Mobile phones, anyone else who doesn't need one?

DanTheMan said:
Yet again the contrarians of OcUK come out just cut off their nose to spite their face.

The physical phone is not the problem in any scenario, its what you choose to use it for. There's no conceivable reason not to have a mobile phone in this day and age, unless you're in a scenario where someone else does things for you that us mere mortals do via our phones. Even then, I'd argue that you're using one by proxy.
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Absolutely bang on. No harm in having a phone sitting there with a live phone number. I think the problem is when you sit there on it scrolling through social media hour after hour.
 
I've thought similar in recent years. I have been questioning whether phones have improved my life or made them worse. I am old enough to have grown up through the 90s not thinking about a phone. In the 2000s, the only time I began to use a phone was to text people I went to uni with, and even at that time I was much less obsessed about my phone than others. I only really began to start using a phone for other things when I got an iPhone 4s in 2012 and I began using that for the internet more than my laptop because of convenience.

However the experience going forward with newer phones and now a tablet, has made me question whether the bombardment and convenience of information has been a positive experience for me, especially where I now find myself periodically checking news and social media to keep up with what is happening in the world. My thoughts so far conclude that if has been a mostly negative experience, rather than positive one.

The world in many ways is poltically and economically in turmoil, and I just feel that reading about that everyday is mentally unhealthy and it would preferable to minimise that or switch off access to that, and focus more on the life around me and what I can influence, rather than on things I cannot do anything about.
 
In last few days I have seriously questioned if I want a phone... I find myself getting annoyed when it dings (yes can mute) for ANY reason except a reason I want it to. I find it grinds to get multiple pings on some apps (its the way people send messages, one every 5 seconds rather than one longer one). Given I am struggling a bit with stress & mental health generally sometimes I just want the mobile phone and HOME phone to be disabled... Life was simpler pre-mobile :-)
 
JudgeDeath said:
In last few days I have seriously questioned if I want a phone... I find myself getting annoyed when it dings (yes can mute) for ANY reason except a reason I want it to. I find it grinds to get multiple pings on some apps (its the way people send messages, one every 5 seconds rather than one longer one). Given I am struggling a bit with stress & mental health generally sometimes I just want the mobile phone and HOME phone to be disabled... Life was simpler pre-mobile :)
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I use my phone very heavily, for everything, including apple wallet to pay for everything and also heavily with work (Teams, without the phone i would need to be glued to a laptop). However, although i don't suffer from mental health issues, for similar reasons to you, i have all notifications turned off including the numbered badges on the app icons - very easy to do and it'll then all be on your terms - any Whatsapp messages iMessages, calls, etc can wait until you wish to check the apps yourself :)
 
Yeah I know I can switch them off... but difficult to separate the things that matter and dont... I mean I want to block all WA/Signal but my wife would not like that... likewise most times my wife calls or messages its NOT important but I can't filter which are and are not
 
JudgeDeath said:
Yeah I know I can switch them off... but difficult to separate the things that matter and dont... I mean I want to block all WA/Signal but my wife would not like that... likewise most times my wife calls or messages its NOT important but I can't filter which are and are not
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You should do some CBT if you haven't already. I work with a lot of people that can't possible ignore any WA or Teams alert, and end up responding quickly but "incorrectly".
 
Turning it all off is still much better than the other option though, not having a phone at all :) Just turn it all off, my wife just accepts that this is how my phone is. I cant/wont have it alerting me for the same reasons you mention.
 
The problem is when you let the phone control you rather than you control the phone.

I ditched my smartphone in 2014 for a dumbphone and now I have a Sony smartphone, seven years later. It's the best phone I've ever owned and Android 10 is great.

I use it for

Calls
Texts / Whatsapp
Music
Occasional browsing
Alarm clock
Twitch stream managing
Occasional game playing
Notepad - very important
Utilities e.g. calculator / torch / weather etc

That's about it. NOT social media and NOT emails.

As a result my phone is a pleasure to use and I never feel harassed by it. My daily screentime is always low, being generally under two hours a day [51 mins so far today].
 
If it weren't for Audible and Spotify I honestly wouldn't bother with one. Deleted all of social media in January and haven't really missed it since. The only time I really regretted it was when I found out 3 days late that David Cornwell (John le Carré) had died. It's made me a lot more sensitive to seeing others on theirs all the time. My partner is quite the socialite and consequently always has her nose in it. Infuriates me when we're watching a film or out and about in general.

Secret_Window said:
I've thought similar in recent years. I have been questioning whether phones have improved my life or made them worse. I am old enough to have grown up through the 90s not thinking about a phone. In the 2000s, the only time I began to use a phone was to text people I went to uni with, and even at that time I was much less obsessed about my phone than others. I only really began to start using a phone for other things when I got an iPhone 4s in 2012 and I began using that for the internet more than my laptop because of convenience.

However the experience going forward with newer phones and now a tablet, has made me question whether the bombardment and convenience of information has been a positive experience for me, especially where I now find myself periodically checking news and social media to keep up with what is happening in the world. My thoughts so far conclude that if has been a mostly negative experience, rather than positive one.

