My husband has a Kyocera Duraforce, it's tough and waterproof to 6.5 feet for half an hour. He has a holster purchased separately that clips to his belt. I have an HTC which is on my desk or in my purse if I'm out. I don't like being tethered to a phone. The smartphone has come in handy during power outages since it's usually charged and is not dependent on the home network. I can email my team at work that I'll be back online asap.

I have a Trac phone. No one has the number. It is strictly for my use in case my car goes over a cliff during a rare occasion when I am behind the wheel.

I have a Smart phone, too. I don't think it is 'awkward' at al! Got it about 3 years ago, and often wonder how I ever lived and functioned without it. Before that I had a flip pone, which I thought great at the time, but now I would hate to have to go back to one of those.

There are all kinds of cases available for Smart phones, that can clip to a pocket or belt loop, and have a protective screen. I have an "Otter Box". Makes the phone a little heavier and more bulky, but I don't mind that too much. It also makes the phone almost indestructible.

Rusty

I have a large 5 1/2 inch smart phone. I want the larger print and keyboard. It's in a rubber back case with a plastic screen saver. I've had it for 2 years and it doesn't have a scratch on it. It's my portable PC. I have it with me at all times. I wear cargo shorts most of the time, so I have a pocket for the phone.

No smart phone here and don't want one. I have a small prepaid phone that I only use if I have to call home when out running errands. I am suppose to turn it on when I am out, but always forget. We just got cell service up here in the mountains last year. We still have a land line.

You do not have to keep your smart phone out all time. I keep mine on my bedside table to charge but mostly it stays in my purse. The beauty of a smart phone is it is there when you need and you often times don't realize how convenient they can be.

Want it for an emergency phone. It's there.

Don't have your gps and can't find an address. Just go to your phone type in the address and get a map or it will walk you right to the place you're looking for. No extra charge especially if you use Google Maps. Most people have plenty of data usage on their phone to cover using the GPS function.

Texting is nice to have for appointment reminders, people to get in touch with you quickly without having to have a phone conversation. I love getting photos from people through texts when they are out having fun and would like to include you and send you fun photos.

Fraud Alerts- If I use my credit or bank card at a place and it gets declined the bank auto sends me a text and an email to verify the purchase. I can instantly tell the bank that it was or was not me without having to make a call to the bank when I get home or taking up time calling the bank while in the store. I can also shut my card down instantly if it was not me who made the call.

Games, email, something to keep you occupied while you're waiting at the doctors office all kinds of things at your finger tips.

Out with friends and they suggest a restaurant you're not familiar with the look up the menu on you're phone.

I can go on and on about the advantages to having a smart phone. I use mine to arm and disarm my alarm at home, turn my thermostat up and down when I am away, turn off lights I left on, unlock my door when the housekeeper or a repairman comes without having to come home when I am away.

I do not use a case. Mine sometimes falls to the bottom of my purse with keys and other objects floating around in my purse and the screen is still scratch free.

For me I find I'd rather have the options I have with my smart phone and the choice to use them or not use them far out weighs not having the options. I swore when I got one I'd never use it other than to make a few phone calls once in awhile if I needed too. What I have found is I don't use the phone portion of the smart phone much at all I use all the other features. I find out every day there is another feature or app that is so convenient to have at my finger tips. I could go without one if I had to but I would definitely miss all the features I have to come to like so much.

I think people are too quick to judge using smart phones without actually trying them and learning all the things they can do to make things more convenient in life.

I start reading this thread entitled "Smart Phones Are Awkward" and learn that the author doesn't have a smart phone.

Huh?

Wanted to add another thing I use my phone for is when I walk or go to the gym. I can play music or listen to an audio book while I walk or work out and I don't have to carry an mp3 player.

I also use it to carry my health information. I have heart problems and I have an attachment that goes to my phone via blue tooth that takes an ekg, monitors my blood pressure, heart rate and all that good stuff and sends it right to the doctor.

My father keeps his blood pressure and sugar readings on his along with his medications, allergies and he can just pull it up at the doctors office or email it to them right in the office. So he does not have to carry papers around all the time.

