I don't want a smartphone!!

harllee said:
OP here, we were told you could not download, it had to be used on the smartphone, weird. In any event we could not download it on the iPad. I called the charity and they are going to have tickets for me to pick up at the events. First they said that could not be done, later they called me back (I guess after they looked up my donation record) and said they would have tickets for me at the event. Many of this charity's main donors are old folks like me, probably their phone is ringing off the hook with people who have the same problem I do. We have heard from another couple with the same issue who does not have a smartphone. This is a good way for a charity to lose donors in my opinion.
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Talk about not knowing your target audience and alienating donors! What were they thinking?
 
It was only 3 years ago that I got my first cell phone. It's a low-end "flip" phone I rarely use and pay $5-$10 a month. I have given the number to maybe 10 people yet most of the calls and texts I get are junk from strange, numbers. It is cumbersome to text from it, but I found a partial solution to that:


I found on line a way to send texts from my desktop PC. This has solved or partially 2 separate problems which have arose recently. The first is when I have to text my ladyfriend. She has a smart Phone but isn't willing to pay extra for the internet services; her phone is basically a flip phone but with an unlimited calling and texting plan and it is easy to text from it. She can't text a reply to my PC but she can call me or text back to my cell phone. So the texting from my end is free and easy to do, like sending an email.


I have also begun using my PC to text my best (male) friend, the snake-bit one I have written about over the years. He has a smart phone which he uses to send and receive emails. But for some strange reason, he has had trouble getting my emails both there and on his desktop PC. To get around that, I have begun sending him texts from my PC which arrive the same way on his desktop and smart phone. Unlike my LF, he can send replies to me and my desktop which arrive like emails.
 
OP here. DH and I have discussed this smartphone thing and at least for now we just don't see a need for it. We retired early (early 50s) and I am trying to defer SS until 70. We are comfortable but we live on a pretty tight budget and we think we would rather spend our $$ on something other than a smart phone. We have just finished some house cleaning and our knees are hurting so we are thinking that any extra money we get should go to a housekeeper!
 
Sue J said:
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..."

L
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Bold emphasis added.

The case for a simple flip-phone is a lot stronger if one also has an iPad or similar tablet device.
 
It is true that many people have become too attached to their smartphones and stare at them throughout the day, interrupting a conversation each time they hear a sound coming from their phone. That is a bit over the top for me.

But that doesn't mean that if you buy a smartphone you will become one of those people. My sister refused to buy a smartphone for many years, insisting she had no need for one. She eventually bought a very inexpensive one when she found a plan that would only cost around $13/month. Once she began using it she realized she was mistaken in holding off for so long.

There are just so many things that a smartphone can do to make your life easier. And it's good for our brains to be constantly learning new things. I think it's a mistake in today's times to not have one. You are just putting yourself at a disadvantage.
 
OP here, i looked at Jitterbug. We would pay quite a bit more than we do now. Chuckanut is right about the iPad. We have an iPad with cellular data ($20 per month). We can do most anything a smartphone can do with it--GPS, Uber, etc. We always take it in the car with us when traveling. And we love the screen size to read the newspaper, books, etc. We can even watch videos on it. I guess we could download baseball tickets on it and take it to a baseball game but it is a little cumbersome. Having 1 MacBook and 1 iPad are all the computers we need. We think that we are paying enough for technology ($50 for 2 cellphones, $20 for iPad, $50 for home wifi). $120/month seems to be plenty to pay for technology for us and that is all we have budgeted.
 
I know a few people who have one very expensive smart phone - the ones with the BIG screens. They have a plan with unlimited everything. It is the only computing device they own. No tablet, no desktop, no laptop, nothing but that big expensive phone.

Oh, 5 will get you 10 that half of them don't have the thing backed up. :banghead:
 
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harllee said:
I feel like I am being forced into getting a smartphone. DH and I both have good, serviceable dumb phones. I sometimes have difficulty hearing over the phone and my experience is that I can hear much better with the dumb phone than a smartphone. We have an old plan with Verizon for under $50 per month (for 2 dumb phones) (including all taxes and fees) that gives us al the voice minutes and texts we need. We spend our summers in a mountainous area that is only serviced by Verizon. When I look at the Verizon plans for smartphones, they would cost ALOT more than the $50 we are paying now for 2 phones plus there would be the cost of the smartphone itself.



