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If you dumped your smart phone


Seasider
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Well, we've never had one.  We prefer a landline.   But when we're travelling, or living somewhere that makes a landline impossible, we keep an AT&T gophone; the phone is like $20 and it costs $30/month for unlimited talk and text or (I think) something like 10 cents/minute and 10 cents/text.  I am not sure about the latter, we always just carried the monthly rate.

 

I tend to lose electronics (and everything else in my life) so I liked the $20 replacement cost (which I do pretty frequently, unfortunately).  I am happy not to be carrying one now, though - the landline is a lot harder to lose :)  And is no security risk.

 

ETA: I once accidentally bought a different brand, I think the verizon version, when I lost mine while travelling.  That one sucked.  Started doing all sorts of weird things after a few weeks and eventually I just gave up on it and went back to the gophone.

Edited by eternalsummer
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I just don't have things on my phone that distract me, I don't think I could give it up, I use it for too many other things, reading, calendar, reminders, grocery lists & other lists, Bible, GPS. I also need it to log in and out of work from (merchandiser) so I couldn't give it up.  Good luck though, I know a few people who just have phones with a sliding keyboard.

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A cheap smart phone that can't do anything BUT text and calls.  :lol:  I just upgraded my very cheap smartphone to something I could do more with, but before that, I was very limited. About the only thing I used other than texting and making calls was a calendar app. I would think you could do the reverse, if you wanted.

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I have a smart phone but with no data plan. (I get phone/texts through tracphone). For several years I had a flip phone, but texting on the little push buttons was super annoying, so I upgraded to the fake smart phone in 2016.

 

I can use it to access the internet if I have wifi, but without wifi I can basically just phone/text. I don't have any games or anything installed. Just email, yelp, weather, stuff like that.  Not sure if that would help with the distraction issue, but it's certainly a lot cheaper than a normal smart phone (~$40 for the phone + ~$40 a year for service).

 

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If distraction is the problem, then dump the distracting software on your phone.   Maybe also switch to a tracfone plan so that you pay by the Gb.   That should keep the data use down, which is where is seems that most people get distracted.  

 

DH has a flip phone for calls and texts.   When I use his phone to text the number-pad texting driving me batty,   I see I am like the previous person.  

 

For me, I did like the idea of having access to some light smart phone apps, like skype.  In March, I bought a refurbished Rebel phone for $20 from tracfone.  Then I bought a bundle that lasted a year with 3Gb data, 3000 minutes of calls and 3000 texts.   Total price for phone, bundle, taxes and shipping was around $140.  Then I leave the data off unless I really want it.   Like I use it to look up cheap gas prices with gas guru, which I learned about on a thread here.  Once every blue moon I'll check traffic on it, usually when I already stuck in it to see just how far ahead the problem is.  About a month ago, I was running out of texts so I paid $10 to get a bunch more texts and calls.  

 

I treasure my phone most for as mp3 player.   The audiobook software has been the only thing I paid money on.  Speaking of money, it was handy on a recent vacation.  We stayed at a giant Hilton for a convention.  I downloaded the Hilton software and kept checking it the morning we drove to the hotel.   When it said that our type of room wasn't available, and they were giving us an upgrade to an ocean view with balcony, I jumped on it.  

Edited by shawthorne44
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If you would consider purchasing a Used, low-end Android SMART phone, and combining it with a very flexible plan from an MVNO (a VIrtual celular provider) like US Mobile (https://www.usmobile.com/plans) that would provide you with enormous flexibility, if your needs or your interests change.

 

We don't use much Data (Our provider is an MVNO in Colombia) but my wife and DD went out of town today and my wife was on Data this afternoon, when she was on the highway and  we were communicating via the WhatsApp App (text and voice messages). 

 

There might be an App in your future, that you cannot anticipate today, and if you had an old fashioned Dumb phone, you wouldn't be able to Install or Use it.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.  Check out US Mobile...

 

 

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I have a smartphone and I use it a LOT for a LOT of things...but I also had to strip off all the games and time wasters.  Even if I am just sitting in a doctor's waiting room, there are better things I can use my time for than playing (and digging myself deeper into my attraction to) games.  

...

 

 

Yeah, I always keep an ebook loaded on the phone for those 'the oil change is taking two hours' times.  For some reason, nonfiction seems to work best for that.  

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