I Have a Confession to Make ...

I have a "dumb" cell phone.

No, not a stupid phone, but one that just sends and receives phone calls. It is not a smartphone and no, please do not "text" me on it or ask me to use it to go online to find something. It is a standard, cheap, pay-as-you-go Trac phone.

For years I have kept my laptop and cell phone as separate devices and fought long and hard to keep them from ever intermingling.  I even have a tablet just for for reading e-books with a Kindle app. 


Remember, I am an I.T. Geek who knows that cell phones, laptops, or any device that connects to the Internet can be hacked. Keeping them separated was an added level of security to me. I am still hesitant to go all "smart" until I feel comfortable with the security of the devices.

Over the past five years, I have mocked those who were always texting away on their smartphones, not living in the present or talking to the people who were sitting right across from them in a restaurant for a meal.  I saw it as an absurd thing to do while you were out with friends and family.  You should be interacting with them in real life, not texting others while you are supposed to be enjoying the company of who you are currently with.

Everything was fine and dandy with my "dumb" phone ... Until the service started to get increasingly flaky.  A few months ago, the phone had no service more often than it did have service.  I think it was a 3G, which is very old. 

I firmly believe it was the carrier's idea to gently nudge the last remaining "dumb" phone holdouts to move to smartphones. Being the stubborn person that I am, I refused to be pushed to something I did not want until I was good and ready.  So I let the service expire along with the cell number that I have had for over five years. That will show them!

I have been without a cell phone for about a month now and have been using my husband's newer "dumb" phone (that has text and Internet ability) when I need to run errands and such. We do have a land-line, since cell reception is so crappy out in boonies where we live - so two cell phones are really not necessities for us.

Just a few days ago, the hubs showed me an advertisement for a $10 smartphone, with no contracts and pay-as-you-go for $10 a month. Well, being the very frugal person that I am, I agreed to purchase it for a test drive.  I only bought a month of service and will see if I like it.  

I am probably just going to use it mainly as a phone like I did all these years with my "dumb" phone, but we shall see ... Wish me luck ...