Late 30s here and can confirm. Went until I was 16 with zero technology besides Yahoo chat, MSN Messenger and Newgrounds.com. Then got a flip phone which I used mainly for my pizza delivery job. Other than that, hung out with friends and did the dumbest stuff imaginable, not a phone in sight.
I saw a doc not long ago where a guy was in prison for 7 or 8 years - while cell phones and social media was in the middle of really amping up. He said the biggest surprise for him when he got out was seeing 3 out of 4 people looking at their phones everywhere he went.
Most people did not grow up without phones. I know it's a bit pedantic, but people grew up without SMART phones. Most people on this website and I'd say most people successful under 35 grew up with access to the internet, though.
I am 29. I have never had a cell phone, and never felt the need to have one. I've never been in a position where I've needed to call someone, or needed to be available to someone, where I wasn't already sitting next to a landline. Plus, I'm a miser.
I’m chuckling a little bit as someone who would be considered part of the Xennials (born 1983). Your comment about friends not getting cellphones until high school is what got me. I didn’t get a cellphone until nearly the end of university. From my observations going back for my MSc a couple years after getting my BSc, university life with and without cellphones is dramatically different.
Social life is impossible without the mainstream technology.
I've never owned a cell phone nor ever had a social media account in my life. Sure, it gets me the occasional eye roll but trust me, my social life is just fine.
They skipped right over getting a dumbphone or a crippled Android device.
I drive a 30 year old car through the southwest US. I'm resourceful, but I'm not careless. I'll continue to carry a phone in case of breakdowns.
A few years ago my checking account was drained while I was on vacation. It was pretty nice having a phone with a cell number that matched what was registered with my bank.
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Delete social media off your phone. A smartphone without social media is a tool. A smartphone with social media is a prison.
I haven't had a cell phone since 2004... I was deployed to Afghanistan that year and we weren't allowed to bring phones with us, so I just shut it off and left it at home. While there I noticed that people could be killed just based on LLVI "intelligence" which I found somewhat scary, so I didn't turn my phone back on when I returned.
I've missed basically the entire camera-phone age and certainly the entire smartphone age, and I have to concur with the author that it is pretty wonderful. Also he's correct in that when people find out you have no cell phone, they tend to look at you like you have 3 heads.
I suspect that one day we will reach a point when some serious things are impossible without owning a cell phone (like voting, transacting over the Internet, etc) which in my view will be a serious loss of freedom for me... in the meantime I'm very happy with my lifestyle and I plan to hold out as long as I can.
I got a smartphone a couple of years ago. The only real difference for me is I no longer bring a camera around on shorter trips, and having a map app was helpful when I was living abroad.
Life with a dumb phone was fine. I guess sometimes I had to type urls people would send me into my computer. Near the end it was a bit annoying when people would send me five texts in a row, or when people wanted to be super loose with their plans. Planning social stuff has become a lot looser, I noticed, in the last five years because of constant texting.
If you’re considering getting a dumbphone, all I can say is, it’s easier than you think. Carry a little notebook around with you, wear a watch, ask people for directions. I wasn’t shunned by my friends or anything like that. I’m in my early 30s and I even had a landline when I was in college. It wasn’t a problem. You do need a printer, though.
I’m 38 and I’ve never owned a smartphone. In 2012, my boss made me get a cellphone so he could stay in touch with me at a conference. I bought a flip phone for $15 at Office Depot and used that for awhile. Overall, outside of work it was pretty pointless. No calls were ever worth answering and the T9 texting was annoying.
I have a Google Voice number that I use for calls/texts from my iPod Touch or iPad. For awhile it worked with my 3G Kindle so I could text on the go without Wi-Fi. Then Amazon turned off the free 3G and I haven’t had cellular internet since.
This whole idea that being without a phone is somehow liberating — and just not using it is definitely not as pure and wholly amazing as being completely without it — is to me a silly and predictable response to the very real drawbacks of high tech modern life.
Phones have value. That’s why people use them. Pretending they don’t and that we’re all brainwashed doesn’t change that reality.
Here’s an example: I want to take public transport to a grocery store. I walk out the door. I don’t have my phone.
First of all, if I don’t check the opening hours of the store before leaving, I now have no idea. The whole trip may be for nothing.
Secondly, when planning my trip, my phone would help me suggest what line and where to switch, if necessary. It would alert me in real time of any issues, again with alternate suggestions. When traveling: no music. No audio books. Just the organic, wonderful and inspiring sounds of the city. Not to mention all the wonderful people on public transport you’re aching to know better.
When I get to the store, I may have forgotten my shopping list. And even if I brought it, I have no way of getting in contact with someone that may want to add something to it. If I find a new product I don’t recognize and I’m unsure of whether it’s overpriced, I can’t compare to any other vendor. I also can’t check reviews from other people.
I’m sorry if I sound cynical, but sometimes I feel like the spread (but not necessarily the preaching) of this whole luddite idea of smartphones ruining us is mainly fueled by people young enough to have grown up with them being everywhere, because I’m in my mid 30s and I remember what life was like without smartphones, and for the most part, it sucked.
I saw a doc not long ago where a guy was in prison for 7 or 8 years - while cell phones and social media was in the middle of really amping up. He said the biggest surprise for him when he got out was seeing 3 out of 4 people looking at their phones everywhere he went.
That being said, I'll leave one of my favorite short movies of the sad state that we've come to as a society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QugooaNRnsk
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