I exclusively use a Nokia flip phone, and have never used a smart phone as my daily driver. Carrying around something with that much potential for addiction in my pocket at all times scares me, and I’d rather save my willpower for more important decisions. I see the occasional boredom as a plus—being comfortable while alone with just your thoughts is a skill worth practicing. There are definite downsides though, especially now with QR code reading being a staple of going out. I also don’t like having to rely on others for navigation, google searches etc. (although the flip phone can do these poorly if required). I would recommend trialling a basic phone and perhaps keeping an old smartphone with no sim as a “work phone” for when you need it.
My experience is quite similar; never bought a smartphone and use just a Nokia phone with voice/SMS only. It’s not exactly like not having a phone at all, but in a typical day I don’t receive more than one message/call, and more often than not the phone remains completely silent for the whole day. I’ve watched friends managing their WhatsApp chats (and similar time-sucking services) and I’m still very much scared by the perspective of constantly being pinged for random reasons. With my old-fashioned phone I have to pay some cents for every message sent. I could change my tariff plan at any time, but so far I’ve choose to stick with the old tariff, because it’s a very strong incentive to send only messages that actually matter.
That said, I usually spend several hours a day working at my laptop and don’t travel very often. Even with a smartphone at hand, I would still prefer to work from my laptop if available (much bigger screen, no weight in my hand etc). Also, my colleagues are accustomed to emails and my parents are sort of smartphone-skepticals themselves; putting all toghether, my social pressure for getting into smartphones is pretty low. But it’s definitely possible to live without and I encourage to give it a try.
I exclusively use a Nokia flip phone, and have never used a smart phone as my daily driver. Carrying around something with that much potential for addiction in my pocket at all times scares me, and I’d rather save my willpower for more important decisions. I see the occasional boredom as a plus—being comfortable while alone with just your thoughts is a skill worth practicing. There are definite downsides though, especially now with QR code reading being a staple of going out. I also don’t like having to rely on others for navigation, google searches etc. (although the flip phone can do these poorly if required). I would recommend trialling a basic phone and perhaps keeping an old smartphone with no sim as a “work phone” for when you need it.
My experience is quite similar; never bought a smartphone and use just a Nokia phone with voice/SMS only. It’s not exactly like not having a phone at all, but in a typical day I don’t receive more than one message/call, and more often than not the phone remains completely silent for the whole day. I’ve watched friends managing their WhatsApp chats (and similar time-sucking services) and I’m still very much scared by the perspective of constantly being pinged for random reasons. With my old-fashioned phone I have to pay some cents for every message sent. I could change my tariff plan at any time, but so far I’ve choose to stick with the old tariff, because it’s a very strong incentive to send only messages that actually matter.
That said, I usually spend several hours a day working at my laptop and don’t travel very often. Even with a smartphone at hand, I would still prefer to work from my laptop if available (much bigger screen, no weight in my hand etc). Also, my colleagues are accustomed to emails and my parents are sort of smartphone-skepticals themselves; putting all toghether, my social pressure for getting into smartphones is pretty low. But it’s definitely possible to live without and I encourage to give it a try.