Do you sometimes feel too connected?

[Cyberdave]

Yesterday we were travelling, my wife's phone was always dinging, chiming or ringing. It seems like we are becoming addicted to being constantly in touch, up to date on the news or the latest scandal.

 

I started remembering the long rides on our bikes... mile after mile of solitude with just your own thoughts and the drone of the pipes. You'd check in at the end of the day or maybe not. Watch the news and kick back.

 

I'm going back to a dumb phone.

 

No worries about tracking

For me, it's easier to handle or hold on to

You can call but if I'm driving, leave a message.

No beeps, dings...

 

Somewhat tongue in cheek but I just don't need all of the "features" apps or gizmos...

 

Spoke with a Verizon rep about it and she said quite a few customers are going dumb again.

[Clay L]

My wife and I both have dumb phones (Samsung Mil Spec Convoys) with text disabled. It is annoying to me for conversations with people to be interrupted often with them getting calls and texts. I consider it rude on their part.

Personally I don't want to be in continual contact with others. That would be overwhelming.

[wa_desert_rat]

On Android phones (at least) you can disable all the notifications. Or just turn the phone(s) off. Having access to data is critical to the way we travel where we set a general direction and a few ideas but wait until we're close before we actually start looking for a place to stay. Plus I've had phone calls that resulted in enough work to pay for an entire stay at an SKP park.

 

We've been RVing since the 1970s and clearly remember trying to call long-distance at random pay phones, trying to find out where the in-laws were staying (in Yuma one Thanksgiving in the 1980s) and if we could get a spot close by. Or finding someone to work on our Class B in El Centro, CA in the 70s. Or getting medical help for my wife who was coming down with heat stroke at a state park north of Yuma.

 

I will never travel without being connected again!

 

Besides, you'll need to change your name to "AnalogDave".

 

WDR

[dirtyboots]

Cyberdave - I agree. I have an old smart phone with everything except phone turned off. I stop often enough to connect with the outer world and if something is REALLY important, people know to call me. My phone (as a phone) works all the time...my internet only works when I want it to. I choose not to do Facebook, Twitter or any other social media. I may be a dinosaur, but I'm a happy dinosaur.

[nana25k]

We keep all the notification on all our devices except text msg and reminders for calendar turned off. The text stays on because that's how we stay in touch with our 2 children, there spouses and 5 of the grands who have phones. But we aren't so attached that they contact us more than once a week.

[2gypsies]

We're still using the dumb phone with no text and don't belong to any social groups. We've full-timed and traveled 16 years constantly this way with no problems. The kids and grandkids know that we'll answer their emails or will gladly receive their phone call - and they do.

 

They don't have to know where we are and what we're doing every minute of the day and we don't need that of them either.

 

We really dislike having to listen to others on their phones when they certainly don't lower their voice. It will never get better - only worse. To me, that's an intrusion on 'my' privacy.

[Cyberdave]

I will never travel without being connected again!

Besides, you'll need to change your name to "AnalogDave".

 

WDR

 

Good one!

[ganto]

I agree. I went back to a dumb phone I don't need to be connected 24-7. id'e rather surf the web on my laptop . I just need a phone to make and receive calls and texts. I bumped into so many chicks cause they had there faces buried in facebook

[Kirk W]

 

I went back to a dumb phone I don't need to be connected 24-7

I don't get it........... We both have "smart phones" because our kids got them for us but I don't understand why they have to be such a problem? Both of our phones have several features that make it very easy to avoid the problems that you all seem to be having. First is the ability to turn off the notifications for any or all apps and features, which we use liberally. Second, our phones also have a feature which allows us to make them silent so that all that happens when a call or notification comes in is a vibration, which is how ours are set most of the time. In addition the phones also have the ability to turn completely off any of the features which we choose not to use! We even turn some features on only long enough to make use of them, then turn that feature off once more.

 

But what is really best of all is the fact that each of our phones come with an on/off switch which allows them to take calls and even save a text if we get one, yet they do not bother as at all and we can use all of the phone features when we wish to and when at home, just exactly as we did with our old hard-wired phones which had the ability to take a message! You really do not have to allow these devices to take over your lives just to be able to enjoy the conveniences they provide! The problem of these modern phones is not the device but the way that people choose to use them.

