I don't want a smartphone!!

[zedd]

I have days where I'm ready to toss my smartphone and go back to the simplicity of a flip phone. The old dumb phone did one thing extremely well ... it was a phone. The smartphone does a ga-zillion things only fairly well. I don't recall ever butt-dialing with my flip phone. Or finding a text message in composition mode that read: xK8h yek bngfd%$ kd*0kduyel!

[Ally]

I'm no help. I love my smart phone. I find it so useful when I'm out and need to check prices, reviews, directions, or even entertain myself while waiting at the doctor's office.

[grasshopper]

I have a moto e (2015) I paid $30 for from Freedom Pop. I don't get a cell signal but use it on wifi at the ponderosa. Comes with 200 free minutes 500 text, and 500mb of data per month. I do pay $4 a month to rollover my unused monthly data that's it. in 7 months I may have made 20 phone calls not including wifi calls. I was able to sign up because my zip code extents 50 miles up to the interstate. Check deposit, Mobile Passport, airline info, certainly made me a believer. I have 5+ GB of reserve data right now.

https://www.freedompop.com

[mamadogmamacat]

still have a flip phone thing wont die and with unlimited calls text and data for $40/month (was able to keep my mega corp AT&T discount in retirement) I'm not in any hurry to change. However, it has been getting harder to charge lately sometimes anyway So, I assume the connection is just getting loose or some such thing with age (ten yrs old with only one battery change and that was within the past year) so i assume I will be forced to go with one of the "old people" type plans (to quote a sweet young cousin) probably with AMAC I think I can get a plan for about the same price (limited data but i don't use much data now anyway) with either a new flip phone or some refurbished smartphone for either free or less than up to $100 depending on how fancy or up to date i want. Cant imagine any new or newer phone will be as amazingly durable as my current one. its easy to text, coverage and sound quality is great i can access e-mail with it but that is a bit of a process to do checking news headlines or my portfolio is easy. really PANTECH made a great flip phone. glad i happened to get it ten yrs ago by chance as it was the only "free" phone option with that old mega corp plan at the time

[RetiredAt55.5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee Anyone else on this Forum who still has a dumb phone? Are you finding events, etc. where you must have a smartphone to participate?

I was in IT for 33 years, and I resisted a smartphone until this past year.

What pushed me over to the dark side was folks sending my group texts, which my dumb phone handled, well dumbly.

To be honest, a smartphone has made my life easier - I don't even use my Garmin GPS anymore. The WAZE app works much better, and doesn't yell at me to do a U-turn and backtrack when I chose to deviate from the GPS's chosen directions.

I can walk into a Lowes store, and search for an item on their website, and then get the exact location in the store where the item is located and whether it's currently in stock.

When in a SAMS warehouse, when I find an item I'm interested in, I can check google and amazon to see whether SAM's price is really a "deal", and see if there's any reviews on it.

[Sue J]

harllee, those are my thoughts, too! I love technology and computers and I use current things all the time and I just don't want a smartphone. DH and I have flip phones that have a prepaid legacy plan. We can add money and we never lose it until we use it with no monthly cost. And I'm fine with that. If our plan gets discontinued or our phones die and we have to replace them I'd probably go with the T-Mobile 55+ plan and get smartphones. But we will hold off as long as we can.

Last month DH went out of town to help with his 89 yr old mom who had a medical crisis and his sisters needed his help. He spent almost 2 weeks there and on one of our conversations he said when he got home he wanted us to get smartphones. His brother had texted him on his flip phone instead of his ipad and he couldn't figure out how to text back (yes, it's an effort) and one of his sister's joked about his flip phone.

So I was all prepared to show him the T-mobile 55+ particulars and pick out phones when he got home. By the time he got home he was over his hissy fit and said he was fine with what we have.

Here's the situation. We are home with wifi and a home phone (magicjack) 98% of the time. We can text with our sons and my sister on ipads when we are home. Our old phones do exactly what we want, which is make a phone call, usually it's from a store.... "I stopped to pick up something, do you need anything while I'm here..."

Like the OP, I see people who are sucked into their devices and can't let go of them. I know for myself, if I have my ipad with me while watching TV or sitting outside on the deck, I keep reaching for it. Check this, look up that, one more email, quick check of news or weather. It's very seductive.

I know that eventually it will have to happen but I'm going to hold off as long as we can.

[mamadogmamacat]

I have no problem that I'm aware of with group texts. I get one every month or so from the head, a friend, of an animal related charity. seems to work like any other text my phone simply gives me the option of replying all or just to sender when I hit reply. otherwise no different than any other text

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetiredAt55.5 I was in IT for 33 years, and I resisted a smartphone until this past year. What pushed me over to the dark side was folks sending my group texts, which my dumb phone handled, well dumbly. To be honest, a smartphone has made my life easier - I don't even use my Garmin GPS anymore. The WAZE app works much better, and doesn't yell at me to do a U-turn and backtrack when I chose to deviate from the GPS's chosen directions. I can walk into a Lowes store, and search for an item on their website, and then get the exact location in the store where the item is located and whether it's currently in stock. When in a SAMS warehouse, when I find an item I'm interested in, I can check google and amazon to see whether SAM's price is really a "deal", and see if there's any reviews on it.

Haha. I resisted smartphones in my IT job. This was one of things that created RE for me. My manager insisted I get one to deal with 700-800 texts every night. Dumb phones don't do texts nearly as fast.

It's not like the texts were real, they were caused by hard drives doing what they do during real operations. I only cared about the last message saying if the disk was successful in it's internal sector reallocation.

This poor sog was so afraid of his boss he had the entire team, 6 including him, getting paged all night long. He'd call me at 3:00 AM asking about a particular message; like I cared!

