According to a new report from Ofcom has smart phone users check their phone every 12 mins during their waking hours (BBC News).
For many, it is the first thing they check in the morning (probably before spouse).
From our Small Change series, its clear many accountants can’t live without their phones. In fact, Carl Reader blocks his emails as he was so obsessive over them that he said: “If I didn't have a notification I would convince myself that I felt the blackberry buzz.”
Can you survive without your smart phone? Do you find yourself checking it constantly? Has it affected your productivity during work hours? Or do you fiddle with your phone during downtime with your family, wondering if a client has emailed?
Replies (20)
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I don't have one - my £10 Nokia can do text fine, and has been through a 30 degree wash with no ill effects :)
I have had a mobile phone since 1989 and learned early on that its use needed careful management. The rule is that only a very few people know my mobile number otherwise all communication is through my office where I am well connected for electronic communication and I can then properly deal with matters that clients raise.
I do have a smartphone that is a about five years old and I am on a pay as you go tariff which costs about £40 per annum. I think the TOTAL texts I have ever sent is around 40 although I have received a few more than that.
I completely fail to understand what people are actually doing all that time on their phones. Their minds must be getting near overload and surely we are heading for mass problems as the craving for trivia becomes as powerful and addictive as the worst drugs.
“I completely fail to understand what people are actually doing all that time on their phones.”
On AW
Don't have one ... they are far too smart for me ... so my £10 cheap as chips old mobile is just fine, thank you. And I only use it once or twice every six months.
Biggest problem is persuading everyone that I don't have a smart phone - correction - I do not have one which is usually set up as a smartphone. I call people, text people and take photos of my grandchildren.
Sending me a link is no use - I am not connected to the internet.
I have a connection to the sum total of all human knowledge in my pocket that I can access in seconds and I find it baffling how many people consider it a badge of honour that they don't use it.
I spend much of the rest of my waking day plugged into other forms of screens, so am happy to miss out the phone bit :)
I have a connection to the sum total of all human knowledge in my pocket that I can access in seconds and I find it baffling how many people consider it a badge of honour that they don't use it.
Well, I can't help but think that most people stepping off the pavement whilst looking at their "smart" phones are connected to something other than the sum total of all human knowledge. Obviously the bit about looking left and right before crossing the road wasn't in the data set they were accessing.
Red Leader is bang on. My journey from work to railway each evening is a minefield, navigating the zombies who'd rather look at their tiny screens instead of where they're going, whilst meandering along at half speed.
I long for the day when zombies collide.
Red Leader is bang on. My journey from work to railway each evening is a minefield, navigating the zombies who'd rather look at their tiny screens instead of where they're going, whilst meandering along at half speed.
I long for the day when zombies collide.
Darwin will take care of them and the next generation will inherit the genes of the people who kept enough common sense to not get run over.
Well, I can't help but think that most people stepping off the pavement whilst looking at their "smart" phones are connected to something other than the sum total of all human knowledge. Obviously the bit about looking left and right before crossing the road wasn't in the data set they were accessing.
I don't dispute that there's a lot of people who use their phones too much, for useless things and in dangerous places at times but that has nothing to do with what I said.
It's perfectly possible to have and use a smartphone, a device I consider to be one of the absolute crowning glories of the technological age, and not use it like an idiot or addict.
It's not a Tamagotchi, you don't have to have a minimum amount of screen time to keep the thing working, using the behaviour of other people to justify a decision not to have one is really weird to me because I see no drawbacks to having one, provided you can afford it of course.
But the questions at the head of the post were not asking do you find your smartphone useful. They asked if we could live without it, and if we are constantly checking it.
I do find the phone useful, although I stop short of having office emails set up on it. I can live without it because I can connect to "the sum total of all human knowledge" via a humble computer and I don't check it constantly, certainly nowhere near once every 12 minutes.
I think it's largely an age thing.
I understand the majority of the European and American population own a smart phone. Those who don't, I imagine are often older people who have not kept up to date with technology and wouldn't be comfortable using one.
I'm presently abroad on a small island and have spent the day at one of the most beautiful, Carribean type beaches I've ever seen, on the far side of the island, thanks to my smart phone making me aware of its existence. It also gave me directions there, connected to the car via Bluetooth, and yesterday, as my son has an apple iPhone, which automatically remembers where you parked your car, he was able to rescue me in my search for where I had parked the hire car, as my sense of direction in strange places isn't good.
The phone will even answer me when I ask where the nearest fuel station is, giving me several choices.
Without it, life would be not nearly as easy for me.
I have a smart work phone and use it constantly throughout the day.
I'd guess 75% of client contact is via text, WhatsApp (Ask your kids) and calls to my mobile. I have downloaded an app that allows me to send texts via my desk top which saves no end of time during the day.
It does have a few drawbacks though, the main one being the clients who text me for things such as their UTR number because it's easier to text me than dig their own paperwork out.
I always reply politely but try to get them to understand I'm their accountant, not PA.
[quote=Steven Dring]'' I have downloaded an app that allows me to send texts via my desk to''
Which one do you use Steven?
I 'inherited' an iphone from my son when my old PAYG failed miserably on a trip down south and I got stuck on the motorway trying to get home.
So any excuse for a new car.
Plus I perloined, I mean rescued the phone from a drawer in his bedroom. As a complete technophobe I had to get him to set it up for me, so in my defence your honour he was fully aware of the crime as it took place.
I wouldnt go back now, although it was abit much the other day when I was told off by said son for not responding to a text - phone upstairs, me downstairs!
Best part for me is being able to catch up on my reading whilst Im on a train or waiting at the dentists etc.
I’ve certainly become more aware of it since watching a documentary on this very subject last year. I now put my phone away during the day (most of the time), I’ve even left it at home for the day on occasion. I don’t know how it happened but I got into the habit of checking my phone first thing in the morning, last thing at night, in between ad breaks on tv shows, if I was waiting to meet a friend somewhere... my phone was never out of my hand. I have a long way to go but I now checking it less and less. Its quite nice to just people watch or enjoy a moment without being glued to the phone.