[jc2]

Very well said Mr K.

[Jim & Alice]

I have been involved with high-tech stuff since punched card days... But I choose to keep my cell phone at the 'dumb phone' level.

 

Matches the owner well.

HB

[whj469]

I spend lots of time keeping up with the technology that my grandkids use with ease. I refuse to let the get one up on me.

I have gone back to collage for PC courses because when I graduated college there were no cell phones or PCs. The year that I graduated,

1971, was the time when HP introduced the first calculator! We used slides rules!

[Bill Joyce]

We just helped my mother move to a new dumb phone and it did not go well. Our experience was there are few choices in dumb phones anymore, in design or brand, since they are all flip phones with very similar layout. For example "Contacts" is no longer a top choice, you have to select "Menu" first. You might not like the new choices. My mother has mixed feelings about it, since she likes the larger buttons but the contacts list is harder to use and sometimes times out too quickly for her.

[Jimalberta]

As stated in other posts here, you have lots of options with a smart phone for dumbing it down. Just learn them, you dont need to go to all the trouble of switching phones.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

I think the paradigm shift is that a "phone" really isn't a phone anymore. Instead, it's a full fledged computer that's amazingly adaptive to the user. The "phone" function is actually a fairly minor feature of the computer.

 

For those who are operating behind the paradigm shift (and there's nothing wrong with doing that) it's just a too-complicated phone. For those who have accepted the paradigm shift, it's a great mini-computer that also functions as a fairly good phone.

[Cyberdave]

It's not a matter of knowing how to operate the phone or turn on / off this or that.

There are also advantages to "dumbing" down.

Dumb phones cannot be tracked as easily.

It's $20.00 less into Verizon's pocket each month.

I never travel without my Google book and GPS.

I don't talk while driving unless hands free and I never text.

I could turn off all the features or, go back to my G-Zone boulder.

Net cost? $.00 with an additional savings of $20.00 / month. That's a month's bill in a year.

 

One of you mentioned being in touch and connected. Why? Those that need you can call or text. Do you really care about what's happening while you're travelling? What could be so important that you need to know immediately? You'd know if a nuke went off 'cause your smart phone would be as dumb as everyone else's.

We stay connected all the time and some feel the absolute need and that's fine but I enjoyed those times fishing in Northern AZ with no cell signal unless you drove to a spot where a signal could get through. It was interesting when 3-4 or more vehicles would be at the same place trying to get / receive calls.

 

But one of the most driving factors is the security from those who have no business in my business.

 

A smaller phone is easier to handle with my tremors and far less expensive to replace when I drop it.

 

It's why boondockers have it right IMHO.

 

[Cyberdave]

I think the paradigm shift is that a "phone" really isn't a phone anymore. Instead, it's a full fledged computer that's amazingly adaptive to the user. The "phone" function is actually a fairly minor feature of the computer.

 

For those who are operating behind the paradigm shift (and there's nothing wrong with doing that) it's just a too-complicated phone. For those who have accepted the paradigm shift, it's a great mini-computer that also functions as a fairly good phone.

 

Agreed, if you don't need or want a computer because you already have three available then what's the need? A phone that is a phone is a better solution to me.

[Biker56]

 

My mother has mixed feelings about it, since she likes the larger buttons

In the AARP magazine they have phones with big buttons.

 

I had a dumb phone since 2002 with no text until last fall. At a $35 month cost.

Now got on the smart iPhone5 Plus unlimited text, data etc. Now pay $98 a month.

 

But I use the apps all the time when traveling for weather, that it knows where I am at. Gas Buddy, Pilot/Flying J, Passport America, NOAA Radar, Fandango near by movies, maps, TV towers, Cell phone towers, Trucker Tools with lots of info, NASCAR, Sprint with live NASCAR, GS camping, Pandora to listen while doing daily walk, Banks to deposit checks by photo and more apps.