We have a MacBook pro we use at home that does everything we need on the internet plus we have an iPad we take when traveling. We see people with smartphones who walk around looking at them all the time and can't even eat at a restaurant without constantly checking their smartphones! We don't want that. Some of our friends/family have smartphones (costing a small fortune), but many still have dumb phones and we have a few friends with no cell phone at all!



Today I got a card in the mail from a charitable organization to which I have been a donor for years. The charity was having a donor appreciation event with a free nice lunch and free tickets to a baseball game. When I tried to sign up online to attend the lunch and game I found out I had to have a smartphone to receive the tickets for entry to the lunch and the baseball game. I was disappointed that I would not be able to attend so I called the charity and explained I had no smartphone. The first person I talked to was no help and seemed surprised that there a actually people in the world without a smart phone. I later received a call from someone else at the charity who apologized and said they would personally make sure I got tickets to the events (they must have looked up how much $$ I have given to the organization over the years!).



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 don't want a darn smartphone!
Click to expand...



I don’t have a cell phone.
 
Chuckanut said:
I know a few people who have one very expensive smart phone - the ones with the BIG screens. They have a plan with unlimited everything. It is the only computing device they own. No tablet, no desktop, no laptop, nothing but that big expensive phone.

Oh, 5 will get you 10 that half of them don't have the thing backed up. :banghead:
Click to expand...
Those seem like they would do everything in a pinch, but nothing well. I wouldn't like the poor portability of those phones compared to a regular smartphone. And I wouldn't like the small keyboard and display compared to my laptop. I can swype on my phone pretty well, but I much prefer a laptop keyboard and screen. Actually I like a full sized keyboard and desktop display better but a laptop is a reasonable compromise. With emails servers and cloud data I don't see a reason to have just one device.
 
I have a hard time remembering what it was like to travel without a smartphone. The GPS application by itself makes life so much easier, and I go so many more places without having to spend time with paper maps and transit schedules - it's just all there for you in seconds. Booking places to stay and car rentals on the fly, booking ride shares in bigger cities, connecting up with friends I'm meeting - it's just a useful information tool. I do miss paper maps sometimes, though.

Then again, I rarely use mine as a 'phone' at all. I'd be fine with a smartphone with no voice capability.
 
harllee said:
I feel like I am being forced into getting a smartphone. DH and I both have good, serviceable dumb phones. I sometimes have difficulty hearing over the phone and my experience is that I can hear much better with the dumb phone than a smartphone. We have an old plan with Verizon for under $50 per month (for 2 dumb phones) (including all taxes and fees) that gives us al the voice minutes and texts we need. We spend our summers in a mountainous area that is only serviced by Verizon. When I look at the Verizon plans for smartphones, they would cost ALOT more than the $50 we are paying now for 2 phones plus there would be the cost of the smartphone itself.

We have a MacBook pro we use at home that does everything we need on the internet plus we have an iPad we take when traveling. We see people with smartphones who walk around looking at them all the time and can't even eat at a restaurant without constantly checking their smartphones! We don't want that. Some of our friends/family have smartphones (costing a small fortune), but many still have dumb phones and we have a few friends with no cell phone at all!

Today I got a card in the mail from a charitable organization to which I have been a donor for years. The charity was having a donor appreciation event with a free nice lunch and free tickets to a baseball game. When I tried to sign up online to attend the lunch and game I found out I had to have a smartphone to receive the tickets for entry to the lunch and the baseball game. I was disappointed that I would not be able to attend so I called the charity and explained I had no smartphone. The first person I talked to was no help and seemed surprised that there a actually people in the world without a smart phone. I later received a call from someone else at the charity who apologized and said they would personally make sure I got tickets to the events (they must have looked up how much $$ I have given to the organization over the years!).

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 don't want a darn smartphone!
Click to expand...

Check out the t-mobile post on this forum. 55+. Unlimited talk, text,data.
I pay $60 month. Two lines.
 
shortstop14 said:
I have a hard time remembering what it was like to travel without a smartphone. The GPS application by itself makes life so much easier, and I go so many more places without having to spend time with paper maps and transit schedules - it's just all there for you in seconds. Booking places to stay and car rentals on the fly, booking ride shares in bigger cities, connecting up with friends I'm meeting - it's just a useful information tool. I do miss paper maps sometimes, though.

