Why I Don't Have A Mobile
11:30 UK time, Friday, 15 February 2008
A mobile phone may seem like an essential tool for modern life, but is it really?
A recent Magazine feature on sparked a flurry of comments from readers who don't own a mobile phone.
Whether it's the health fears, the price of living in a remote area or simply a choice not to, there are plenty of reasons why an estimated 14% of the UK adult population goes without.
And as the Mobile World Congress goes on in Barcelona, it's a good time to hear the mobile refuseniks explain how life still goes on without one.
DAY FIVE: To finish the series, here is an edited selection of the hundreds of entries we've received.
"I find it a blessing being out of contact. I watch the way people use mobile phones almost as a substitute for thinking. From the guy in the supermarket unable to make a decision as to what to buy without the advice of a remote partner; to the passenger on the train uttering the ubiquitous βIβm on the trainβ five minutes before they reach their station." Richard Paul, Romsey
"On the very few occasions of HAVING to use a mobile, the wiggly worm tickling inside the ear starts almost immediately or my ear gets hot in a short space of time or an immediate pain in the head. Having a passenger in the car with me and they answer or use one on their right ear can be particularly painful." Barry Winsbury, Wisbech
"Why don't I have a mobile? Well, let's see - why exactly would I need one? Take an average 24 hours: I'm asleep for seven (five-month-old son permitting); at or near my desk for another nine, except when Iβm in meetings and canβt take calls; and at home for perhaps seven of the remaining eight. Which leaves me out of touch for the one hour it takes me to walk to and from work." Henry Oliver, London
"No matter where I am, how can I miss a mobile telephone when I only see the misfortune of others with them? The first time I received a call from such was from a client in his Rolls on the M4 to my office in 1980, to tell me he was going to be late for lunch. He did it to impress and that often holds true now. To be seen to be without is viewed as rather strange, except I view most users as needing mobiles as baby comforters. They HAVE to fiddle about with them. The mobile wonβt get one any earlier to a late appointment and if you are dying, I daresay you will drop the βphone, anyway." Graham Feakins, south London
βAt home we don't answer the phone when eating or putting the children to bed and so on. Why extend that to when out? If I've made the effort to get away, why provide a means to be interrupted. One would have been useful attempting to contact my wife after an outpatient appointment and needing to be picked up, but one call in seven years would not be worth the cost of a phone.β Richard Bragg, Winchester
βListening to someone else's work problems when while I was on the way home felt like unpaid overtime. I didn't want to be one of those people. I appreciate that mobiles are good in an emergency and once or twice it would have been handy to have one. I am glad that my two daughters both have one but I will continue to resist getting one. If someone wants to get hold of me badly enough, perhaps they could send me a letter.β Paul Jackson, East Sussex
"As an artist/writer I like to be in control of distractions. Mobiles (and wi-fi in general) are the greatest unlicensed neurological experiment the world has ever seen. The radiation effects, particularly on children, are subtle and unknown. No research at all has been carried out into psychological effects." Rob Brownell, Colchester
"People will no longer commit themselves to anything as the phone allows them to change plans. I feel this is eroding the relationships people are forming as they no longer have to be honest with each other and can simply fob-off a contact with vague plans of hooking up. Whilst many people see this in a positive light I, myself, don't want to live like that. I would rather be able to spend the time concentrating on the people I have arranged to be with and so I choose not to use a mobile." Melanie White, London
"I am a retired language teacher. I have spent my career enabling my clients to develop the art of verbal communication, and now I insist on the right to relax when I am taking a walk, or to concentrate on getting to my destination if I am going somewhere by train or bus." Edmund Burke, Kingston-upon-Thames
"In addition to the reasons people have already given, I don't have a mobile phone because I don't want anyone to know exactly where I've been for the last 7 years, or who I've phoned. That is how long companies are required to keep those records, and they can be accessed by government or police." Jim
"I do not use them any more because they give me a headache. I recently spent 45 minutes at a hospital clinic where notices were poster were displayed asking people not to use mobile phones. Despite the notice, I counted 17 people using the mobile phones during this time. It seems people are addicted to them. I ended up with a terrible headache because of these ignorant people." Elaine
"I'm 59; so I remember the world before mobiles. How did we cope? We were organised; we were efficient; and we stuck to arrangements instead of feeling free to change them at the last minute. Yesterday I was at a conference where we twice said, "Mobiles off!" - and each time a mobile rang straight after. The second time it was the conference organiser's. I don't have a mobile. I managed without one for years; I will continue to do so." Martin Jenkins
"I'm an IT professional and I choose not to have a mobile phone. They are completely unnecessary and over-rated. Once you have one, you find all sorts of reasons to use it, thus justifying your need to have one in the first place. They are a waste of time and money." David
"I had given up mobile phones mainly because I was concern about the environment and the effect the widespread rise of the number of mobile phone masts around the country much less the world considering the disconcerting reports today, Mobile Phone Masts are damaging bees radar system (ability to navigate), the bees are failing to return to their hives and are as a result in decline." Rajiv
"Why would I want to increase my chances of getting a brain tumour by 200%? I never have and never will own a mobile phone. The independent peer reviewed research proving that radiation emissions from phones are harmful is ignored by both government and the phone operators alike. It is amazing to me how the media will only publish stories about phone industry funded research alleging little risk from phones and masts, yet completely ignore the thousands of studies proving that the microwave radiation emissions from such devices can cause serious ill health." J Elliott
"I am 36 and I never had a mobile phone and I still don't have one. I am afraid I don't tolerate people speaking loudly in their phones, people who, as soon as a plane touches ground, have to switch on their phones just to say: "Hi mum, I have just landed". Those people clearly make a very stupid use of mobile phones. So, at the moment I am fine without one." Anna
DAY FOUR: Ten reasons not to own a mobile, by Simon Fairlie in South Petherton, Somerset.