I guess I should thank him and the smartphone for RE. Like maybe with 700-800 texts in the middle of the night, all saying the same message![emoji12]

[mpeirce]

How will "they" track you if you don't move up to a smart phone?

Seriously, you can still use a smartphone in only semi-smart mode. I.e. just use it for the basics like as a telephone, texting, contact list.

There is no requirement to start downloading third party apps.

Of course, once you have it, you may be tempted to do so. Just resist!

[sturbridge]

I finally got a smartphone last year, my husband still has the flip phone. I resisted mostly because I didn't want to be one of "those people" who always have their face in their phone. And you know what, I'm not. I talk to strangers at bars instead of my phone. I talk to people in line and not my phone. It is really handy for travel, as well as keeping in touch with the next generation of family, as they only text. Texting on a flip phone is for the birds.

I use wifi when I'm home, as I am also out in the sticks, and Verizon is iffy for a signal some days. Sprint/AT+T get no signal here. Sound quality is good over wi fi even when it isn't good over cellular.

[Souschef]

DW and I just got dragged into the 21st Century. BUT, we both bought Alcatel phones from Tracfone for $99 each. It is a pay as you go plan, and is a lot cheaper than others, as we seldom use them. DW's is linked to the speaker system in her Mazda CX-5 and loves it.I have used the Lyft app on mine and it works great.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sturbridge I finally got a smartphone last year, my husband still has the flip phone. I resisted mostly because I didn't want to be one of "those people" who always have their face in their phone. And you know what, I'm not. I talk to strangers at bars instead of my phone. I talk to people in line and not my phone. It is really handy for travel, as well as keeping in touch with the next generation of family, as they only text. Texting on a flip phone is for the birds. I use wifi when I'm home, as I am also out in the sticks, and Verizon is iffy for a signal some days. Sprint/AT+T get no signal here. Sound quality is good over wi fi even when it isn't good over cellular.

My emphasis above...and the statement of the day!

[Hermit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 My emphasis above...and the statement of the day!

I had one of those flip phones with a tiny pull down keyboard. It worked great for texting. I hated the touch screen keyboards. I must admit they have improved and I have gotten used to them.

[mamadogmamacat]

to each his own obviously, but texting on my flip phone is a breeze especially with predictive mode on. I've watched people text on their smart phones and i really don't see the difference What exactly, am I missing?

[harllee]

OP here. I use my dumb phone for talking, maybe an hour or so a day (no home phone). I send a few texts. I do quite of bit of email on my MacBook or iPad. I really need a cellphone for talking.

Alot of my talking is to my elderly mother. My mother has hearing problems and my hearing at age 66 is not so great either. The only thing I really need a cellphone for is talking and I need to be heard and be able to hear on it. So far I have not found a smartphone that I can hear with nearly as good as my old flip phone.

[harllee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmcgonig Personally I want to keep up with the latest devices/apps just so that when I'm 90 I'm quite able to handle myself in a world of younger people. I don't want to be limited by my inability to use a new device let's say that is a derivative of a smart phone just because I didn't want to be bothered with a smart phone etc. I also want to have access to whatever replaces Uber or Lyft when I'm 90. Things like that, but probably many things that I can't even imagine now. Personally I want to be on that curve, if I cant be ahead of it. Twenty years ago many were saying the same about mobile phones and you can see where you would be if you decided against having one. For example here where I am if you're getting a delivery they will send you a text to tell you the time slot. Not a phone call or an email. Must be a text. Just look at the difference between older people that can use the internet versus those that can't. That could be me someday if I fall behind.

OP here. In 25 years from there are going to be ways to communicate we can't even think of now. I don't think whether I own a smartphone is going to make a difference regarding how I handle some new technology not even invented yet. I know how to operate a smartphone ( I have used friend's smartphones) and I have an iPad, I just don't want to be forced into a smartphone by a charitable organization to which I give money( see my first post). If they want my charitable donation, they better let me communicate with them in the manner i please.

[travelover]

I use PagePlus, which operates on Verizon towers. I have a Moto E 3G smartphone, but I mostly use it as a telephone, though it can access data if needed. My plan is the $10 every 4 month option, as I rarely make calls. Sound is not great, but adequate. It also bluetooths to my car so I can answer the phone from my steering wheel, which is nice. Reception is better than DW's iPhone 6 on the same plan.

[97guns]

I can’t live without a smartphone, it’s my most used device or any 1 thing I use, I can’t think of anything that I use more of and it easily justifies the $800 I’ve spent on this current one.

[CardsFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee OP here. Alot of my talking is to my elderly mother. My mother has hearing problems and my hearing at age 66 is not so great either. The only thing I really need a cellphone for is talking and I need to be heard and be able to hear on it. So far I have not found a smartphone that I can hear with nearly as good as my old flip phone.

DW had the same issue, and I agree the flat smart phones are not as easy to hear as a flip phone (or maybe I am getting older and deafer?).

Two solutions: DW uses speaker when ever she is around the house. I go one step further and use an iHome speaker, particularly when I know I will be on hold for a while. Doesn't help when you are out, but works good at home.

[ugeauxgirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermit Its a Moto G 5+ which is a pretty nice phone IMHO.

I have one of these too- and I really like it. I resisted getting a smart phone forever- but then my car infotainment system was connecting to my husband's phone and playing HIS music, and we couldn't have that. I caved, and the truth is- I love it. I do not stare at it inappropriately, but I have ADD and its GREAT having my grocery list with me every time- I used to forget it at home. And my little reminder app is a life saver. And I love the calendar synced with my husbands. I sit in front of a computer all day and swore I'd never use all of this stuff- and truly don't want to do assorted computer junk when I'm not at the office, but the GPS is invaluable (I have no sense of direction) and its so nice to be able to play crossword puzzles when i'm stuck at the doctor's office...