So do I but I don’t miss it all. Now all you need is a phone.
Where are those Luddites today? Still operating their looms in China?
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I don’t know what you class as “your generation”, Foxy but I have family and friends up to the age of 90 who use and appreciate their smartphones to make their lives easier.
I am also of the generation which had no help from smartphones until about the time I retired - there was very little new communication technology at all until my kids had grown up, which made life more difficult than it is now,
I remember using all sorts of unwieldy technology over the years at work , as technology was developing - and none of it was as useful and user-friendly as the Smartphone and Tablet I have now.
In the old days, I probably would not have done half the foreign travel and exploring / backpacking / sailing adventures as I have since I retired, thanks to all the travel info, maps, translation services and a host of other practical and useful info and booking services available at my fingertips - and, of course, the ability to keep in touch with family back at home.
I suppose if you do not often travel far from home and don’t have family who live and work all over the world, you may not find all the services a smartphone can offer as useful a tool as some other folk do.
I guess there’s lots of tools I don’t find useful because I don’t use them but others may find them indispensable - I have never used a chisel or welder in my life but my lovely fella would be lost without them,! 
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I rarely use my phone. Mostly I use facebook or other formats because of my limited hearing.
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I would think mobile phones and services they offer like texting and messenger are a godsend to hearing impaired people who have difficulty communicating by phone calls.
Exactly - and that applies to smart phones and apps too - use the features and the apps that are useful to you and ignore the others
There are certainly features of my phone I dont use and things I still do the old way instead - eg I still have a paper diary - and other features I do use.
Some people seem to see it as a sort of badge of honour, rather than just their personal choice, that they don’t use smart phones or do whatever thing with their phone - which seems a rather strange stance to me.
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I remember days when having a passport was a novelty, I didn’t know anyone who had travelled abroad except army guys. Of course if something is invented that makes life easier people will use it, despite the cost and the fact that it’s a two way street. The fact that not owning a smartphone makes life very hard, its surprising how many poor people have to own one to survive. I’ve seen people using food banks to feed their families and they turn up with a £500 phone stuck in their back pocket. Not everyone can afford the luxury of a smartphone, but they still have one.
You are very lucky boot to have travelled and seen the world, I suspect there aren’t many who have done that.
I wonder what the next essential item will be ?
The great advances made in communications is surely a wonderful thing, it’s like building a house of cards. The more complex it gets, the greater the risk that someday it will all fall apart. I understand that Putin is already targeting the under sea cables in order to disable our communications…This will be the wars of the future.
So enjoy this fantastic network and the easy and interesting life it allows, while it lasts. But always be mindful that it might not always be there…
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A somber outlook Foxy, and yes I feel that you are right, at least to an extent. If and when it all goes horribly wrong and we are plunged into a world without access to the internet what then?
How many young people would have to adapt to a different kind of reality, pretty sharpish too!
I don’t have anything against young people I hasten to add, I was one once, I think 
As for mobile phones, I’d find it hard to function in society without one. I’m pragmatic and make my phone serve me, not the other way around
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So would I … but only if I was the only one without a Smart Phone. If we all had to manage without, we’d find something else to keep us going.
And I’m not one of the addicted, yet. I’m still at the:
distrust of apps stage
don’t like making or receiving calls any more
hate phone cameras, they’re the death of proper cameras
don’t like being spied on/followed
erm
But I do like to use the phone as
An e-reader
for googling and browsing
for hands free calls when I do have to make a call.
a map when lost
for texting,
erm
There’s little point.
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Indeed, Foxy, I intend to.
Like you, I remember the days when most folk didn’t have a passport - and in my childhood home we didn’t have any “mod cons” when I was growing up either - so no fridge, no washing machine - and often no electricity or gas cos we had no money to put in the meters and no food to eat for half of the week and no coal to heat the house or the water cos we were skint.
Even as a working adult, I didn’t have a telephone, a car, a radio or a TV until I was over 30 years old - so if all the “mod cons” I have now stopped working tomorrow, I reckon I could cope without them!
In the meantime, I will enjoy the fantastic communication devices I have now, which make life easier and more interesting.
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I have no doubt that poor people using food banks need a smart phone more than anyone, especially if they are looking for a job and can not afford a laptop.
With the smart phone, whenever they are asked to scan all kinds of ID, documents, curriculum vitaes, or send and sign contracts, forms, or applications, they can do it with the phone and submit it instantly.
They can google informations and do research etc…
Times have changed, and it might be difficult to look for a job with no smart phone as people request more and more you use smart phone to scan all kinds of things or documents…
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You are joking aren’t you Mei?
Most of the people I refer to have no intention of looking for a job and wouldn’t have a clue what CV’s are. They use the phone to score and spend their days on social media.
I’m sorry to paint a bleak picture of parts of South Yorkshire, but I delivered the post to some pretty deprived areas and I was regularly asked where was their giro on a Saturday morning…(benefits cheque that had to be cashed at the post office because most of them didn’t have bank accounts)
What? like typewriters? or cassette tapes? Nothing lasts for ever.
Change is the only constant.
I sometimes wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self, don’t spend heaps of money on hifi systems and records because mp3s and Spotify are coming. They were fun while they lasted though.
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Yes you are right Bruce, but the internet will affect everyone. There is also an aspect we haven’t considered. The internet will probably be replaced by something else and I have a feeling it won’t be so good for the common people.
The internet is a pain in butt for the establishment at present, it gives the people a voice and allows co ordination and organisation between various groups of people from petitions to extremist activities.
But how many years ago was that, Foxy? -
Nearly everyone on state benefits nowadays get their benefits paid into their bank account - even it is a basic bank account with no credit facilities.
The days of “Benefits Giros” are long gone, aren’t they?
I remember Giro starting - my GPO pay was paid straight into my Giro account. Does Giro still exist?
Since you know so little about mobile phones, how do you know it was a $500 model?
Unless UK is very different from Australia - starting point of smart phones are now much cheaper than that, like all technology it comes down in price.
A very quick google shows me smart phones from Kmart ( a chain store selling cheap things) costing $79 AUD - so around $40 UK pounds
And I can see how poor people are more likely to need a smart phone - if you don’t have a computer or a landline you will use the smart phone for all internet/phone uses - and most people do use the internet and have a device of some sort to do so - including yourself I presume, unless you are at the library or suchlike posting to us
Sure, occasionally the internet is down and that is inconvenient - but sometimes there are electricity outages too but I doubt that means people are going to return to pre electricity lives.
You do sound very doom and gloom - I suggest embracing new technology, or at least the parts that would benifit you.
As indeed yo u are already, since you are posting on an internet forum.
The £500 phone was borrowed … from a complete stranger!
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Fascinating Bruce, I haven’t had chance to watch it all yet but will later in the day. Something you don’t see much in the media. Thanks for posting.
I know quite a bit about smartphones July, and I have a very good one myself but I try to keep it’s use to the minimum. Being a trig point hunter, having access to the internet while out and about is very handy, but maps are still my main source of navigation.
The camera on the phone also comes in handy at times, but for the more serious photos I still use my proper camera.
Having suffered three heart attacks I’m not allowed out now without my phone and GTN spray.
In an emergency I can also log in to the forum, but I much prefer to write posts on my laptop where I do online banking and everything else that I find the phone too fiddly to use.
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