1. I get more than enough phone calls on my landline.
2. Rarely do I find myself in a situation where a phone is essential and there is no call box.
3. It's one more thing to lose.
4. It's another expense I don't need.
5. They are too fiddly for a bloke with big fingers.
6. They don't work properly in many situations.
7. When I was lent one for a week's intensive use I ended up with severe headaches and an inability to string words together.
8. They were marketed perversely by making landline users pay more to ring people who had bought mobiles.
9. Part of the profits go to undeserving landowners who get Β£5,000 a year for allowing an ugly mast to be built on their land.
10. They are part of a raft of technologies that might in the future be used for sinister forms of state control.
DAY THREE: After 15 years as a mobile phone owner, Gabrielle Collard (pictured below), a 37-year-old web producer from east London, gave up hers last year.
"The decision was made easier for me as I'd come back from travelling where I'd got used to not having one. Mobiles are like needy children, always wanting attention. I wanted to cut out the stress.
"Being self-employed without a mobile hasn't been a problem so far. My work isn't life-saving β email and a BT line is enough.
"At first I was anxious. Once, I was stuck in traffic and I needed to phone a client. But I just borrowed a phone from the guys in the van next to me. And it was free."
It's wrong to assume everyone is worried they can't contact you, she says, and mobiles have made people less likely to stick to social arrangements.
"There are more public phones than you think β lots of pubs still have them. And I still have a social life. It feels so liberating and somehow more grown-up without one.
"Sometimes when I'm out, I think to myself 'nobody knows I'm here... isn't it great!'"
DAY TWO: Kenneth Wilson (pictured right), 26, from Glasgow, says one of the key reasons why he chooses not own one is the association between mobiles and masts and bad health.
"Various forms of cancer, fertility problems, DNA damage and ear tumours are a few of the associated maladies.
"Although the nexus between these ailments and mobile phone use may be highly speculative, I find it entirely unacceptable that the mobile phone industry is permitted to peddle these devices to millions of people despite the possibility, unproven or not, of serious health risks."
He wants the risks to be properly investigated through a high-profile, transparent, government-funded study.
And he also has human rights concerns about the manufacture of handsets because the mineral coltan is frequently mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the miners, often children, are fiercely exploited, he says. And many mobiles are assembled in China.
Another reason is the level of "product worship", he says.
"This is how modern capitalism works, you have to convince the consumer that the product is meaningful and important, more than a phone, that it is about profound human communication or something just as ridiculous.
"I donβt believe for a second that people really want to communicate incessantly with each other, this idea has been sold to them on the premise that not to be immersed in the mobile phone world will result in cultural exclusion. Which, as a matter of fact, it actually does. Much to my displeasure."
DAY ONE: Clare Green (pictured below) is a 44-year-old housewife who recently moved back to the UK after spending eight years abroad.
She lives in Kinlochard, Stirlingshire, where the phone reception is very poor.
I don't have a mobile now and use skype to contact friends abroad or family. I am also a bit of a phonophobe, finding mobiles over-used. Why should everyone always feel they can contact me and interrupt my day?
"Why people feel the need to phone when driving or doing other activities escapes me. I'd rather talk in person or not at all. Most of what is said is drivel anyway.
"But I am not a technophobe and can use the internet and email/skype quite happily. The phonelines go down quite frequently here so it is better not to be too reliant on this mode of communication anyway."
After a couple of weeks in the house, her landline went down and she had to drive to Aberfoyle and use the call box.
"There is a really lovely community here and I'm sure any of my neighbours would have helped me out but we'd only been here a few weeks and I really need the landline to sort things out in our new house."
