How attached are you to your mobile device? (2025 Edition)

[ZLoth]

The title says it all... how attached are you to your mobile device such as your smart phone or tablet? Is it to the point that you half-jokingly refer to it as your electronic leash? And, do you even have a landline anymore whether it be plain old telephone service (POTS) or a VoIP adapter? If you've gone mobile only, how long has it been since you made the decision?

And, what apps are you using on your mobile device? Note that for many of this apps, this is in addition to the desktop versions of the application/website, not instead of. Somehow, it's much easier to look at the month-view of a calendar on a larger screen such as your desktop or laptop instead of your smartphone screen.

[ZLoth]

Since I'm starting this thread... I've been landline-free since 2003. Because of the calling areas at the time and where I was living, it was more cost-effective to use my mobile that landline because my friends were in the "local toll" calling areas that were beyond my local calling area. My first smartphone was a "Droid" phone through Verizon which was a college graduation gift to myself, and also Verizon, at the time, was not carrying the Apple phones. I don't regret the decision in going the Android route.

A quick on my media: Yes, I self-host my stuff on a server at home. I have a extensive physical media collection in CDs, DVDs, BluRays, and 4K. All of this has been converted to digital media files (yes, downmixed to stereo) and stored on a Plex media server at my home so that I can access it where ever I have Internet access. Thank goodness I have a unlimited data plan through my mobile provider.

Anyways, here are my go-to applications:

• Personal organizer (Online calendar, contact list) - My life resolves around my digital organizer.
• Password Manager and Two-factor authentication (2FA) security device - Whenever possible, I have 2FA on all of my accounts whether it be for work or personal use. For some of these accounts, the texting of the code is not available for security reasons.
• Audiobook Player - All of the publishers have eliminated tape/CD options for audiobooks in the past few years, so new releases are now digital-only. I acquired a extensive collection of audiobooks over the years, and am able to stream them through the AudioBookShelf service on my server for playback on the Bluetooth in my car or away from home. My secondary choice is through Overdrive/Libby and Hoopla, both of which are available through my local library for free.
• Music Player - I have a wide variety of soundtracks and classical music which I have transferred from CD, and again play through my car. I don't subscribe to a music service beyond the occassional free trial.
• Navigation aid - Yes, I use Google Maps to provide directions in the DFW Metroplex, plus I have a tracking function to know where my 84 year old mother phone is at when we go out.
• Guide to local restaurants and attractions
• Finance Manager - Keeping track of my accounts
• Camera (both still and video) - The pictures/videos are automatically uploaded to my server.
• Weather applications including local radar
• Streaming Radio Stations - I use an application to stream WRR (local classical music station) at a better quality than over-the-air as well as Classic FM in London. In addition, there is KEC56 which is the local weather station.
• System monitoring for my own server

So, you can say that I'm fairly attached to my electronic leash... because the functionality goes beyond a mobile phone.

[Rothman]

Poll answers don't make much sense to me.

[CoreySamson]

I have a mobile phone (2nd gen iPhone SE) and a laptop (2022 MacBook Air). For my needs, I don't really need anything else (not even a desktop or TV). I use my two devices for a lot of things, so I guess I'm pretty attached to them:

- Calendar
- Note-taking for classes and sermons
- Work/school assignments and papers
- Music streaming
- Internet/Social Media
- Gaming
- Camera
- Banking/Taxes
- Navigation

[Scott5114]

The title says it all... how attached are you to your mobile device such as your smart phone or tablet?

If I accidentally dropped it down a storm drain I wouldn't try all that hard to get it out.

[Max Rockatansky]

If a pack of rabid grizzlies took my phone I might fight one or two in hand to hand combat.  Fighting three or four is probably taking things a little inordinately far.

I would probably also give my phone for a Klondike bar.

[ZLoth]

If I accidentally dropped it down a storm drain I wouldn't try all that hard to get it out.

If a pack of rabid grizzlies took my phone I might fight one or two in hand to hand combat.  Fighting three or four is probably taking things a little inordinately far.

