Can you handle being without your smartphone?

[BandOfBrothers]

Can you handle being without your smartphone?

Apparently we now have a definition for this called - Nomophobia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomophobia

I know if I've ever left home and accidentally left my phone at home I've felt lost most of the day.

It's just not being able to be contacted but the sheer amount of information in the device such as reminders and calendar entries !

Have you ever left yours at home and felt lost without it and perhaps returned to collect it ?

Forgotten to put it on charge overnight and had to wait until it charged up ?

[froggerty]

My answer is yes, most definiteley. The only real advantage of a mobile phone is it's convenience and usefulness in a situation where you encounter any difficulties when out and about, that is of course if you can get a signal!, if you break down in your vehicle, a medical or other emergency etc., there is really no other practical reason. I suspect that most people have an answer phone at home and the bulk of any calls made and received are evenings and weekends when most people are at home. If I need to do a 'big' shop, I make a list and write it down, if I have appointments, I write it down and enter it in my diary, If I want to listen to music, I turn on the transistor radio. How did everyone manage before mobile phones?, quite well and still were able to communicate with one another. More than three quarters of mobile phone 'features' are not essential to life, just a distraction from real life.

[BandOfBrothers]

Thank you for your opinion and of course your correct.

How did people manage before tech ?

Ask some of the younger generation who have grown up with this tech and they'd probably raise an eyebrow and look at you in astonishment.

Personally I suffer a little from memory loss so having reminders , notes and calendar entires helps me to mould my days and weeks.

Yes I could write these down in a diary but if it was lost or damaged Id be totally lost.

At least this information I store in my iPhone uploads to iCloud and DropBox so I can retrieve it.

Again thank you for your own insights.

[jeffkinn]

I never leave home with my mobile and when at home it's never far from me. I receive a lot of emails for both work and pleasure purposes. I haven't kept a paper diary for who knows how long. Everything is electronic and syncs with desktop computers as well as the cloud.

I keep to do lists on the phone - reminders of tasks and appointments/meetings. Notes from those meetings are on the phone as well. All synced to desktops and the cloud. Everything uses a Hosted Exchange email account for mail, contacts, diary, notes and tasks.

All my music is on the phone and thousands of family photos. If I want to know anything I either ask Siri or Google. If I'm watching telly I often use IMDB to remember where I saw such and such. I use it to keep track of tennis scores all year around using the ATP app and during Grand Slams I download the specific app for the event.

I don't think I'be ever left home without it for more than a few minutes and if I did leave for a day out I'd go home and get it. 

I also use it as a phone and I rarely use the landline at home to call anyone.

I use Whatsapp all the time to stay in touch with my 4 adult children whether at home or out. I use Facebook and Twitter all of the time as well.

If I'm out and about I use the Tube Map app and Google Maps a lot to help me travel. I use the calculator and currency rate trackers a lot as well.

75% of the features may not be useful to some people but they definitely are mission critical to me.

Am I addicted? Yes! It is an essential business tool for me? Yes! Would I be without it? No!

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi jeffkinn


Certainly sounds like your very much attached to your devices as I am.

A lot of what you say is mirrored by my wants and needs too.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with my adult children too and to view those all new special moment snaps of my two grandchildren.

😎

[jeffkinn]

I have one grandson and they live a 3 hour drive away so we don't get to see them anywhere near as often as I'd like. Whatsapp allows me to see photos and videos of the little darling pretty much every day, let alone Skype for chatting.

I'm a heavy power user and the phone is always on and always with me. Yet I never use more than 2GB even though I have a 7GB plan. 

I now buy all my phones unlocked and sim free and have a SIMO plan from VF as that suits my needs perfectly. I can't remember the last time I waited 2 years to change my phone. Perhaps when I went from the iPhone 4 to the Galaxy S3.

[BandOfBrothers]

Wow what I could do with a 7Gb Data plan !

I like to watch  keynotes and Un boxings and end user reviews on YouTube Etc.

I'm fortunate to not have my family that far away but like you say these apps come into play so much nowadays which is one of the reasons Id miss not having my iPhone or iPad with me.

I too buy Un locked typically from my local  Store. I sell my previous phone back to the store and use that to help towards the cost of the new version. But only if the new version offers more under its hood. I'm not into buying a new version just because it's new. 😄

I'm a Payg user with accounts on the four main Networks and one on a MVNO. I don't like to be tied into a long contract and as such if one network is having issues in a particular area I'm in a position to be able to swap sims.

So if you have that amount of Data left over each month how about borrowing me some. Lol. 😉

[jeffkinn]

I'm usually on Wi Fi if I'm on site with a client or at home so if I watch something in YouTube (which isn't very often) I'm not usually using mobile data.

I also use the phone as an entertainment device. I listen to podcasts from the BBC and also audio books from Audible to pass the time when I'm on the train in and out of London. I don't play games but I have a couple of puzzles I play a lot when on the train listening to something - 2048 is flavour of the month at the moment.

[hrym]

I'm not a heavy user, but I still wouldn't be without a decent smartphone.  Even though I could get by on PAYG, I still prefer a contract so that I know I'm not going to run out of credit suddenly.  I've only once been in an emergency situation (shredded tyre) and I was in the middle nowhere with no mobile signal and no habitation for several miles!   The two occasions when I needed to respond to a business email the same day have made it all worthwhile, though.

The truth is that we managed perfectly well before smartphones were around, but you could say that about anything - even indoor sanitation.  :smileysurprised:   And, yes, I haven't used a paper diary in I don't know how long.   Having everything sync'd and backed up online is a boon.  Yes, that could go down, but you can have two cloud services for the really important stuff.

I haven't even mentioned having a handy camera for times when I don't want to carry extra bulk.

So, yes, I could live without my phone, but it would require a major rethink and be damned inconvenient.

[Ben_H]

I'm not going to lie, the title of this post put me in a cold sweat!

While I may remember the days before mobiles, I appreciate how convenient it is to have so many tools and functions on such a small device.

I sometimes holiday on my own abroad, so it's a blessing to have things like GPS maps, a camera and even boarding passes to hand.