I’m fed up with my smart phone. I look around at everyone with their heads buried in their little pads of light, constantly hypnotized like a bunch of chimps-- at restaurants, at the beach, at the store, in the car, in the bedroom. And I realize, I’m one of those chimps.
So I’m done. I don’t need to be plugged into Facebook or Instagram or Wikipedia or Politico or Yahoo 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I have a laptop for that when I need it. What I need is a phone for making and receiving calls, and for sending and receiving texts. A game or two might be nice to kill time on an airplane. A camera is unnecessary; I have a perfectly good camera.
Life seemed simpler, more quaint, back in the old days of the early aughts, when cell phones didn’t do much of anything besides ring. I long for those days. So I’m pitching my smart phone and getting a stupid one, like from the old days. Anyone else embracing the “stupid” in a world of Androids and Apples?
I never owned a smart phone - I’m perfectly happy with my flip phone, even if texting is a pain in the patoot. I rarely text anyway.
My spousal unit decided to get rid of his smart phone when he retired, and he’s got a flip also, altho his has a camera. Honestly, I only miss his phone on rare occasions when we’re driving and we want to know a store’s hours or some such. Nothing has ever come up that couldn’t wait till we got to our home computer. And I love that he’s no longer tethered to email while we’re out.
He’s going back to work and I’m hoping he can get along without reactivating his Android…
Why? Because like the OP I have no desire to check email 18 times a day. Or post to Facebook and Twitter 8 times a day. I’m not interested in photographing my plate of food at a restaurant to post on my wall. Hey guys check out the pasta bar at Olive Garden.
A Flip phone does what I want and my AT&T plan is cheaper.
That’s how it is with me. I do use it in my spare time. I like to catch up on news and family during my daily commute on public transit, for example. But when I’m walking down the street or eating out with people, for example, it’s in my pocket unless I have a specific need such as directions or looking up something relevant to the conversation. (If I get a call or a text I’ll glance at it to see if it’s important.) Anything else strikes me as rude.
It seems like it’s mostly the people who grew up with them that can’t tear themselves away.
We’ve gone pay-as-you-go with AT&T and it’s saving us a fortune. We got rid of our land line, I take full advantage of the “ignore” function for unwanted calls, and frankly, we don’t talk on the phone much anyway. Apart from making appointments or talking to our respective parents, we hardly ever use the things! It’s great!
Another vote for the dumb phone. You can leave it on the bar, go to the bathroom and when you return it is still there. Thieves aren’t interested in stealing dumb phones.
Pics or it didn’t happen! The undocumented life is not worth sharing, and the unshared life cannot be objectively said to have happened at all!
Click here to see the rest of the click-through or video clip list of Ten Reasons You Must Have A Smartphone To Participate In Today’s Society. I used to be like you, but #7 changed my world!
I got a smart phone in April but that thing is big! If I’m out and want to catch a bus, I’d have to dig it out of my purse to check the time. Though I don’t really have much in there, compared to a lot of women, I’m just not a good purse digger-outer. A few months ago I decided to get out my old not-quite-smart-but-not-really-dumb-either flip phone to keep in my back pocket. I don’t have phone service on it any more but I can still check the time and take pictures in case that fast-breaking news story should appear in front of me and and calculate a tip when I’m dining out. And I don’t have to worry about some crook grabbing it from me because it’s ancient and worthless in their eyes.
A lot of my smart phone’s features are wasted on me. I should have gone with a much more basic phone but you know how it is. It’s like choosing between a big ol’ Erector Set with bonus gears and pulleys and wheels and whatever else they might lure you in with or a can o’ Lincoln Logs. You can build stuff with both of them but–Oh, shiny!
Shiny wins nearly all of the time. And don’t the marketers know it!
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the smart phone and wouldn’t be without it. I just don’t use it when I should be socializing or when I’m walking down the street or, God forbid, when I’m driving.
Same here I’m 56 and my big Android Galaxy S5 is a very useful business tool. If you’re retired or in a business where you don’t need to be immediately up to date on a happenings God Bless You but it’s vital for me in commercial real estate and running my ebay business. Plus I’m never bored if I’m waiting for someone. This thing will play high def videos and movies pulled right from the web, you don’t have to crunch them down with handbrake like you did with the older phones to make them palatable to the phone.