Love my LG smartphone from tracfone. Pay as little as ten dollars a month but I frequently add more data which is ten dollars for the data card. depends how much surfing I do! I also have a screen protector. And it is in a case for added protection in case I drop it. Have WiFi at home but that can get pricey so the phone helps cut that. I have a 4.5 screen. Would go to 5 .

I carry my iPhone 6 in a pouch. It's two years old and has no scratches on it. At home it sits on the kitchen table. I have a lap top, desktop and iPad if I want online. Much rather sit on my comfy chair with a 25-inch screen than the iPhone screen. BUT it is always with me when I'm out. Mostly stays in the glove box but I sometimes go on when we're driving and alway in a restaurant. Last night while eating out, I thought I turned into the people I always made fun of. Here we are sitting , both engrossed in our phones and barely look up when the food arrives. How sad. And we weren't alone. The technology always amazed me that in this little gadget there is all this info plus I can take pictures and see them instantly, snapchat, or email them to people. Who would've thunk?

I so agree with you Arkansas girl. It's wonderful to be in contact with friends and keep up with what's going on in the world but to do it 24/7? To never be further away than a few feet from your smart phone? If some people didn't have smart phones they wouldn't know what to DO with themselves!

I've got my home computer and my trusty old flip phone (it doesn't even take photos - gasp!) and I am a happy camper.

Brother signed up for a new cell phone contract and let me know I could join him on the account for a cheap price. He said, "Now you can get a smart phone!". For what I said. I told him I go months without ever turning my cell phone on! It lives in my purse to be used if I have a problem and need to call for help.

And now that Brother owns a new smart phone he's become one of the drones who lives through the screen of his phone instead of participating in real life. I can look around a room of relatives and see nothing but the tops of their heads. No one's speaking. Everyone's bent over their smart phones.

Phooey!

Kessala

Amen Aprile!! I couldn't agree more!!

Arkansas, I use mine in the grocery store because my grocery list is on it & I get online digital coupons while I'm there & I can compare prices. I'm not talking on it.

Actually I rarely talk on my cellphone.

If you see me in the grocery store looking at the phone it's because I keep my grocery list on an app and check off the items as I shop no more need for a pen and paper. I have my calendar with me all the time now. Make an appointment, immediately put it in the calendar so I don't forget. Especially now that I find I forget more. I get texts from Walgreens when my prescription is ready, I can order refills just by scanning the bottle on the app. I love my weather radar I can instantly see what is going on around us and see the forecast. This was so helpful during the storms and flooding. I have an app that lets me see immediately the level of all the creeks and bayous around us which contribute to flooding here.

I don't text much but it is handy on occasion. I don't talk on the phone much but I have it when needed. I am not one you see in public glued to the phone it's in my purse. When the home phone was out during the flood and remodeling I existed by using the cell phone for everything. I forwarded the landline number to my cell phone number so I didn't miss calls to the house.

I am a techy person so it is of interest to me. I use it much like my tablet. This current one is a big one so much easier to use and see. I have never put a screen protector on any of my devices and never had a scratch. Especially since most are now such high quality. I always have a case on it. Currently in a case that is a flip case, has a place for credit cards and drivers license, has a little handle to hook on my wrist. Very protective but not as easy to use for phone calls but I often use speaker phone, not in public though!

My husband has a clip case that he wears on his belt like his old flip phone it's just bigger.

I am sure I can live with out one but I enjoy having the convenience.

Ditto to everything Kessala said!! Except for her "brother" part. My brother doesn't participate in this madness either. I really just don't get the need to be constantly connected and seeking/achieving "instant gratification" in any quest. I do think that at some point those of us who think this way will, out of necessity, have to "connect" in order to carry on basic ways of living. I hope I don't live that long.

The way some of you describe smart phones sounds like how some described motorized vehicles, the radio, television, the internet and many other technological advances.

It is an extraordinary piece of technology that has revolutionized the way we live. Sure, you can live without one, of course you can.