 

Sometimes I have been in a area where Sprint data is not good. But my Straight Talk Verizon Hot Spot(Got it last week) fixes that.

 

I'm not going back to dumb phone as the same I'm not going back to a gas MH either.

 

OH!! It connects to my MKS as soon as I get in it. And that lady that lives in my car will call anyone on my contact list I tell her too. She also changes radio stations by request, maps GPS destinations by request and even changes heat or AC temps by request.

 

Never get more then 1 call, text a day. And many days no calls. Did I say I love my iPhone. Yep!! I love all this high-tech stuff.

[Bill Joyce]

In the AARP magazine they have phones with big buttons.

 

 

They are called Jitterbugs and cost more for the phone and more for the service than the Tracfone she got. Tracfone also has Alaska coverage and shows coverage where the relatives are, while Jitterbug only has lower 48 and Hawaii coverage. The Tracfone did have the big buttons, but the navigation to do things like make calls is terrible.

[RV_]

I like the smart phones. Mine's a Window 8.1 phone. I use it for scanning items in stores, and Cortana is really a decent personal assistant taking my scheduled appointments and reminding me in addition to adding them to my calendar. It has 58GB of my music mp3s on its SDXC card, and w have a Jabra cruiser or cruiser II in both cars and truck. They are hands free Bluetooth phones, and also rebroadcast my music with their built in FM retransmitter to the vehicle audio system. It pauses the music automatically gen I call by voice, and resumes the music when I hang up. It also reads texts to me and takes dictation if I say I want to reply. No looking away from the road or trying to press touch buttons. Yes I text and drive, hands free and eye free. No different than a call. Sure it gets a word wrong occasionally. I don't bother correcting errors on the road.

 

Like the TV w can always activate Airplane mode and ignore it. I usually leave it in the vehicle for shopping. I was over connected before in the AF with a secure brick 24/7. Then building steel post frame buildings in a hundred mile radius I had a flip phone with Bluetooth Motorola earpiece and was constantly talking as I drove 12-18 hours daily, pulling over only to do estimates and pricing add-ons. I didn't even get a personal cell phone until 2011, and swore I never would! Only for my SH. And my first was initially for use as a music player on the road not activated a a phone. I also like having Office and Onedrive docs and pics at hand when I want them on tablet, desktop, or Windows phone.

[NJTroy]

I got an iPhone initially because it made my DH nuts that my phone was always kicking around somewhere uncharged while I had my iPod charged up and playing.

 

Depending on how you ask, I do feel entirely too connected. Texts from random acquaintances who have gotten my number from who knows where annoy me generally. And thirty years of endless emails on the job which apparently must be answered immediately added to the flood of junk mail has made me a very bad email contact. Add in Facebook messenger ( which I simply don't do at all), separate work instant messenger system, Facebook proper, the traditional landline with the inbound telemarketer calls that nothing stops and yes I feel too connected.

 

But I don't drop all those things because they let me stay more connected to my kids. I have far more contact and more natural relationships with my college aged kids than I did with my parents at the same age. Weekly hallway conversations on the pay phone and letters and cards were charming, but definitely a barrier to communications with my parents for many years. So I tolerate the nonsense for the pieces I value.

 

And it seems we aren't the only ones asking this question.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/style/the-tyranny-of-constant-contact.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0

[trostberg]

I don't have kids but I do work via computer (part time). Email is my connection of choice on my laptop and I have a MIFI. I am not that important that I need to be at someone's touch of a button every hour of the day.

 

I have a Tracfone. $100 a year. And I actually seek out areas that do not have internet access. I don't like being surrounded by everyone else's phone.

[GlennWest]

Well if I ever retire I might feel this way also but texts are how I get jobs. Without this I wouldn't be working. Just the nature of the beast now.

[richfaa]

We are both super connected. Being connected makes life and travel easier. Things can be done quicker, and effectively . We have the entire world at our fingertips .Technology is amazing.

[Jimalberta]

We are both super connected. Being connected makes life and travel easier. Things can be done quicker, and effectively . We have the entire world at our fingertips .Technology is amazing.[/quote

 

Agree totally.