We're all different. I had to travel to another county for work on the day I had no phone or tablet and it was a nightmare. I didn't know where I was or how to get anywhere and didn't want to pay out for a taxi.

I'm sure you didn;t have to buy your tickets using a mobile phone!!
Directions - well, look at a map or phone the company of you really have to, (you shouldn;t need to), before you leave home.

I don;t have a car.

I'd say having a mobile phone is more important if you have a car. In case you break down.

You do when you purchase tickets on line, you take your phone with you as the tickets on it. When out and about where do you suggest someone finds a map?? stopping at a garage and using the road map? We drove up from Cork to Galway, we don't have a sat nav. Don't need one when you can use google maps on your phone.

Not sure why it's the done thing to go on about how proud you are you don't have a smart phone. Ironic when it's a smart phone because it does it all for you without having to buy a satnav,stop for directions. Pray theres a petrol station nearby because your red light came on. Check with the babysitter when you're out. Call an uber/taxi on and on and on. Stupid to dismiss them really.

I bought my tickets on a computer and had to show them on either my phone or tablet (tablet in my case as the phone is a bit small for me to see).

As I said, we are all different. If you are happy planning your journey in advance, with lots of options to account for delays and other possible changes then that is great for you. I am not comfortable being anywhere and not having access to up to date travel information and I see no reason why I should have to do that when it is readily available.

Stop stressing about things and enjoy yourself where you are, in the moment.

Ps: you can buy your ticket online and then print them out.

You can buy a map cheaply. For many journeys, you don;t need one anyway if you have any odea about the geography of the country and can read road signs.

Why would you wait for the red light to come on, before filling up with fuel?
Why would you ring the babysitter. Just let them get on with the job, and stop interfering.

It's the 2016 version of "we only have the TV for the help to watch nature programmes". Particuarly weird when it's coming from people posting on DS. Presumably the cache in not having a phone is because one is above such things as social media ... but you're on DS.... .

You;ve just amended a previous post and added the same comment again!
Why?

Because I didn't mean to run it all together. Sometimes posters get annoyed when it looks like you're responding to one person and mean another.

Missing the point totally.

Why print them out making you a) buy a printer/ink etc and b) having to keep the ticket safe somewhere. Why bother when it's there on the phone.

Why need to buy a map when I have a free google maps on my phone. Plus something else to remember on a journey, I don't have too.

Sometimes as a busy mum and part time admin worker and baker I don't have time to check my fuel, or I forget. When it comes on I can check on my phone if I'm not local where the nearest petrol station is.

Every parents checks on a babysitter sometimes, if your child has been poorly but you have a business meeting to go to you can't re-arrange. Or a new sitter you want to check on, you expect mums to find a call box (if such things still work, most are vandalised).

All those things help me stop stressing and enjoy life. If you wish to live your life in 1978 and enjoy it carry on, but it's a bit patronising to carry on the way you are, as if everyone using one is stupid, and is why I said it was stupid.

Yes posting on ds while telling other people to get a life

You glance at your fuel gauge whilst driving. If it is starting to run low, you stop at the next fuel station and fill up.

How on earth would a smartphone help with this??!!!

To be honest, you sound like someone that likes to micro-manage their lives - and to control other people, (eg: your babysitter).

So you say that I am assuming you are stupid for relying on a smartphone, yet call me stupid for not owning one??!!

I actually like going out without a mobile phone, let alone a smartphone.. It means I can get away from things and not be at someone else's beck and call!

No. My 11 yr old has started secondary school in another town and has to get buses - the service is unreliable so I need to have my phone on me through the week in case she needs to get hold of me.

I always feel a bit unnerved (not crazy unreasonably so) if the kids are away somewhere and I don't have my mobile.

At weekends when we're all home I love to turn my phone off. I like being uncontactable and undisturbed.

Browsing $hite and forums online is my biggest problem. I'm cutting back on that. Today is an exception. I'm just procrastinating and wasting my life on click bait sites idly wondering what does that girl from Little House on the Prairie look like now.

I never do find out. I usually fall asleep at about 2.37am on page 125,468 and then hate myself the next day when I'm knackered at work and I realise I don't actually care what yer woman looks like now.

Flat battery, life ends

Apart from that a decent camera, especially a DSLR is most likely to outperform most mobile phones, your pics should be backed up to a cloud service, if they aren't already, e.g. Google Drive. I don't leave any personal information on my mobile(s), other than contacts and everything is password protected (PIN) in case of loss. But, YMMV.

It's not practical to carry a proper camera everywhere though. Even if I had a great DSLR I certainly wouldn't be taking it to gigs for example or bringing it to a nice restaurant or on a pub crawl. All activities that I've done recently that I've taken pictures at. I agree about backing up though, I back my phone up regularly.

The thing is, most decent smart phones do have a decent camera. More than a decent camera, a very very good camera in fact taking photos of very good quality.

Yes there are better cameras which are designed specifically for that one area of technology, but it's so tiresome hearing how unless you carry around a DSLR you don't have a good camera with you.

(Not that everyone is saying that...)

I reckon I could do it, Im actually quite fed up of social media and the constant contact we all need to be in. What gets on my tits is because I cant afford to move out at the mo, Im at home so I get texts off me mum asking if I want dinner or when am I coming home. Before mobiles were popular we all coped by just ringing once in the day via a phone box and that was enough to ensure the person you was talking to knew what your plans were. Before I had a phone in very early 00s if I went out to play with some mates down the park I'd say to me mum I'd be back late afternoon or I'd go back to my friends house after playing football and ring to say I wont be long.

Landlines have become obselete I have noticed! used to use it all the time in the 90s, all we use it for now is to ring my great uncle as he's no good with technology. Rest of the time we just get spam calls.

Exactly that! they should be called smart phones when you need to charge the bloody thing at least once or twice a day for it to still operate.

You what? are you serious? haha! surely you look at your dash right? or do you need a smart phone to tell you where to locate it?. Maybe its just your way of doing things but this is a new one on me! "Sorry officer my car ran out of fuel because I forgot to look at my dash, my iPhone 7 was sposed to tell me but it ran out of battery for the 5th time today"

I couldn't, but only because I live in Manchester and my partner lives in Peterborough. We can't go a day without talking/texting etc.
Other than that I'd be able to.

Sounds like you're living for your phone, simplify man.

Prefer a £700 smart phone with a map on it than a £1 map. Some people just have that luxury.. Well, most in fact do.

A £1 map ain't gonna stop working, man, or run outta juice.

Or be updated when that route is closed/slower etc, etc.

Either way, people use what they like. There's very little in the way of materials that people need, so this constant back and forth of what's better or what people are 'living' for seems a little redundant.