But I see no reason to poo-poo at the rest of us who embrace technology.

Anyone here watch Star Trek? Our smart phones have, in many ways, become like a tricorder.

I've never even been to this website on a computer. I'm on my smart phone.

Another one here who uses a grocery list app. I might forget my paper list, or my reusable bags, but I'll have my phone.

I only got the smart phone because DH was upgrading, and it ended up cheaper for me to get one than to keep my flip phone. I still don't use most of the built-in apps, and have only added a couple. I text some, talk a little, use the GPS and do a little random surfing. Not tied to it.

Love my smartphone. I use it to keep track of work schedule and look up stuff for my clients when they need me to. It helps me shop better for them too. I can send emails and texts and talk. What's not to love.

I do put it down and step away when driving and having dinner out though. That's important to me to be aware, attentive to others and safe.

Yes to Star Trek. In fact I was looking for a NG episode yesterday where the alien symbiotes invaded Star fleet HQ and everyone had to stop transmitting to the HQ. Luckily they had different frequencies and their tricorders. \ ;o) Yes I'm a Trekkie. :).

(Though I do turn off the extra noises on my phone. I don't like the constant beeping.)

I find a pen and paper works really great for a grocery list, who would have dreamed? Sits in my kitchen and comes with me to the store.

I do have a smart phone, but still loved my slide out keyboard phone. The only reason I up-graded was the fact that with my tremor, I had so much trouble hitting those little keys....and with this smart phone, I can use the voice command to send texts....which is the way I communicate with my family most. But for some reason, my battery charge doesn't last long....and I always close out the apps.

Love my Samsung Galaxy smart phone. Its a phone, tablet, camera and computer all in one. I use it more than a computer, tablet, or camera. I have a gorilla protective glass on it and its in a chunky rubberized case which prevents it from sliding in my hand when I'm using it.

Aprile said it well.

Time to re-read "The Handmaid's Tale"? You can put too much trust in the permanence and safety of an accustomed pattern.

I inherit DIL's smart hone when she gets a new one. DS has a family plan that includes me. I use it almost exclusively to talk to family. I don't want the wide world to have my cell phone number. I don't want to talk to my banker, doctor, repairman in public, and certainly not in traffic. They can call my landline at home, which is where I have the information relevant to the conversation. Our landline also provides information to police and fire departments in an emergency.

It seems to me that any contacts *I* can make remotely from my cell phone -- banking, medical records, locking my home -- anyone *else* can also do remotely, including denying me access. I can be 'virtually' marooned.

Do you think people will eventually weary of their screen lives? Surely it is an addiction to constantly look and look, lest you miss some tidbit -- rendering you absent from your present actual life. Can people bear a non-distracted mind? (Ability to multi-task is a myth.)

I have to laugh at the recent best seller about making friends by talking to strangers -- in line, on a corner, wherever. Who won't be annoyed that you interrupted their screen time?

Oh I admit that doing everything online, either smartphone or computer has reduced our ability to communicate verbally. At least for the younger generations.

I remember when I actually had to talk to people. Scary.

Like some of you I have no desire to be connected 24/7. A flip phone sits in my purse and is rarely turned on. At home I much prefer using the larger screen my MacBook provides.

Nothing grates on my nerves more than being in traffic and seeing people texting. That should be outlawed and if it means no phones in the car so be it!

No poo pooing here or not recognizing new technology. Just sayin'.

Why is it that people, all people with a smart phone are thought to have their eyes glued to it. Do I think that if someone has a flip phone that their ears are glued to it...no I don't. Some of us are responsable adults and understand that public is not the place to surf the web. Just because we have a carry around computer doesn't mean were using it 24/7. I don't underdtsnd why its acceptable to carry a flip phone around where you go, but not acceptable to take a smart phone. And....I've watched many people using smart phones driving and talking on the phone...using hands free blu tooth. I've also seen people talking on their flip phone driving down the road holding the phone to their ear. I think what type of cell phone someone has is personal pref. Having one or the other doesn't make someone more responsable or more respectful of the world around them.

