my wife and her dumbphone
My wife has always used a dumbphone and has never actually owned a smartphone. I gave her a tablet two years ago to do at least some of the things our modern environment now ask us to be able to do. Still, the tablet decidedly doesn’t have mobile capabilities and needs WiFi. It is bigger, harder to take with you, clunkier to use and hold, and mostly disconnected while outside unless there is public WiFi, which is still rare where we live.
Of course, I know how she handles her daily life like this, but instead of writing from my outside perspective, I wanted to give her the opportunity to say it herself. I asked for questions and she has now answered them.
Thanks to everyone who sent an email! The response was more than I expected. Some questions were duplicates, so I tried my best to summarize. I'm sorry if I missed any. :)
Is it an old phone or something similar to the Minimal Phone?
Sorry to be so stereotypically Historian already, but: it depends! By modern Phone Standards, yes definitely old, I got it new in 2018 and the Model came out in 2017, so I have had it for 7 Years now. It is a Nokia 105 though, so despite its Age it already explicitly is retro Style and not genuinely old in that Sense. Before that I just cycled through my Relatives’ discarded Phones for a few Years since the last new Phone I had broke – in 2011, I think.
How much is your monthly bill for that dumbphone?
Given that I use it so little, it never made Sense for me to get a Subscription, so I have been relying on prepaid since I got it. I just have 10 or 15 Euro transferred to my Phone whenever I get below 1 Euro and then slowly use that up over the next few Months, on Average I suppose it is around 2 – 3 Euro a Month?
Why have you never made the switch to smartphones?
In Honesty, it is a wild Mix of Convenience, weird mental Hangups and conscious Refusal of the negative Aspects of the Technology. In the Beginning, it was simply a Rejection of new Technology, which I clung to. In the Meantime, it grew into a very conscious Thing, because I already spend too much Time online and do not think mobile Internet would be good in that Regard; but also the other Issues like Privacy, Data Security, ethical Questions around Resources, &c. &c. play an important Role for me. While not relying on a Smartphone, I think I can prioritize these Aspects more as Reasons not to get one now and view them more honestly. Admittedly, Stubbornness is another Motivation too.
What other devices do you have (tablet, laptop...)?
I do have a Tablet my Wife gifted me that I use a lot. I also take Advantage of public WiFi, if there is one, which People sometimes call hypocritical, given I refuse getting a Smartphone to have less online Access (among other Things), but I do not think that is too contradictory. After all, a Smartphone would make it worse than it already is. Besides that I have a Laptop (refurbished), a Switch (inherited) and a Steam Deck (gifted), but no other modern Devices that qualify for this Question.
Why not just use a smartphone with the bare-bones apps?
As mentioned earlier, my Motivations are a colorful Mixture of Things and using a Smartphone restricted to the bare Minimum would only cover a small Portion of those, to the Point that it would revert the Question to „Why use a Smartphone at all then?“
Have you had moments where you came close to giving in and getting one?
No, not all actually.
Do you ever feel cut off from anything because you don’t have a smartphone?
In some Way. Not so much that I feel left out and it making me unhappy about not having one, but more so that it frustrates me and irritates me that it is treated as a given. I am less averse to social Media than Ava, but if something for Entertainment is only or primarily accessible via Smartphone, I normally already have little Interest; either because it is off-putting to me, or just due to Lack of Interest. So these Situations merely leave me shrugging usually.
The other Kind, where necessary Services are locked behind Smartphones or at least App-based Technology, deeply annoys me though. Not just for my own Sake, but as a general Accessibility-Issue. Be it checking in at Places via QR-Code in the early Pandemic Years, Restaurants with no printed Menus, App-Reliance for offline Events or one of the worst Offenders – the App-controlled Package Lockers. The latter are not just App-based, which I could begrudgingly deal with with my Tablet, but actually require mobile Internet. Despite all Requests never to drop off something there occasionally Deliveries still end up there and Ava has to handle that for me every Time. What are People supposed to do, who have no Access to someone else to do that for them? This System is so infuriatingly inaccessible, DHL even won an Award for exceptionally bad Customer Service for it a few Years ago.
