Smart phones pro and con??

I'm 47, so a bit younger than your demographic, but not unreasonably so. However, I've also been exposed to computers since the 1970s when my oldest brother became a programmer back in the card punch days. And I've been on BBSes (bulletin board systems, the precurser to the world wide web) since 1983, took my first programming course in 1983, and bought my first computer in 1990, so I'm also not exactly the typical user for my age.

Do you use a smart phone?

Yup. Have for quite a few years now. I've used both Android and iOS as well as Windows.

Why did you decide to buy one?

The husband develops for mobile devices, so I get his handmedowns.

Do you think you'd ever go back to a simple phone that is only used for phone calls?

No. I don't really use the phone feature anyway - I use it for everything else. My main uses involve language learning (Memrise for learning German), facebook, email, surfing the web, looking for a restaurant nearby, maps, reading ebooks, skyping/video chatting with people, taking pictures and sharing to Instagram & other social media, looking up pressure cooker times for whatever I'm cooking, looking at recipes, and, well, it goes from there. I also use it for beta testing apps for iOS/Android for the husband.

Do you think everyone in the future will use smart phones?

Of course.

Have you ever experienced difficulty using one?

Nope. Other than for bugs, which happen on every platform.

I am in this age group 56, male and I have never owned any sort of cell phone. I suppose I must be one of the few remaining people in this country not to have one. I do find it frustrating that there are very few pay phones left, a remnant of some bygone age, but I have refused to break down and get one. I have had friends tell me to join the modern age and that it is important in case I have some sort of emergency. I have thought about it, but after seeing what it has done to our culture, I refuse to be a part of it. When I walk down the street or sit on a bus I notice that very few people talk to one another. They stare blindly into these little boxes ignoring the real people around them. They walk down the street blindly ignoring traffic or other pedestrians, its like we have become a culture of zombies. I have a landline phone at home, yet I let my answering machine answer most of my calls. I call them back at a convenient time. And then I don't like the idea of having some device that can track my whereabouts. I still wonder how long it will take me to actually break down and get one.

rhymegirl said:

The way I look at it is I only need a phone to be a phone. I have a laptop computer for sending emails, scoping out the Internet, listening to music, etc. I have a nice little Canon digital camera for taking photos.

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Another reason I use my smartphone - and tablet - a lot...

I'm disabled. I have a connective tissue disorder that results, amongst many other things, in unstable joints with a fair bit of joint and muscle pain. Lifting anything heaving, and by heavy, I could mean as little as a pound, can be a problem. Using traditional paper books can be problematic for me due to the weight but also how they have to be held and the cramps and joint pain that result. Heavy cameras like my old Nikon D90 no longer work for me since I can't carry them around. Well, you get the idea.

The smartphone and tablets mean that I can carry books with me - thousands if need be - with very little weight. Even though my eyes aren't great - also thanks to my connective tissue disorder - I can still read even on my iPhone because I can adjust text size easily to fit my needs.

It's not just about convenience, these things. It's about allowing me to take advantage of things like books and maps and cameras and an iPod and... whatever without needing to carry around 10 different things that I can't carry around anymore anyway. It means that, if we go out of town for a few days, I don't absolutely have to bring my heavy (3kgs more or less) notebook with me, carrying it on my shoulder which dislocates far too easily, assuming that my muscles don't get tired and drop it. I have to minimize as much as I can by weight that which I take with me. I have to pare the contents of my purse down, way way down. I already wear the purse cross-body since that takes the strain off my shoulders and reduces my dislocations. But every little bit helps.

My smartphone is, for me, making me feel less disabled and more normal.

I'm part of the demographic. I use my smartphone for everything. I use it more than my laptop and I rarely eeven turn on my tablet. My smartphone is my computer, my mp3 player, my appointment reminder, my camera, besides using it for mundane things like texting and calls. I can't think of any cons.

rhymegirl said:

If you don't own a smart phone, what are the reasons? Too expensive,

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Bingo. The data charges are outrageous. Vrrznn was the only local carrier that would sell us a contract with no data plan; in revenge, they disabled the camera, mp3 player, and other non-internet functions.

Also, each generation of "wireless" technology seems to come with a corresponding drop in audio quality. It's now to the point where the phone isn't much better than a pager; the audio is clipped, compressed, folded, spindled, and mutilated until it's mostly barking noises; to actually hold a conversation I have to find a land line somewhere.

cbenoi1 said:

It sounds simple, by those simple tasks took more than an hour of time on my part to explain.

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"Why isn't there a dial tone? Is it working?"

"Why does it ring when I'm talking to someone? They said I hung up on them, but I was talking and didn't hear anything unusual until it rang in my ear."

"Why isn't there ever a busy signal when I call someone? I always get a 'voicemailses.' I'm not going to talk to an answering machine. If they're on the phone to someone else, I can just call back."

"Doesn't anyone make anything with buttons on it? Those touch screens drive me mad!"

"Well, I'm sure that's nice if you're inside or in the shade, but you can't see anything if you try to use it in direct sunlight."

Dave Williams said:

Bingo. The data charges are outrageous. Vrrznn was the only local carrier that would sell us a contract with no data plan; in revenge, they disabled the camera, mp3 player, and other non-internet functions.

Also, each generation of "wireless" technology seems to come with a corresponding drop in audio quality. It's now to the point where the phone isn't much better than a pager; the audio is clipped, compressed, folded, spindled, and mutilated until it's mostly barking noises; to actually hold a conversation I have to find a land line somewhere.

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My experience is completely different, but it sounds like my usage is completely different.