By the way most flip phones also have text.

I totally don't get the continual comments about if you have a smart phone you are on it 24 /7 that could not be farther from the truth for many of us. I don't understand the thinking how awful we are to have such a device. But yet the same people have a cell phone just a different looking one. It's very funny. I don't talk on any phone much ever. I text maybe once a week or so usually appointments or doctors contacting me. Which is awesome I can be in instant contact with my doctors by text. Don't have to call the office and hope someone can talk to me and forget about them getting the doctor to call back.

A pen and paper used to work for me but now that I have such problems with my hands let me tell you that little app on my phone is a God send!

It's not a horrible contraption. We can certainly live without them, we can live without a lot of things, electricity, gas we can go back to oil lamps cooking on fire but should we? I might use a microwave oven when someone else doesn't. I certainly don't care. I have a friend who only has a wood burning stove in her house. Lives a very frugal life up on a mountain in Arkansas but she has a computer, tablet and a smartphone! She gets around on horseback as much as possible but she owns a fine Dodge Ram Hemi dually pick up truck too lol.

Different is great.

I don't think anyone said it was awful to have such a device. Speaking for myself, it's just not something I have any interest in. I like my computer and the land line suits me just fine (as little as I use it). I find my flip phone irritating the few times I've actually used it. Did appreciate dh setting up my car stereo to answer the phone automatically, but that only works if I have the phone turned on. ;)

Anyone care to address the question of hacking -- or what happens if the whole network stops working for an extended period? (Does anyone remember mail strikes? Multiply that by all the internet uses you depend upon.)

I'm not opposed to cell phones of any ilk. It's how they are used. I see a LOT of people using them in public, including drivers -- almost totally unobservant of their surroundings. Again, the ability to multi-task is a MYTH. The *mind* absorbed online, whether through a hand-held or not, is not capable of driving safely.

Hacking of what, chisue?

Are you thinking about what would happen with the internet going down?

A smart phone has been a savior to my blind 85 year old mom. Seri is her helpmate. She has all our names in her favorites and can ask seri to call us or her friends. She can also check her stock prices, the weather report, or even the time by asking seri. She's blind so obviously doesn't drive, nor does she stay on it a lot. But her life would be much more isolated without it.

We travel a lot and I work full time. I also give clients and opposing counsel my number when I know they may need me while I am out of the office and when I am in the office, my family can call or text without tying up my office phone. I can check my work email on it anywhere and even read some documents.

i use the notes function for lists-- to-do lists, lists of information I need for mom, lists of things to discuss with the GC, grocery lists, menu lists, etc.

i use the camera a lot -- primarily for personal use, but occasionally for work. In fact, I remember taking a picture of a marked up document that was negotiated in the courtroom hallway, so that the two warring parties could each have a record of the changes that were made so as not to have arguments in finalizing.

I text a lot, but usually important information, like texting DH when I'll be late coming home or going back and forth with DD or our GC. I can save important threads.

I facetime time with DD a lot, especially about the house we are building, but other fun things as well.

Having important numbers and email addresses in my contacts lists both work and personal is very handy.

I use the alarm function instead of a traditional alarm.

Calculator app is handy.

I also use an iPad for many of the same things, plus I can do legal research, check court records or even just surf the web. Just last week I attended a seminar and was able to download the written materials into my iBooks. I also use my iPad for various apps, weather, homeplanning, decorating, and Netflix to name just a few. I read books and pdfs (work and otherwise on iBooks. I can even download audio books.

My iPad and phone are synced and because I use my iPhone and iPad for business as well as personal, I have added security and password protections and my IT department can remotely remove all work related material if either is lost.

I could go on and on, but the point is that just because we are getting older (I am 62) keeping up with technology is a good idea. It just makes life easier and I couldn't do what I do without it.

EDITED to add that I don't do any of this while driving. But I do while sitting in restaurants, waiting for appointments, when DH is driving, sitting on the couch at home and the like.