Then again, I rarely use mine as a 'phone' at all. I'd be fine with a smartphone with no voice capability.
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We do all that travel stuff with our iPad. We always travel with the iPad. I do need good voice capability. I probably average actually talking on my cellphone an hour a day so i need a cell phone with good voice. I talk every day to my elderly mother, she says she can hear me on my flip cellphone much better than she can hear my 2 sisters who call her on smartphones.
 
wolf said:
Check out the t-mobile post on this forum. 55+. Unlimited talk, text,data.
I pay $60 month. Two lines.
Click to expand...

Looking at the t-mobile coverage map there does not appear to be any coverage in the mountains of North Carolina where we spend our summers. So far the only coverage we have found there is Verizon and even that is spotty sometimes. Friends who visit us with other phones like AT&T, Sprint (and I think one had T-Mobile) could not get any cell coverage at our mountain cabin. We get pretty good reception with our Verizon flip cellphones in our mountain cabin.
 
harllee said:
Looking at the t-mobile coverage map there does not appear to be any coverage in the mountains of North Carolina where we spend our summers. So far the only coverage we have found there is Verizon and even that is spotty sometimes. Friends who visit us with other phones like AT&T, Sprint (and I think one had T-Mobile) could not get any cell coverage at our mountain cabin. We get pretty good reception with our Verizon flip cellphones in our mountain cabin.
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I'd be tempted to get T-Mobile anyway (or Cricket Wireless like I have), and just go without cell phone coverage during summer vacations to your mountain cabin. You have a perfect excuse to REALLY get away from it all and not even answer the phone while you are up there.

:dance:

I went from an iPhone on Verizon, to a free LG smartphone from Cricket Wireless with 2 GB data (that I never use), for $30/month. It is like having a dumbphone because I almost only use it for phone calls. After a few years, the novelty of having an iPhone wore off and I just don't seem to need the internet when I am not in front of my laptop. I get good coverage from Cricket, but I believe it is on the AT&T network so it probably wouldn't work at your cabin in the mountains.
 
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Anyone else on this Forum who still has a dumb phone?
Click to expand...

Count me in your group. We have a home phone as our sole voice contact with the outside world. If I am not around, voice mail takes a message. I have yet to find a need for a cell phone, even though most of the world has seen a need for them.

On occasion when others have found out that I am not attached to a cell phone, they inquire as if can not afford one. This is usually pretty funny to me as I have a healthy AA @ VG that is not obvious.

In the future I may notice a personal need to be instantly attached to the rest of the world. At that time I will rush over to the nearest cell phone joint and get in line for a device.
 
mickeyd said:
Count me in your group. We have a home phone as our sole voice contact with the outside world. If I am not around, voice mail takes a message. I have yet to find a need for a cell phone, even though most of the world has seen a need for them.

On occasion when others have found out that I am not attached to a cell phone, they inquire as if can not afford one. This is usually pretty funny to me as I have a healthy AA @ VG that is not obvious.

In the future I may notice a personal need to be instantly attached to the rest of the world. At that time I will rush over to the nearest cell phone joint and get in line for a device.
Click to expand...

Good move!!! I think that is so cool that you don't have a cell phone at all. I did sort of the opposite, by eliminating my landline which charged $36? $37? (I forgot) each month. That was more than the $30/month that I am paying for my cell phone, which also has free voicemail.
 
athena53 said:
I resist this all I can. I love my Ting plan, which uses the Sprint network and is pay-as-you go; typically my monthly bill is around $20 because I use mostly Wi-fi and for long conversations I use the MagicJack landline. So--- I give a business my cell number, ostensibly for their delivery messages and to save myself the inconvenience of telephone tag- and next thing I know I'm getting a follow-up call with a Satisfaction Survey or promotional texts ("Athena53, how does 50% off installation on your next window replacements sound?"). I seethe at these- they actually can end up costing me money if they send me into the next usage tier. Small amounts, sure, but why should I pay for their unwanted intrusions?:nonono:
Click to expand...

Also happy with Ting. I HATE text messages for the same reason.
 
OP here, I don't have a landline at all--not at my primary residence or mountain cabin so I need a cellphone with good voice capability that I can use both places and I think that has to be Verizon.

