Reply With QuoteSurely a smart phone with all notifications turned off apart from the two you want? All the rest is a choice you've made.
I'm very close to ditching my smartphone and reverting back to a "dumbphone" but there's a few things that will catch me...
These days on my phone I have; Phonecalls, Texts, Whatsapp, Viber, Email, LinkedIn, Cryptocurrency, Reddit, News Updates, etc. It never ends, there's something coming into the phone every 15 minutes and I'm done with it.
Your phone absolutely robs time off those family members around you and its far too easy to get sucked into all the nonsense. I have a young family and its extremely easy to drift away from the kids onto whatever ping noise comes from your jacket pocket.
My brother in law went from a smartphone to a very very basic builders type phone and he swears by this.
I am a member of a couple of very good groups, one on Whatsapp (a wide bunch of work colleagues), one on Viber (a group of road cyclists). Id hate to lose access to those 2 groups but everything else could go as I could get access via Laptop when required.
2 questions;
1 - Has anyone done similar with success ? Or have you drifted back to a smartphone.
2 - Is there any phone that is 'dumb' but with Whatsapp/Viber functionality ?
Surely a smart phone with all notifications turned off apart from the two you want? All the rest is a choice you've made.
Or the other option is to stick it into airplane mode when you're spending some quality time with the kids.
Or better still, ignore it ;)
I recommend airplane mode unless you need to use the phone.
Thanks for above. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for someone to assess routinely whether 'airplane mode' should be on or off, the bad habits will creep back and I fear those bad habits are becoming a society norm.
Everyone must know the temptation to 'attend' the phone. I see 100's of people doing same every month in public. About 3 months ago I had to take a panicked toddler off a climbing frame after her father was engrossed in his phone. Scary stuff.
I think it's a trend in society to drift back into your phone with great regularity and its a hard temptation to kill.
The reward just isn't there; the phones are great for maps/banking/current affairs etc. but a lot of us are sleepwalking into the void I reckon.
For me I'm slowly leaning towards the 'kill it' option.
A smartphone is useful to me when out and about as a way of keeping in contact (WhatsApp mainly), taking photographs, navigating unfamiliar locations, tracking the school bus and so on. I never have it in my office and when I'm at home I stick it on charge and forget about it unless it rings, which generally means an urgent issue to deal with.
I think the phone is as much of a nuisance as we let it.
For me it's almost like a fidget spinner, if I'm not looking at it I am rolling it in my hand. The only time I get away from it is on a long haul flight when it's used purely for music. Normally on holidays in the US I purchase a cheap prepay phone for local calls but the second we enter anywhere with free WiFi my smartphone is back in my hand again.
I did consider the Nokia remake with basic functions but couldn't go through with it in the end. My phone owns me because i have no self control.
delete all of the apps with the exception of viber and whatsapp. The camera on phones is such a useful tool for me I couldn't give it up.
I've never graduated from a basic mobile phone nor would I want to.
Although I love the internet etc etc I keep access to my desktop or tablet. I've been with people whose phone keeps going off (including my wife!) and boy, is it annoying!
Cheers,
Neil.
I occasionally use an old Nokia (I’ve got an iPhone) and think it would be better to go back to it.
However i then think of the (now) essential things my phone does for me such as maps banking etc and decide it isn’t worth it
I tried switching to a new Nokia 3310 last year as I quite liked the idea - especially the battery life.
After a week I gave up and went back to my Samsung Galaxy. I missed my emails and the other functions too much.
Delete the apps that annoy you.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Get on a pay as you go tariff - that’ll soon cut your usage!
Do what I do, if it’s an iPhone, at the week end I set it to sleep mode so it’s only a smartphone for an hour each day evening. That way I still check emails but I don’t get disturbed by constant pinging. In France it is actually illegal to make employees receive emails to a mobile out of office hours, each company has to have an opt out method for personal and company mobiles.
I started this thread a few years back, some interesting posts.
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ht=Downgrading
Funny, I was thinking of going back to my Motorola RAZR (the flip top model) which I kept as an emergency phone. I've been picking it up and messing with it for a couple of weeks now and can't make my mind up.
Ditch the phone altogether.
Radical i know as i want to do this but can not as my bank requires i have one for security notifications, the builders merchant i use will not allow an order without one and other weird requirements of modern society that mean life becomes harder without one.
i have however relegated it to the lounge key bowl and now only use it for specific purposes.