If someone gifted you one or won one, would you use it?
No, and given that everyone I am close enough to for such an expensive Present knows about my Stance on it, I would be very disappointed in their Disregard for my Wishes. For the second Part, I started using the Internet roughly twenty Years ago, if anything stated I won a new Smartphone I would ignore it as Spam without further Thought haha.
What reaction do you dislike, or even hate the most when people around you find out that you don't have, and have never had, a smartphone?
There are not really that many different Reactions, if there are any at all. It is usually something in the „Oh, okay!“ to „Oh, wow!“-Range, rarely a „Isn’t that really difficult today?“ and I would not say that any of these really bother me that much. Usually People are not invested in the Topic enough either to linger on it that much. Far more annoying is when People who have known me a While and know about my Phone-Situation and the Motivations behind it and yet keep suggesting I should switch.
How do you navigate while on the go or driving without navigation apps?
I am very thorough in preparing for reaching new Locations in Advance, if I can not rely on having someone with GPS with me. When I want to make really sure, I make Screenshots on my Tablet, or rarely even print it out when I have easy Access to a Printer. Since I got my Tablet, I also use the Offline-Maps Feature and just look up Stuff there, finding my Way with a Map, but no active Navigation is no Problem. Of course that is not really an Option when driving, but I consider myself fairly good in memorizing Routes by Landmarks and Roadnames. If it gets really complex I also have an old barely reliable external GPS-Device in my Car (lost the Mount long ago). Its Maps are pretty outdated, and the Company keeps begging me to get a new one in Mails, but so far I have not encountered an Area having changed too much to find my Destination.
How do you handle 2FA, especially for online banking or Microsoft work accounts?
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. – In Seriousness, mostly Annoyance. Most Things that require 2FA still offer to send a Code via Text Message, which works fine for me, still bothers me. With the rare Situation that they require to use an App I rely on Ava to help me with that, though rarely a Service is important enough to warrant that for me instead of just disregarding it entirely. In the specific Case of online Banking I have a Cardreader by my Bank, that generates a TAN for me.
How do you manage things like todo lists, reminders, calendars?
Mostly via my Tablet as it allows me to share Lists and a Calendar with my Wife, but sometimes I use my Laptop for it or just write Things on Paper as well.
How do you handle communications with friends and relatives?
99% of my private written Communication works via either Telegram or Discord, which I both used long before I even had a Tablet. Of course I now use them on the Tablet as well, but it is optional.
How do you handle social interactions that “mandate” a smartphone, like a friend saying “venmo me”?
Ironically, Venmo does not operate in Germany as I recently learned – but for the general Topic, I honestly never encountered such a Situation to be frank. Admittedly I can not even tell if instantly sending someone Money digitally just is not as much of a Thing here or if the People I am around just care too little about Sums of that Scale to demand it, but so far everyone was perfectly fine with just receiving Money back whenever (I am on a Computer next Time). Aside from that no social Interaction comes to Mind that would really necessitate a Smartphone.
How do you scan documents?
Varies depending on Circumstances, back in Uni I used the Scanners there, later Scanners at Workplaces, lately mostly my Tablet, as that has a Scanner Feature.
Do you have a separate phone for work (or did you ever?)
No, using only my private dumbphone or Email was sufficient so far.
What’s your opinion on others who use smartphones?
Admittedly in the Beginning, when Smartphones became more and more common and one after another of my Friends switched, I was a bit disappointed in them. These Days, they are so normalized and too often essential, that I see no Issue with someone else using one just because I do not want one myself. I do delight in encountering other People who still use a regular Phone though!
Assuming you will not and never have a smartphone in the future, and in case you, someday, ever want to have children, what do you think you'll say to them when they reach an age where they ask you for one? Especially during adolescence, when a large part of interactions with their peers take place via smartphone apps.
