Yep, i'm one of those "individuals" who rarely uses the phone so i don't have a cell phone or any other silly mobile device.

I can think of a number of reasons, but if there's even one reason then that is good enough. One reason - my reason - is that I do not want, do not need, and do not have any remote use whatsoever for a mobile phone at all. I have a land line with multiple cordless phones throughout the house which has served me perfectly fine for all of my telephone related needs for 24 years since I've lived on my own and had my own phone service. Even if someone bought me a mobile phone and offered to fully pay for the monthly service fees for me - I do not want it. No desire whatsoever. I don't need it and have no use for it.

Don't care what other people do, whether they think it is a life necessity or if they'd die if they couldn't touch their mobile phone for 10 seconds or not, that's not me nor my needs.

While I'm at home, I am no more than 10 feet away from a cordless phone at any moment and it gives me the entire range of features I want from a telephone and phone service with more or less nothing missing. Not only that but it explicitly does not have features on it that mobile phones normally do that I have no interest in and actually despise, namely SMS among other features. My phone bill for the month every month is $25 which all things considered is a crazy bargain compared to what most people pay for their own land lines, let alone what people generally pay for their mobile bills for the month.

When I am not at home, such as out shopping or commuting somewhere, or even if I were travelling (which I rarely do these days), unlike many if not even most other people - the last thing I ever want is for someone to be able to call me on the phone and have it ring in my pocket or whatever. I don't want to talk to anyone at all ever period if I'm walking around shopping or doing something. "But you can turn the ringer off!" - yeah, or I can just not own one in the first place. Much cheaper and more cost effective. "But you can't make phone calls then!" - er... wrong. I have never in my life needed to make a phone call outside of my house shopping or whatnot and been unable to do so within a reasonable amount of time. There are pay phones even though they decline in number and availability over time due to widespread mobile use - they still exist. Or if I'm with someone there is a high chance they own a mobile phone and I simply say "can I use your phone". Never had anyone ever say "no". If I'm not with one, I can either go up to a clerk/cashier of some business and ask to use their phone or to call me a cab or whatever and most of the time people are very helpful. Or, I can ask a total stranger "Could I bother you for a sec" and more often than you might think the average random person is kind enough to call a cab, or let you borrow their phone for a local call for a sec. At least I've never had any problems in my life doing these things.

So admittedly I'm the 1 out of 100 guy when it comes to mobile phones in terms of my opinion about it and what works perfectly fine for me, and I'm ok with being the odd man out, but it very much works for me without anything I consider to be anything more than extremely mild inconvenience once in a while. And that's only when I'm out and want to or need to make a phone call. The majority of the time I'm out of the house doing something I almost never want to make a call and I absolutely positively NEVER ever want to receive a phone call, even if someone is dying in a burning car wreck.

People have their own "But I need a phone for XYZ" or "It is so convenient for me to have a phone because ABCDEFG" arguments for why they use mobile phones or need (or think they need) them, and that's perfectly fine - everyone's life situation, desires and needs are completely different. But for me, and my personal needs, owning a mobile phone is not even the last thing on my list of desires, it's on the list of things I explicitly do not desire if someone gave it to me and paid any ongoing costs of ownership. I despise the damn things like a cranky grumpy old man. :)

People make fun of me for it sometimes, and this conversation topic does come up from time to time. Funny enough it comes up when I'm out at a restaurant dining with people on occasion and it comes up in conversation and people are surprised I don't have a phone and ask me how I can live without one. I tell them "I'll show you" then continue the conversation for a bit then I say "oh crap.. I forgot, I need to make a phone call. Say, can I borrow your phone" and like 5 people hand me their phone. I take one in each hand, look at the person who asked me earlier how I could live without a phone and say "Remember you asked me how I can live without a mobile phone? Well, I don't. I have my choice of 5 mobile phones to use right now, with the most cost effective mobile phone plan anyone has ever heard of." I get a good laugh from it and that's that.