Fortunately, everything is backed up on my phone, so if the phone was lost in the drain, it's time for a new one. I would just issue a remote wipe on the phone.

And, if grizzlies wanted my phone, it's probably because of either the Bear In The Back Seat, Bear Bloopers, or That Bear Ate My Pants audiobooks.

[hotdogPi]

My phone is essential for my hotspot, as my laptop doesn't generate its own WiFi and I work from "home" while away from home quite often. However, with regard to apps and storage, pretty much everything is on my laptop.

I am not physically attached to my phone. I can let go of it at any time.

[thspfc]

I am attached.

[Max Rockatansky]

If I accidentally dropped it down a storm drain I wouldn't try all that hard to get it out.

If a pack of rabid grizzlies took my phone I might fight one or two in hand to hand combat.  Fighting three or four is probably taking things a little inordinately far.

Fortunately, everything is backed up on my phone, so if the phone was lost in the drain, it's time for a new one. I would just issue a remote wipe on the phone.

And, if grizzlies wanted my phone, it's probably because of either the Bear In The Back Seat, Bear Bloopers, or That Bear Ate My Pants audiobooks.

Trouble is that to backup anything requires in be somewhere with cell service.  Generally I'm more careful with my phone if I'm coming back from somewhere remote with a haul of new photos.  More so if it is something exotic like Chowchilla Mountain Road was. 

[kphoger]

I have neither a landline phone nor a smartphone.

The last time I had a landline phone was before moving to Wichita to 2008.  And I certainly don't refer to my dumbphone as an electronic leash.

Beyond phone calls, text messages, and the contact list, the stock apps I use are these:
alarm clock
calculator
camera & photo gallery (not very good quality)

[Roadgeekteen]

Not sure how I should have voted. I still live with my parents and my mom still uses our landline, but I've never used it and have no intention of ever using a landline.

[ozarkman417]

My household had a landline until a couple of years ago. We eventually got nothing but spam calls on it. By that point, everyone in our household had smartphones, so we just got rid of it.

[Scott5114]

Fortunately, everything is backed up on my phone, so if the phone was lost in the drain, it's time for a new one. I would just issue a remote wipe on the phone.

I wouldn't say it's "backed up" (i.e. I have no comprehensive backup) but anything important on my phone is either a copy of something on my desktop, or it's something I already sent to my desktop. So most of what would be lost are things like photos taken because I'm too lazy to write something down, screenshots of something I sent to a group chat, etc.

[Roadgeekteen]

Fortunately, everything is backed up on my phone, so if the phone was lost in the drain, it's time for a new one. I would just issue a remote wipe on the phone.

I wouldn't say it's "backed up" (i.e. I have no comprehensive backup) but anything important on my phone is either a copy of something on my desktop, or it's something I already sent to my desktop. So most of what would be lost are things like photos taken because I'm too lazy to write something down, screenshots of something I sent to a group chat, etc.

My photos are backed up in Google photos. Probably the biggest loss for me would be my Google maps timeline and my contacts.

[kkt]

The title says it all... how attached are you to your mobile device such as your smart phone or tablet? Is it to the point that you half-jokingly refer to it as your electronic leash? And, do you even have a landline anymore whether it be plain old telephone service (POTS) or a VoIP adapter? If you've gone mobile only, how long has it been since you made the decision?

And, what apps are you using on your mobile device? Note that for many of this apps, this is in addition to the desktop versions of the application/website, not instead of. Somehow, it's much easier to look at the month-view of a calendar on a larger screen such as your desktop or laptop instead of your smartphone screen.

Not at all.  I hate the thing and barely use it.  Most of the time it sits with its batteries dead at home.  The main reason I haven't gotten rid of it is to park the phone number in case I want to upgrade the phone.  But I have felt this way for a couple of years and haven't gotten around to it yet.  And sometimes I need to text my kid that I'm outside the door of their apartment building and they can let me in.

Yes, I have a landline, broadband, and a computer with a big screen and full-sized keyboard and mouse.