All my friends know to call me on the house phone and the computer manages all my other contact issues.
We all (well if you are over a certain age!) survived without one and they are the needless sucker of time for crap that is not needed.
Friends and children visiting all abide by house rules....phones do not get played with in company. Oddly enough all enter into the spirit of it and the children surprised me by really getting in to it.
So .....keep your current phone and re-train yourself. :)
Just turn off the audible notifications or set them to only activate during working hours, off it better though.
A fella at work tried to do the same thing, but his provider messed him about. I have 2 phones the work one (Galaxy S7) gets switched off when I shut down my PC at work, the charger stays in the office. My personal phone an Apple 5S, goes onto mute most evenings and most of the weekend. You can't de-invent technology but you can manage it. As with the TV ...just switch it off!
I’m one of the few people who hardly uses a mobile phone, I hate the damned things and way people have become so addicted to them. They’re fine for making the odd call when necessary, but that’s as far as it goes for me.
Walking around whilst texting looks rediculous, it’s dangerous and it’s totally unnecessary, but folks are so addicted to their phones they can’t switch them off or put them down, they can’t resist the tittle-tattle-texting that’s become an epidemic. In the early days it was the business-babblers who talked endlessly on them, they felt important whilst the rest of us thought they looked (and sounded) like wankers.......a view I still hold. Nowadays everyone’s at it, and it’s not a good look.
Facebook, whatsap, instagram..........not for me. I use e-mail when I’m around a computer and I use a tablet in the house. That'll do for me, If someone really has something important to tell me they’ll phone me at home.
Perhaps a few people should try doing without their phones for a while, they may find it liberating.
Paul
100% agree, that's exactly my view. It's a tool to just use when you need it for making calls, I have no desire to live my life through the damned thing.Originally Posted by walkerwek1958
Walking through a town trying to dodge the "smartphone zombies" who are glued to the things & not looking where they're going is a predictably boring part of life now.
Even people buying cars these days seem more interested in how it'll link to their 'phone than how the car actually is !
A few years ago, my daughter did some work experience in Ghana.
She had a smartphone, but I advised her not to take it, mostly because I didn't want to pay for Gigs for roaming data in deepest Africa!
She took a basic SE T610 we had, but the charger packed up, so bought a really simply Nokia, which she still uses today.
The most advanced technology it has is SMS, but the battery last her over a week!
So, it can be done, even for someone bought up on tech - Personally, I'd miss all those worthless alerts, but I have no life!
M
I usually have an iphone on my travels . To be fair its not just a phone.
Camera , ipod , email , note taking , gps , web browsing , kindle.
It is a good bit of kit. I did carry a couple of cheapo nokias for emergencies but I've given them away over the years.
Would love to be able to say get a Nokia (like the old ones) with a great camera and just WhatsApp, I could live with that phone.
Sat in a trampoline place last time I was home when I took my daughter and purposefully left the phone in the car, sat down with a coffee and a paper and periodically looked up to see the kids enjoying themselves and nearly all parents sat staring at their screens.
That video is very apt...
Still got a blue Motorola KRZR in my desk drawer! It was my favourite phone and used to just love the size and usability. Might have to get to out and charge it!
Unfortunately use my iPhone for house alarms, cameras etc so can't ditch it.
(OP Here).
So I was online at lunch intending to buy a Nokia 150; a £30 phone as simple as you can buy.
My colleague mentioned that phones like that are '2G' and that most networks are now 3G/4G and that the networks/SIM Card will either not be compatible (or not compatible for long more).
I stress here this was a pair of mechanical engineers talking so I'm not sure how true this is.
I can see various similar discussions online.
Can anyone comment on this ?
2G is still current in most of the world, however there are places that are looking to turn off this network and indeed 3G networks in the near future. Pretty sure that UK major players have committed until at least 2025.
I have never had a smartphone. Use a decade old Nokia. Works perfectly.
Indeed. I use airplane mode quite frequently.
I do not allow apps to send me notifications, only calls and texts give an alert. My phone is on silent while I am at work, if not on airplane mode due to limited signal draining the battery.
I am frequently guilty of forgetting to take it off silent mode...
Dave
At best more people will know where their walking!,instead of head down and walking into whatever.
Totally want to get back into a motorola razor, but too app driven these days for that to happen....