The world in many ways is poltically and economically in turmoil, and I just feel that reading about that everyday is mentally unhealthy and it would preferable to minimise that or switch off access to that, and focus more on the life around me and what I can influence, rather than on things I cannot do anything about.
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Felt exactly the same way. In some ways it benefits, but for me when I actually took the time to examine it more closely it was almost certainly doing more harm then good. I feel the same about coming on here these days. I leave confused and often times entirely melancholic. I'd miss a few of the hobbyist threads but overall I could definitely do without it.
 
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JudgeDeath said:
In last few days I have seriously questioned if I want a phone... I find myself getting annoyed when it dings (yes can mute) for ANY reason except a reason I want it to. I find it grinds to get multiple pings on some apps (its the way people send messages, one every 5 seconds rather than one longer one). Given I am struggling a bit with stress & mental health generally sometimes I just want the mobile phone and HOME phone to be disabled... Life was simpler pre-mobile :)
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Mute or turn off notifications.
 
JudgeDeath said:
In last few days I have seriously questioned if I want a phone... I find myself getting annoyed when it dings (yes can mute) for ANY reason except a reason I want it to. I find it grinds to get multiple pings on some apps (its the way people send messages, one every 5 seconds rather than one longer one). Given I am struggling a bit with stress & mental health generally sometimes I just want the mobile phone and HOME phone to be disabled... Life was simpler pre-mobile :)
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Bouton Aide said:
Mute or turn off notifications.
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As above, you can even mute notifications per-app.

If you feel a compulsion to check all the time, that's a separate issue and one you're going to have to train yourself out of. If people REALLY need you, they will call. Even if your phone is on silent, you should have a setting for emergency callers [i.e. on my phone if the same caller calls twice within 15 mins, and the phone is on silent, it will still ring].
 
dLockers said:
You should do some CBT if you haven't already. I work with a lot of people that can't possible ignore any WA or Teams alert, and end up responding quickly but "incorrectly".
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Yeah it's funny how many "situations" could be avoided if people just sat back and thought a little before replying.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Yeah it's funny how many "situations" could be avoided if people just sat back and thought a little before replying.
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The other plus is that they just stop pinging and go bother someone else :D:D:D

Edit: be wary though, my wife has a boyfriend now
 
After reading all these replies I am now wondering how on earth I managed to get the job done at work. :)

Note book - pencil -road map -street map of most big towns and cities - public phone box and after a few years the worst thing ever - A Pager. :D
 
DXP55 said:
After reading all these replies I am now wondering how on earth I managed to get the job done at work. :)

Note book - pencil -road map -street map of most big towns and cities - public phone box and after a few years the worst thing ever - A Pager. :D
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Well, yes, but as technology advances, work and leisure changes and adapts. What was once a commodity becomes a necessity and then a dependency.
 
DXP55 said:
After reading all these replies I am now wondering how on earth I managed to get the job done at work. :)

Note book - pencil -road map -street map of most big towns and cities - public phone box and after a few years the worst thing ever - A Pager. :D
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Honestly I am so impressed by previous generations. I was on the cusp of mobile phones being the norm when I was younger so still remember strongly ringing landlines and asking for friends, knocking on for pals on the off chance they were ready to hang out etc. but how the hell you lot did anything - entirely paper based - is baffling.

Edit: Tried to find a YouTube video of an investment bank operating in the 1970s but can't put my finger on it. Was hilarious. They were sharing jokes over the .... printy ticker tapery thingy ma jig you fossils you used to use.
 
It's useful and I wouldn't want to go without it, but of course I could manage without it. I didn't have a mobile until I was 22 or 23.
Most of the features of smartphones I would describe as 'luxury' but there are some that whilst not literally essential are very helpful:
  • Being able to call or message people when either you or they or both don't have access to a landline, e.g. at festivals or during an emergency
  • Being able to quickly look up information when you don't have access to another internet enabled device, e.g. if you are travelling and get delayed and want to check on the best route/alternate services
  • General compactness of being able to carry a multi-function device around with you, whilst a lot of the features in isolation are sort of luxuries (like music, video, calendar, calculator, web browser etc) when you put it all together in a small package that fits in a trouser pocket it is quite compelling
  • GPS/Mapping etc is really helpful for finding your way around, I remember once when I was a student getting lost trying to find the train station, took me over an hour to find it when I was probably about 15mins away. Travelling to new locations used to leave me a bit apprehensive, I'm visually impaired so stuff others probably take for granted like spotting things they are looking for in the distance, reading signs etc don't come that easily to me.
I think the key points around mobile phones are covered in the name - firstly it is "mobile" meaning you can take it anywhere. If I spent all my time at home, I could probably do without it as I have other connected devices available. The second part if "phone", meaning you can use it for speech communication which can be more rapid than message exchange etc. That said, nowadays you can probably access services to make calls via the internet so it's less critical
 
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