Some interesting statistics I found from Pew Research Center (2018): 95% of U.S. adults own some sort of cell phone. 77% of U.S. adults own a smart phone but for those over 65 (that's me!), only 46% own a smartphone. So these businesses (like my charity experience in my original post) that require a smartphone to use their services, they are going to miss out on a substantial number of customers, especially in the over 65 crowd. I also saw on Google that there are quite a few young folks dropping their smartphones and going back to flip phones because they felt they were getting addicted to their smartphones. Maybe flip phones will become the new hipster thing? I live in a college town and have seen a few college students with flip phones recently! And by the way, Warren Buffet uses a flip phone (but I guess he has people to get his directions, etc).
 
I use my smartphone frequently, sometimes to even make a voice call... I do find the whole “nose buried in the phone” thing a bit annoying, but frankly it’s not that big a deal, except for the a$$holes doing it while driving.
 
harllee said:
OP here, I don't have a landline at all--not at my primary residence or mountain cabin so I need a cellphone with good voice capability that I can use both places and I think that has to be Verizon.

Some interesting statistics I found from Pew Research Center (2018): 95% of U.S. adults own some sort of cell phone. 77% of U.S. adults own a smart phone but for those over 65 (that's me!), only 46% own a smartphone. So these businesses (like my charity experience in my original post) that require a smartphone to use their services, they are going to miss out on a substantial number of customers, especially in the over 65 crowd. I also saw on Google that there are quite a few young folks dropping their smartphones and going back to flip phones because they felt they were getting addicted to their smartphones. Maybe flip phones will become the new hipster thing? I live in a college town and have seen a few college students with flip phones recently! And by the way, Warren Buffet uses a flip phone (but I guess he has people to get his directions, etc).
Click to expand...

1. Motorola flip phone (17+ years) on Verizon network; it was post-paid but 15 years ago I switched it to pre-paid; can't do that anymore; telephone # on my resume

2. LG smartphone on Tello (Sprint network); it's Virgin Mobile badged; use it as throw-away # for Craigslist etc; $10 gives me service for the entire year; 3¢/min for call; 1¢/min per text; don't use data as Sprint service stinks

3. Motorola smartphone (3+ years) suppose to be used on Verizon pre-paid network; fortunately able to used with Tracfone on Verizon network; will be switching to Red Pocket but still on Verizon network; not keeping #
I have used it a few times as GPS.

4. LG flip phone (10+ years) on T-mobile; it is on a grandfathered plan; will be porting it over to Tracfone (Verizon network) in May as T-mobile's service stinks
I recently bought a Tracfone flip phone (on Verzion network)
$20 for the phone and $75 for year with 1500/1500/1500 to replace #4.

Two months ago, my mom bought a friend a LG smartphone with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB drive space for $60+ tax on HSN which included 1500/1500/1500. It was a steal.
 
harllee said:
So these businesses (like my charity experience in my original post) that require a smartphone to use their services, they are going to miss out on a substantial number of customers, especially in the over 65 crowd.
Click to expand...

I think you're making an awfully big deal out of what I'm reading is one incident. I've never *had* to do something by smart phone that I should've been able to do another way. I've always been able to print out tickets or whatever. Stick with your flip phone if that's what you want to do, but don't paint the world as forcing you into a smart phone because of one charity event.
 
RunningBum, you are right. I let the response I got initially from the charity bug me..as a fairly substantial donor (as least to my mind) to the charity I felt disrespected. If that continues to happen I will not give to this charity any more. I am not going to get a smartphone at this time because I personally don't need one. I just started this thread to see if others had similar experiences. Obviously most people on this Forum have smartphones and like them. I will move on....
 
harllee said:
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 don't want a darn smartphone!
Click to expand...

I've got a dumb phone. It's fine for me. I don't need a smartphone. I make phone calls, I text, I take some pictures. That's about it. People seem surprised when they find out I don't have a smartphone (and don't even carry my dumb phone most of the time). I haven't been socially excluded from anything yet, but I can tell people think I'm a little backwards or weird (which I am, and I'm fine with that).

I don't need a smartphone. I don't need to be plugged in to the internet all the time. I've got a desktop PC to connect to the internet, if I need that. I don't need to walk around tethered to Facebook or google or whatever.

I saw a young guy walking through the park today, staring at his phone. I saw him later -- still staring at his phone. It was a beautiful day, gorgeous and 72, and he's got his head in his phone. Whatever. I think there's something addictive about them. I think (know) there are "attention engineers" who specifically design apps to give you little dopamine hits that keep you coming back for more.

Anyhow, yes I have a dumbphone, and it's all I need, thank you very much.
 
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