Just turn off mobile data, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. Your smartphone becomes a dumb phone, you can still make & receive calls and texts and the battery will last for ages. But if you do need to use the internet or Google maps you can easily turn them back on as required.
This article struck a cord:
http://www.raptitude.com/2018/02/its...-the-basement/
I miss the days when the phone, Internet, and camera were all separate devices.
I bought a cheap basic Nokia but returned it straight away though. It just felt cheaply made and poor quality compared to an iPhone. Whatsapp is also useful and not available on old style Nokias.
Last edited by vortgern; 20th February 2018 at 21:51.
On my smartphone I turned off all notifications after 6pm including emails or Whatsapp. I can also receive calls only from numbers on my family list.
This has more to do with social media than phones, but I felt it raises some valid points.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3E7hkPZ-HTk
Dave
Last edited by dforgrieve; 21st February 2018 at 01:17.
This is what I have - so I generally only check stuff when it suits me....
Ditch the phone altogether.
Radical i know as i want to do this but can not as my bank requires i have one for security notifications, the builders merchant i use will not allow an order without one and other weird requirements of modern society that mean life becomes harder without one.
i have however relegated it to the lounge key bowl and now only use it for specific purposes.
All my friends know to call me on the house phone and the computer manages all my other contact issues.
We all (well if you are over a certain age!) survived without one and they are the needless sucker of time for crap that is not needed.
Friends and children visiting all abide by house rules....phones do not get played with in company. Oddly enough all enter into the spirit of it and the children surprised me by really getting in to it.
So .....keep your current phone and re-train yourself. :)
I'm with you on this one. I have an old one (Ericson or maybe Nokia) in the glove box of the car but it's never switched on. I think I checked the charge (ISTR it was still at 100%) before doing the NC500 last year but that's it. If my bank demanded a mobile phone then I'd ditch them. Ditto the builders merchant I use (MKM). To the OP, another good reason to go back to a simple phone is battery life. I just couldn't get into the idea of a phone where you HAVE to charge it every single day or it's flat the next morning. It's bad enough having to charge my ereader every few weeks - a right chore! ;-)
interesting thread,i had my first phone in 1990,i have a smartphone now, but i own it, it dosent own me.its a tool and means of contact.i switch off internet access unless i want to use it.i dont do social media,lifes too good for me nowadays to waste it looking at a phone.i sometimes help young lads mend their cars,when the phone is constantly being fiddled with,i ask them,are we fixing the car or using the phone,we are not doing both!.
I really think its social media that controls youngsters these days rather than the mobile phone itself. I feel alot of people mix the two up (and I can sympathise), but without social media, smart phones are actually very useful (i use it on the tube to learn some vocab in a foreign language).
I wish I could go back to a basic phone but I need to track emails at least from 3 addresses for work purposes.
Maybe when I retire?
Got my first mobile in 1987 and now use an i phone a great bit of kit that i control not the other way round don’t want the app delete it or do not download it switch of mobile data or wi fix or just switch it of altogether i no longer have mine on when i go out to lunch or dinner but i love that i have certain apps like banking or sports ,the phone is just another tool use it to suit your agenda not the other way round.
Interesting thread and comments. I'm relatively young (31) and had my first phone when I was 16 (a Bosch that could hold 25 contacts and store 10 texts!!) I sometimes wonder how stuff got done in the not so distant past. We do seem to have become very reliant on them. They also seem to have become a device that, in my circle of friends at least, is rarely used for actually phoning people!
I just bought a new style Nokia 3310 don’t know if I’ll ever use it though.
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Chap at work has a Punkt phone; sms and calls only. says the battery lasts about 2 weeks. only issue is its only 2G and hes stuck with T mobile. he got it as a holiday phone but in the end binned the smart phone. sounds like a great idea!
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I have two phones. One for work, which is more or less my mobile computer, and one private. The private one is in DND mode most of the time.
TimeThoughts, if you can wait until May then you can relive the 90s (and aspirations of being in the Matrix if you're of a certain age!) with the release of an updated Nokia 8110 'Matrix' phone. 4G as well and limited app functionality, although doesn't mention WhatsApp or Viper as an option.
https://www.techradar.com/news/nokia-8110-4g
After thinking long and hard trying to justify a simpler phone I just came to the conclusion that my iphone is the best solution.
Just limit your usage on a smart phone if its worrying you. If you are that bothered leave it behind occasionally.
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