So if anyone reads what I said above and thinks I'm nuts or wants to poke fun at the weirdo anti-cell-phone guy, laugh away. :) I get much more laughter in the end over all of the money I save, the freedom I have when walking around in public without being annoyed or disturbed. I get everything I want, without anything I don't want, and without spending a dime. I'm the one laughing all the way to the bank. :)


Thank you. It blows my mind how people think that all of these things are absolute necessities in life and can't imagine how someone could live without them. They're not necessities at all. They are nothing more than theoretical potential conveniences and they all come with pros and cons. Everyone decides which they want or need based on their perceptions of the pros and cons and how it matches their own financial, social and lifestyle situations as well as other aspects.

Not only have I never owned any mobile device nor wanted to, I also have never owned a car (although I do want to and plan to at some point in time). A land line and Internet on the other hand I would have difficulty giving up as those are key for communication as well as business, research, news and other things important to me. I do not have cable TV, nor satellite, Netflix or any other for-pay video/movie/whatever service either and never have - except for a couple of times my cable company that is my ISP offered free cable for a promotion for a while and I took it because it was free.

It isn't because I can't afford a mobile phone either. I could go buy several of them tomorrow if I wanted but there's nothing about that that appeals to me. While I can afford it, I feel much better not spending that money on something I neither want nor need.

Everyone's situation is different. Someone seeing me as being "weird" for my views, needs/desires on these things makes about as much sense as me thinking they're weird for not owning a guitar, or how they could live without a Blendtec HP3-A blender, or how anyone could live with anything less than a 30" monitor and a 20 button mouse - all things that actually matter to me personally, which most people probably don't care about. The funny thing is, if anyone who has a mobile phone did without it for like one year they could probably afford all of these other things I mentioned. :oP

As they say... Different strokes...

You wouldn't believe the strange looks I get from some people over my (expressed above) opinion about mobile phones for my own personal lifestyle. (None of what I said is judging anyone else for what they themselves need in their lifestyle, but rather explaining how none of that matches my own needs so I have no need or use for one.)

Some people's reactions to me are like Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap. "Uh, but this amp goes to 11", like they couldn't imagine why you would want an amp that only goes to 10 or whatever. Like owning a mobile phone is synonymous with drinking water every day or breathing air, that the human body can not survive without it. Makes me laugh. While they're staring with shock at me like a deer in the headlights trying to figure out how it is possible to survive without a mobile phone, I am staring back at them with the same look on my face internally thinking "are you fucking kidding me? Are you for real? Seriously?" :) I don't say that, but I'm thinkin it. :)

Sofort is legit. Of course it was founded in Germany. We germans think that credit cards are unsafe and dangerous - same for Paypal, so Sofort is pretty successful, even with giving away the credentials for your bank account. They even check your balance and last transactions during the process... :D If you care about privacy and data protection, don't use it but it is a working alternative for the germans who are afraid of credit cards... ;)

:). That's that bafflement in front of the non-normal that on the good side can leave people curious and sadly, on the bad, turn to aggression. We all carry it to some degree or other about something out there. I do own a smartphone, but it has no sim card in it. I do own a non-smart mobile phone, but it has a sim card from a different country in it. I don't like telephones in general. Text messages are useful when abroad. And a highly portable hand-holdable mini computer that has gps built in is useful, too, which explains both.

The same thing comes around when people learn that I don't drink alcohol / smoke tobacco / do drugs for the simple reason I never was interested or wanted despite being absolutely cool with people hanging out that do consume either or all those. [As long as they are still of clear enough mind to be coherent. Inebriated behaviour is only continuously fascinating for those who are in a similar mental plane of existence at the same moment, eventually.]

I kind of look at a mobile phone like I look at a king cab pickup truck. A few years ago I mulled around a bit about potentially buying a vehicle. I did some research into various potential vehicles that seemed to potentially meet my needs, read up about them and tried to inform myself as I do before I purchase anything. I talked to friends/acquaintances that know more than I do about vehicles in particular those who know a lot. I got various different advice from experts and novices alike. There was reasonable logic to many people's suggestions as to the brands or types of vehicles that might work best for me and my needs.

There were a few people who had very strong advice that they swore I couldn't go wrong by. One friend told me to buy a king cab pickup truck. I gave a surprised "what the...?" look on my face and asked "why do suggest that?". Keep in mynd, this is all after having a fairly lengthy discussion about what I was looking for in a vehicle and what my personal needs were. He said "you can never go wrong with a good truck, you can buy drywall with it and have a way to get it home, you can tow a trailer, you can ..." and went on to list various things that I could do with a truck which I'd regret if I bought something lesser.