I am not opposed to people using them in public but hate seeing drivers using them! A friend and I were out shopping and she told me of a new store that opened. She couldn't remember exactly where the location was so I PULLED OVER and looked it up on my smart phone and away we went! Love it!

Chisue, yes. It happens often. Last week AT&T cellphone customers couldn't call 911 for a few hours. Not good. Can you imagine calling 911 and getting the message "the number you've reached is no longer in service. Please check the number and redial".

Networks crash just like anything else. It's annoying. But what I've learned from my years at Verizon & Time Warner Cable is that the business customers are affected the worst. Cause they're really stuck without electronics.

Regular people like us are inconvenienced, but we're not loosing thousands of dollars.

I'm another of those folk who have a smart phone turned on and with me pretty well all the time, who does not feel the need to USE it all the time. I don't feel the need to answer it if it's inconvenient to talk, but it is very handy for people to be able to contact me wherever I am if they need to, as I'm not always where the landline is. If I don't answer, they can leave voicemail.

It's handy for looking things up while you're out- recently I was looking to purchase a particular product which was once commonly in the stores where I shop but now no longer is. After not finding it at the third store I looked in, I used the smart phone to look up other possibilities and then call them to save more wasted trips. Then I Googled the product and found it is no longer sold retail, so that saved me a lot of time and hassle looking for something that isn't there.

I also use it at my hairdressers when I find an interesting recipe in one of the magazines. Instead of hand copying it or asking if I can tear out the page, I can simply take a picture of the recipe and there it is, I can even use it as a shopping list :-)

We were travelling overseas recently and doing a self-guided walking tour for which we had got a map/guide from the tourist bureau. Some young women stopped us to ask if we were doing this particular tour and if they could look at our map. I told them where we had got the map but it was a couple of kilometres away to go back for one, so I suggested the use their smart phones to take a picture of my map and go from there.

Scott, I suspect Chisue is talking about the programs which can harvest the info in your phone remotely if you are using them on open WiFi networks, for instance. I don't do that and would recommend others don't either.

I LOVE the photo app on my smartphone! Do you know how easy it is to take a picture of something - anything - and text or email it to your spouse? You can do it quicker than it took me to type this.

I get daily quick photos of my new granddaughter this way. And I can forward them to DH's phone in the blink of an eye.

Also, I have had my smartphone over a year and just learned about this - a built-in pedometer. It's not called that, but that's what it is. Keeps track of all your steps. 24-7. How handy is that?!

" Do you know how easy it is to take a picture of something - anything - and text or email it to your spouse?"

Good point, that's another thing it's useful for- eg shopping for furniture/clothes for someone else etc, you can take a picture, text it to that person and ask, do you like this one? and get an answer, saving a lot of back and forth to the shops returning stuff.

I wish I had had a smart phone when my kids were in college. So easy to check in with them. My daughter does this with her son all the time. My son is in Norway and told me to upgrade my what's up app, and he called us when we were at my daughter's tonight. We put it on speaker and it was as clear as if he was in the next room. When my daughter was in Guadeloupe last week we face timed her. As a child I would have never dreamed of this.

Colleen, I agree - with open wifi networks. Be careful. Your right!!

I am living in the learning curve of my "smart phone". It stays in my purse most of the time..loosing a hand to it just seems ridiculous. It absolutely makes me feel DUMB and whoever said there are buttons that ALWAYS get bumped RIGHT ON!! I have relatives that embraced technology early. They always have input from the outside world but NEVER have an ear for a conversation. The hours they wasted not playing cards/puzzles with my in laws still makes me sad. Holidays went from FUN to BORING IMHO. When a devise is used to assist it is a fabulous thing--when it is your total world, well we have lost something vital. Say what you want smart phones have made most of us rude/boring/insufferable/out of it.

I love my iPhone but when I'm home, it's plugged in, in the basement, next to my purse, on a table by the garage entrance. It's very useful! I love it on ling trips - my car allows me to use and dual it hands free - my address book is stored in my car. When I get bored and drowsy, I can call a friend and it makes the trip go by more quickly.