A Question as difficult as it is hypothetical. Obviously I would not handle this on my own, but together with my Wife and I think we both agree that it would be best to start them with regular, rather minimalist Phone at an Age when it becomes sensible that they would have one. I would definitely try to teach them about all the surrounding Issues like Online-Safety, Data-Security, Social Media, Resource-Ethics &c. &c. thoroughly, so they are well informed about it, as they get older.
I would not push a Smartphone on them, but I would not deny them one either, because I absolutely understand that growing up in the World as it is now is very different than back in my Childhood and Teens and it would ask a lot of them, to isolate themselves so much from their Peers. So with anything regarding Children, my Stance is that Parents can not and should not control them, but provide them with the proper Tools and Knowledge to face the World in an informed and responsible Way. As this is such a Partnership-related Question and I know that she has a lot of similar Opinions to me, I would love Ava to weigh in about this as well!
(Chiming in to say: I would not give my child a smartphone until way later. There are other ways to stay connected with peers, and they'll find a way, even if it is via other devices. I don't wanna teach them that giving in to what everyone else is doing despite it being kind of shit is in any way good, and it's not like they can legally have most accounts until 13 or older anyway; I think I'd start at 15 maybe.)
Any other hassles when not having a smartphone? How do you handle them?(like: Links in SMS, gov apps, picking up parcels, digital-only tickets, restaurant menus…)
Other than Links (or Images) in Text Messages I think I talked about all of those already and aired my Grievances haha. That one I had for the first Time a few Days ago and the Solution came down to manually typing the URL into the browser mostly.
One other specific Occasion I can think of is being at a Magic-Tournament, where the Pairings are announced via App (which is useless to me in Store without Internet Connection), but I just ask Staff about which Table I was assigned to next, my Opponents will log the Results, so not a Problem either.
How long do you think you can realistically keep this up? Any worries about availability of such phones, or the need to have a smartphone growing more painful? How do you manage the feeling of hitting a dead end?
I earnestly see no End in Sight. I actually do have a handful of Backups, some the exact same Model as the current Phone, some not. And my current Phone still works as well as ever. That considered, I have no serious Worries of it getting problematic any Time soon. The Need for or rather assumed Access to a Smartphone is indeed getting more notable, but I would not think of describing it as painful without Irony or Exaggeration. Just as well I myself do not see it as a Dead End, so there is no Feeling associated with it.
Do you ever feel like your dumbphone lifestyle is partly made possible because people around you aren't dumbphone users and you can rely on their smartphone?
On the first Glance it might appear like that. I would not think of denying that I have Advantages from other People having Smartphones, but I see it as entirely optional and nice-to-have. If they had no Smartphones I would just adapt and find other Solutions and if some Place/Institution/Person absolutely required a Smartphone, then I would make it their Problem to deal with, simple as that.
What kind of things do you think people assume you absolutely need a smartphone for, which you can do perfectly fine without?
I think the Number one Thing is Navigation, directly followed by looking up Stuff online (like Availability of Products in Stores, Opening Hours, Addresses). In my Opinion People do overestimate how essential or difficult such Things are. As I said above, Things are either manageable or just possible to do without as well, I can be very austere in that Regard.
Anything else you wanna say?
It surprised me a bit how much Attention this Call for Questions garnered and it does also amuse me a bit, because that is obviously just Day to Day-Life to me. Makes Sense though that it is relevant for People engaging in the Smallweb! Nonetheless I did like getting the Opportunity to share my Views and Experiences with Technology with such a wide Audience and People being interested in them. I hope the esteemed Readers enjoyed reading my Replies and did not stumble too much over my Capitalisation that I burden Ava with. Should any more Questions arise, I am confident Ava gladly will relay them!
I hope that this was helpful :) Let me know what you think!
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Published 10 Sep, 2025