What puzzled me, much like the story with mobile phones is that my friend did not really listen to what I told him about my needs, the problems that I was trying to solve and what was important in a vehicle to me, but rather he was looking at it from the perspective of what HE would buy for HIMSELF if HE was buying a vehicle with no thought whatsoever about how it would solve MY problem. The type of vehicle he was recommending I buy was based entirely on that vehicle being able to do a variety of things that I do not need or want to do in my life, and he said "you never know when you'll need to move drywall" and similar things like I should buy a vehicle 2-3 times or more expensive than I actually need for day to day driving needs and that sucks up significantly more fuel and the associated costs, would have much higher insurance on the off chance I might want to bring something home from the hardware store that you can't fit into a car, like that was an economical decision that made sense. I told him if I ever wanted to do such things it would be a very rare occurrence that I could call someone else who DOES own a truck or whatever, or have it delivered and if I had to pay delivery costs, they would be a fraction of the cost of buying and maintaining a much more expensive vehicle for the rare times that it would be convenient for things I would almost never do.

He just didn't get it and kept telling me I'd be sorry if I bought a mid-sized fuel efficient car, thought I was crazy to not buy a truck. In my mind, that makes absolutely no sense. People who give advice to others without knowing what the other person's actual needs are and making recommendations that meet the person's actual needs, or go and make assumptions about what the other persons needs are or should be which are completely incorrect - are not being helpful or useful.

I've had similar conversations with people about mobile phones. When I say they are no use to me, they tell me about how useful the phone is to them and list reasons why, all of which are not useful to me. They'll tell me how their spouse can call them while they're at the grocery store to tell them to pick up a few extra things they forgot about, how the kids can get them in case of an emergency, and all sorts of things that have no application in my life. I'm single, live alone, have no kids, nobody needs to get a hold of me in an emergency. People need to realize that everyone is not living a mirror image of their lives and do not have the same needs, same daily routine, same need for access to instant communications 24/7 and other things. I certainly don't. I explain that, and they tell me in response "yeah, but it can tell me where I am, give me the exact location" - not something I need to know and if I do, I just look up and turn my head and go oh here's where I am. I don't need to know the longitude and lattitude to 8 digits, don't care. The list literally goes on like "yeah, but you can do this too <thing you can do>" me: "I have no need or reason to want that" then repeat that process like 50 times. It's like they have to justify why THEY own a mobile phone to me for it to be ok, like they need my approval or something. It's just silly.

I used to drink alcohol but stopped about 5 years ago because it stopped appealing to me. Occasionally someone offers me a drink and I say I don't drink, and they might react like "no way!! Come on, have a drink!" and nag me about it annoyingly (usually if they're half in the bag), or at other times they assume that means I am an ex-alcoholic who finally gave it up and react accordingly for better or worse, or some other silly thing. It doesn't happen often, but just once in a rare while, and some people just can't fathom why you would voluntarily stop drinking alcohol unless you were an alcoholic or have liver disease or some other serious health condition that alcohol would be a big problem for. Just not wanting it anymore sounds irrational to them, much like just not wanting to own a mobile phone.

Meh... to each their own I guess right? :)

well, i often use eCredit Cards (virtual cards precharged with a fixed amount of money for a single/unique operation) on those stores.
Using such type of card usually bypass/goes around the "special code received by phone" 2nd step authentification from visa for me (as it is not my main card)

but still, humble want my cellphone number and nowhere explain in their TOS or privacy policy what they allow themselves to do with it afterwards, aside from the purchase

Also, people thinking stupid of me not to have a cellphone or not be willing to give its number or my bank credentials to an unknown party are supposedly the same kind of person who used to flame me on other forums when i inquired about controller support for various games (you are on PeeCee, you don't need a shitty controller, you have master-race keyboard and mouse !)

Also, i would be happy if a blue would drop us a word about how/why sofort landed on GOG payment pages...

He was being sympathetic, but not empathetic. :)

Which I thought was pathetic, and it led me to be apathetic. :oP