I love the Calendar feature - I can make a doctor or hair App't and quickly see if there is a conflict- no more little App't cards in my purse. And I keep all my meds and allergies in the Notes section - have that at the doctor's.

My children and grands prefer to communicate by Text - not my choice, but it's better than an unanswered phone call.

If I get well enough to go to London in a couple of weeks, it will be invaluable to convert currency, guide me to correct bus number or Tube, give me directions, hours of operation etc.. I know my way around London but haven't been in 8 yrs.

If your smart phones bumping buttons so to speak put a lock on it. Problem solved.

Please, KT friends, do not talk and drive. It's not about your HANDS. It's about distracting your MIND from piloting a thousand pounds of missile among other missiles. You will need all your wits about you when the darn fool sharing your road while distracted by his phone creates a sudden traffic crisis.

We see others driving distracted all the time. We could immediately reduce traffic deaths and accidents by not allowing civilian vehicles to take or receive any but emergency calls while the vehicle is in motion. Some trucking companies already attempt to do this; their company phones will not operate when the truck is in motion. There is no personal call more important than driving FOCUSED. Again, multi-tasking is a MYTH.

Elmer -- Yes, I'm talking about a take-overs or shut-downs. When people put 'all their eggs' onto a cloud, what happens if the cloud 'floats away'?

In "Handmaid's Tale" -- a *story* -- religious oligarchs take over the nation, controlling everyone's ability to buy, sell, move about, communicate, eat, breathe. If everyone eventually puts his whole life online...wouldn't it be easy to freeze or seize it?

Some of my concern is prompted by learning that even in remote Chinese villages, people not only have cell phones, but have every aspect of their lives 'on' them: Their identity papers, their savings, their pensions. Phones replace cash and credit card transactions. It's "I Am My Cell Phone".

This led me to think about bandits holding people's computers hostage, and then to, "Why not kidnap the entire Virtual Person?" That led to, "Why not take over a whole nation? And now we are back to "Handmaid's Tale".

Sorry, chisue, I don't follow your comment.

Elmer -- Do you not think it possible for everything a person has stored online to lead to the information being 'kidnapped'...or to just be unavailable due to other circumstances for a very long time?

It's been a while since any area of the US had a complete electrical blackout for an extended period, but that can happen. It can be made to happen. Why couldn't the same happen to information 'stored' online. We need electricity to 'get' online. But what if we couldn't access the storage?

I love mine. To each his own. They are not without their downsides and pitfalls, but I really appreciate being able to instantly communicate with my kids via free texting even though they live in foreign countries

chisue, in the sense that anything is possible, sure. In the sense that many things that are possible are very unlikely, then no.

No one should have any bit of important electronic data only in one place. Few people have anything essential on their phones and those that do should make provisions to have another copy or copies in other places.

You leave your home for a few months each year. When away, you don't have hands-on access to any personal records. Is that temporary unavailability a problem for you? Your winter trips are longer than any normal interruption of availability would ever last.

Other than on-board photos (that haven't been backed up), most anything else anyone has on their smartphone really exists somewhere on the internet. Barring some massive catastrophe, such things are backed up.

You have to be smart to be able to use them. I quit using mine.

I'm only concerned that evidently some people have ALL their information 'stored' online. Isn't it subject to being compromised? We know people have had their computers 'held hostage' until they pay the pirate a fee. What if that went wide-scale on everything online? Isn't it more feasible than going house to house, breaking into home files? Unthinkable?

"some people have ALL their information 'stored' online"

Again, I'm not sure what you're referring to so I'll just let it drop.

Anyone whose internet use is so naive and careless (regarding use of safe habits and adequate security software) as to subject them to the kind of "pirate" problems you mention probably should probably stop using smartphones, PCs and the internet. If that's the kind of user you're referring to, I don't think there's much anyone can say. Their risk is themselves, not the electronic world they're visiting.

Nothing in anyone's life is 100% safe, nor should the expectation be that anything that presents even a minuscule amount of risk requires an extreme avoidance effort. Just my opinion.