coaching, but the stubborn is strong in this one…
I am 33. I do not now nor have I ever owned a smartphone and I have zero intentions of doing so in the foreseeable future. I have no need or desire for one. I have one of the other type of basic feature phones that has buttons and screen but doesn’t flip.
I also don’t own a TV (I watch DVDs on my laptop). I don’t own any other iPads or tablets or anything else like that. I only read books made from dead trees. My laptop is my only internet-connected device and I intend to keep it that way. The Internet of Things is, in my opinion, certainly among the Top 5 Dumbest Ideas Humanity Has Ever Come Up With - ever consider what’s gonna happen if there’s a massive power failure or EMP event, or hackers take it over, or a fascist government? You will either have access to literally nothing in your home anymore (or even be able to get into it if your phone controls the door locks too) or you cede control of all of it to someone else.
I also have never owned a car and don’t have a driver’s license. Whether I trust a robot to do my driving for me in the future remains to be seen but I find the idea rather doubtful.
I’m also not on social media of any idea. I was on Stalkerbook for a few years but eventually gave it up. Never been on any of the other platforms.
Most people think I am terribly weird. I wanna go back to the 20th century where I belong…
I have a flip phone and I don’t even remember how old it is (it replaced my original cellphone that stopped working after I dropped it out of an airplane). It was just this month that I unblocked the texting function on it.
I’m not on social media, either. If I was, it would probably be to promote an internet-based business rather than as part of my social life.
In my 50’s. I actually like technology, but I don’t like how some people have let it take over their lives. Tech has to serve my needs, not vice-versa.
Oh, my Kindle and my Android tablet serve my entertainment needs for books, video, and games on the go. I still use paper maps when I travel. And my phone can go multiple days on just one charge.
Well, if there’s a “massive EMP event”, the rest of the missile salvo will cause problems that will make the loss of some functions in internet-enabled appliances seem rather trivial.
I’m not especially tech-savvy and was a late adopter of cellphones. I still have the same one I got five years or so ago, a no-frills Verizon LG. I can talk and text, but just don’t need all those other whizzbangs.
I recently amazed a young person by, instead of using the remote, standing up, walking across the room, and turning on/changing the channel/changing the volume on my TV by using the buttons on the side of it.
Mainly because I couldn’t find the remote right at that moment.
I agree, the “internet of things” strikes me as odd. Why would I want a refrigerator that automatically re-orders food for me? Or one of those Amazon Echo things… they strike me as a little creepy. And it makes it too easy to buy stuff, which my budget does need to deal with. Seems to me a lot of the internet these days is more about extracting money from people than anything else.
Yeah. A couple of months ago I got a new air conditioner/furnace system for the upstairs floor of my house. It came with a new Nest thermostat. Ok, whatever. But evidently it is a “smart” thermostat that changes the settings to whatever it *thinks *I want. I keep setting it for a certain temperature and when I come back later, it has re-set itself for a different temperature.
Certainly, you can turn this “feature” off, right?. NOPE! As far as I can tell, there is no way to set it at one freakin’ temperature setting and have it believe me that I indeed want it to stay at that one temperature setting.
(If anyone knows otherwise, please clue me in!)
The thermostat I have for the downstairs cost me $24. But when I set a temperature, that’s what I get. I consider it much better than my “free” $250 **Nest **thrmostat.
But just think – I believe you can interface your smartphone to your Nest, and thereby possibly screw things up so badly that the thermostat will never work right again. You cannot underestimate the power of the kind of “smart” technology that allows me to hit a simple unintended keystroke and get my entire Word document scrambled beyond recognition – indeed, such is the power of modern “smart” digital technology that with any luck you might even be able to set your house on fire!
The best thermostat I ever had was the venerable old “Honeywell Round” – completely manual, conveniently analog, just reliably always did exactly what it was set to do. The last one was left behind in my old house, and now I have some obnoxious “smart” thing that came with the house that has its own ideas about temperature control, although it knows Shakespeare and can recite all his sonnets. It can also answer questions about the origin of the universe. The one thing it cannot do is be instructed to keep a simple constant temperature. I can still find the Honeywell Round for heat-only systems, but not for heating and cooling. I’ll bet soon they won’t be made any more at all. They just make too much sense, and are too easy to use. :mad:
I use it only for emergencies or brief calls; the latter average 2 a month. Technically, it does have Internet access, but I tried loading the Google home page and it ran out of memory.
Well, yes, but you might still have enough time to get into your house using an old fashioned piece of metal twisted into a little hole and get down to the basement to Duck and Cover while your neighbors are busy trying to work out why their front doors won’t accept their fingerprint scans anymore.
Judging from this, you set the temperature you want but, if you keep diddling with the temperature, then it will start trying to adjust for your “real” wants instead of where you set it. But it does that because no one was happy with the set range.
I don’t accuse everyone of this, but there is certainly a substantial number who do this. For example, something common among teens that was cited in a recent sociological study was that instead of enjoying the dishes presented to them in a fine restaurant, their first obligation is to take a picture of each one and tweet it to their friends, because they can. And then, presumably, engage in further electronic messaging during the meal.
I wanna go back to the 20th century where I belong…