I don't have a data plan and don't use the Internet on the go unless there's free wifi, which, generally speaking, there isn't where I am - Asia. Social media, web browsing, email I don't do out and about. It can wait until I'm home. Most other stuff I do offline - like reading, German lessons, catching up on reading web articles (GetPocket), and so on. On the other hand, we don't spend a lot of time out and about - we work from home.

On the rare occasions we need a data plan, we get one that's good for the day or a month on a prepaid basis - but then, we only use prepaid plans for our mobile phone usage. Also, phones in this area of the world are not locked, so it's easy to get a prepaid account.

Summary: phone and data usage varies.

About that sound quality? That's weird. We don't have much of a problem with that here. Maybe it's your carrier?

rhymegirl said:

Do you use a smart phone? Yes.
Why did you decide to buy one? Social reasons, everyone uses the apps you can only use on a smart phone and other stuff that just leaves you out of the loop if you're not doing it as well. Years later I'm just used to them.
Do you think you'd ever go back to a simple phone that is only used for phone calls? To not have one now would give that feeling of downgrading and since I don't have to, no.
Do you think everyone in the future will use smart phones? No clue, something smarter might come out.
Have you ever experienced difficulty using one? Tons. They're delicate (though newer ones are getting stronger and more durable). They're basically tiny computers so they require maintenance to some degree. Can't use one in the cold without special gloves.

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The rest of the questions don't apply to me. But as someone who spent some time researching I feel like you would get more valid data if you asked some demographic questions as well.

I have a dumb phone. It make phone calls and makes cumbersome and awkward texts, but it's very cheap!

There's a difference between quoting us and publishing our real names/locations in your paper. I'm fine with the first, not with the second. Why is it necessary to include that information?

shadowwalker said:

There's a difference between quoting us and publishing our real names/locations in your paper. I'm fine with the first, not with the second. Why is it necessary to include that information?

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Credibility. "Taejang, from the internet" looks a lot worse in publications than, "Jacob Horner, from Oregon." I didn't realize she wanted the names and locations, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Taejang said:

Credibility. "Taejang, from the internet" looks a lot worse in publications than, "Jacob Horner, from Oregon." I didn't realize she wanted the names and locations, but it makes perfect sense to me.

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Neither seems more credible to me, and it can be a mistake to allow one's name and/or location to be published.

King Neptune said:

Neither seems more credible to me, and it can be a mistake to allow one's name and/or location to be published.

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Exactly. It's not as though this were a position paper, or any of us were 'authorities'. We're just people expressing our opinions.

You can still report back on "general consensus" type stuff from the posts here, while only specifically quoting a few posts.

Something like this? -- According to a (mini) online survey covering {whatever demo} conducted in July 2015, 67% (or whatever #) of respondents confirmed they were using smartphones. Among them, the most common reasons were blah blah. For those not using smartphones, xx% cited costs being the factor, and yy% felt they were happy with what they had, blah blah, etc.

Print this thread out for the press editor?

If you need real names etc, you will probably need to re-conduct this survey from ground up, perhaps with a detailed form, together with name and contact info of the press and/or yourself, as well as a privacy statement or indemnity. I mean, I ain't giving my real name and/or personal information to organizations I know nothing about and/or without knowledge of how they will use my personal data.

Bing Z said:

I mean, I ain't giving my real name and/or personal information to organizations I know nothing about and/or without knowledge of how they will use my personal data.

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The way you said that instantly made me think of this.

I can't recall seeing many, if any, general interest articles that used people's full names and locations when quoting. More often, it's initials, first names only, or "a woman from X". As I noted above, this isn't a position paper or a legal document. It's an article for a "local publication". No reason Bing Z's method couldn't be used, with quotes that respected people's privacy.

Next time, you should let people know from the gitgo that you would want to publish this sort of information. Of course, you might not get as many responses.

I'm pissed off enough about no phone meeting my standards of user friendliness, even when they're supposedly "simple," that I might give my personal info depending on the publication and whether the article was assigned. But I'm sure you'll understand that I'd need evidence that it was assigned to you.

I'm fine for you to use my real name and location, rhymegirl. I thought that was indicated in the OP. And no, I don't need any evidence this article was assigned to you or, well, anything else.

If I didn't want this stuff known, I wouldn't use my real name on the Internet. Or my real location (not address, just country/city level).

L M Ashton said:

If I didn't want this stuff known, I wouldn't use my real name on the Internet.

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Which is precisely why most of us have user names.

I'm younger than your target range, but this may be relevant anyway:

I got my first smart phone a year ago when my husband and I were buying a house -- as it turned out, the ability to answer emails while away from home was crucial. We had many official documents to sign digitally; if I hadn't been able to do that, the process would have been slowed down by a huge amount, and we may even have missed a deadline.

Now as an everyday thing, I use the camera and video functions for keeping in touch with family: we have a new baby that my mother and mother-in-law are eager to see. Since my mother-in-law lives in another state, I feel particularly grateful that I can send her videos of her first grandson learning to talk and crawl.

On that note, she uses her own smartphone regularly to talk directly to her granddaughters, the oldest of which has learned to call her via Facetime. This is the video phone of the future: they can see each other while they're talking, which is perfect for showing off new drawings and favorite outfits and the like. For family that's spread out across the globe, this sort of technology is invaluable.

I could have gotten a smartphone years ago, but held off on the grounds that it would be an added expense that I could do without, and I knew that as soon as I got used to having one, I'd find it hard to give up. I was right. It's very handy to carry the internet in my pocket. I can look up phone numbers and business locations while on the road, even use a GPS. I can check movie times for when plans change. I can resolve pointless arguments by looking up facts. And there is an endless selection of clever apps that I haven't even looked into yet.

I have found my smartphone to be very useful indeed. I could live without it, but I'd miss it.

PS: Mara Lynn Johnstone, California. Good enough?