[vdeane]

Poll answers don't make much sense to me.

I'm 100% human.  I think.

[Ted$8roadFan]

At least 75%.

[MikeTheActuary]

I still have landline-looking phones on my desks at home, although they're VOIP rather than landline, because I still prefer that form factor.   It's simply more natural to me to pick up a handset or tap the speakerphone button, rather than look around for where I last set my cell phone, and remember what gesture is required to answer or whether the cell phone will need to be put to the side of my head or be on speakerphone in the current implementation of Android.

One of the nice things about using a VOIP service is that I can set the number to ring both my desk phone and my cell phone.

In terms of apps being used on my cell phone, the primary ones I use these days are:

- Microsoft Authenticator, as my employer is doing 2FA to connect to corporate resources through Microsoft's ecosystem, so I have to interact with Authenticator push notifications on my phone more often than I'd like.

- "Sleep as Android", not for sleep tracking, but because it's smart enough to adjust my morning alarm time based on what's on my calendar (my team at work is in the UK and India, so I occasionally have very early morning meetings)

- Tasker and IFTTT (not actively, but a lot of my home/personal automation is driven by Tasker/IFTTT)

- Google Wallet, as I've embraced paying for purchases by tapping with my phone, rather than pulling a card from my wallet

- Google Maps
- Edge
- Kindle

- Outlook, for work email/calendar
- Nine and aCalendar, for personal email/calendar   (I miss the days when my company would let us bring our own email/calendar clients on our cell phones)

- Android's stock camera and photos app

- Amazon Music
- Audible
- Podcast Addict....although I don't use these three apps as much as I used to, since I spend a lot less time in the car these days than pre-pandemic (I used to spend one week each month in Montréal, and one week each month in Memphis)

- Teams, for work calls/messaging when I'm away from my office at home
- Google Messages, for personal messaging

[mgk920]

I still remember as a small child I would think that the kewlest thing that I could possibly have was a handheld gizmo ('now called a 'tablet') that would have a weather radar readout.  This was the time of the original Star Trek episode reruns on local TV and the most sophisticated electronic anything in the average house was a vacuum tube powered hand point-to-point wired analog color TV set.  Think a bigger than desk drawer sized rat's nest of components and wiring and about 35 separate tubes.  You constantly wondered how it even worked and it needed a service call at least a couple of times every year.  after about 10-15 minutes of thinking how one would achieve that (under those conditions), I gave up and went on to other hings.  This happened several times.

Now we've got that.

Mike

[ZLoth]

From 1979:

[Scott5114]

I think I should clarify that I don't hate the hardware of mobile devices. It's cool having so much technical capacity in such a tiny little package. What I hate is the software. Android sucks and iOS is worse. The user interface design is woefully inconsistent, unpredictable, and limits you from doing things that the developer thinks you ought not to be able to do. Worse, every single app is just a platform for money-grubbing rather than focused on actually providing a useful service to the user. And if a piece of software is more interested in making money than helping me do whatever I need to do, well, I for one just won't play ball.

[LilianaUwU]

imagine having a landline at home in the big 25 🥀

[Roadgeekteen]

imagine having a landline at home in the big 25 🥀

If it's already there I can understand keeping it, but I don't think anyone at my college had one. They will probably be functionally extinct by 2050.

[Scott5114]

One thing that was kind of nice about a landline is that you didn't have to keep "the phone" on you at all times; when there was a call it'd ring every phone in the house at once, and you'd just grab whichever one you were closest to (or whichever one was closest to where you wanted to be while you talked on the phone).

By the 2000s, we had four phones hooked up to the landline: the main one in the kitchen (a white indestructable wall-mount that was probably made by Western Electric), the cordless one (which had a base unit in my parents' room that you could use the speakerphone on even if the cordless handset was somewhere else), one in my room (which I mostly used to check whether it was okay to use the dialup), and one in the garage.

I've missed calls from my wife because I left my cell in the bedroom to charge and couldn't hear it from my office.