On never owning a cellphone

[Magical Realist]

See? I'm not so weird afterall! Although maybe I should invest in a cheap flip phone. You know...like when I get swept off to the hospital for 6 days! lol

The reason I never owned a smartphone was its audacious and unbeckoned intrusion into our personal lives. To me it is being hyperconnected--so connected and dependent on a gadget that you hardly have time for yourself. I cherish my privacy and my solitude. And when I am physically somewhere, that's the only place I want to be. Not on the internet, or talking to someone on the phone, or texting. We have to have the freedom to say no to the next new technology, even when everyone else is thoughtlessly jumping on the bandwagon. And I gladly opted out.

Here's 16 celebrities who live without smartphones:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharris1/...NlScS-rr-g

[Syne]

I do have a smart phone, but guess what, you can choose to turn off your data, not answers calls, whether from known or unknown people.
It's not difficult. When I'm out, I only use it as a clock (before I got into watches) and for my shopping list.

[C C]

[...] Here's 16 celebrities who live without smartphones:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharris1/...NlScS-rr-g

"Kate Beckinsale is 'not much interested in an iPhone.' She prefers a flip phone, like the red Verizon LG she had as of 2016."

Hang on to 2016 and before. It's actually difficult to find a simple flip phone in this decade. They all have lower-grade smartphone operating systems installed on them with nagging apps and updates.

[confused2]

Not having any friends cuts down the number of unwanted calls considerably.

[Yazata]

Not having any friends cuts down the number of unwanted calls considerably.

Works for me.

[Magical Realist]

Not having any friends cuts down the number of unwanted calls considerably.

Not having any friends also cuts down on the number of any calls at all, essentially making a portable phone useless except for emergencies.

[Yazata]

I have a pretty good unlocked Samsung Galaxy. It's got a $15/month Tello phone plan that works great. But I find that I rarely use it. When I do, I usually use it from home, as if it was my old hard wired phone that I got rid of a decade or more ago. (I don't know if hard-wired phones are even available in my area any more.)

What I carry with me is an old LG phone that I don't really worry very much about losing or breaking. The LG phone doesn't have a cell plan, but cell phones without a service plan still work as emergency 911 phones. I can look at websites when wifi is available. And like Syne, I find that I mostly use it as a clock. So it's like a little wifi connected tablet computer in my pocket. I even have a few ebooks on it. But without the cell plan, it doesn't intrude into my life.