Living Without Our Smartphones – The Adults’ Turn, Radio 4
On Your Behalf, Radio Ulster
Today, Radio 4
Earlier this year, Radio 5 Live got a group of teenagers to give up their smartphones. Now it’s the adults’ turn.
Volunteers were handed ‘dumb phones’ and headed out into a world where everything wasn’t at their fingertips.
It was Emma’s birthday but she wouldn’t get her birthday messages via text.
She had to get to Sheffield that weekend too. Buying a ticket at a booth sounded “vintage”, she said. It was also more expensive.
Then there was getting around in a strange space.
“You have to walk up to a bus stop and hope the bus turns up.”
Oh, for Google Maps.
This programme featured the tinkle tinkle of old phones. When the adults were handed their little old phone bricks, it was seconds before someone was playing snake.
But how much of our day-to-day lives depends on our phones, from banking to shopping to travelling?
The upside of a week’s cold turkey was that people found more time to cook, to read and just to communicate in person.
The upside of a week’s cold turkey was that people found more time to cook, to read and just to communicate in person
Anna Curran has stepped comfortably into the presenting role at Radio Ulster’s On Your Behalf.
There are topics we’d all like to close our eyes to – wills and enduring power of attorney are among them.
Solicitor John O’Prey was in the hot seat advising on the importance of future planning. His wisdom made perfect sense.
Anna touched on “sadmin” – the paperwork left behind when someone dies. The message was to get it in order now, make life easier for those left behind. All ostrich heads out of the sand.
Rachael Jeffers, a benefits expert, said a shock death and somebody without a will could lead to family squabbles.
There is help out there for people left with the paperwork and facing funeral poverty, she said.
The last word goes to the mystery of Connie Converse. The Today programme featured an item on the gifted singer-songwriter who never achieved fame in the 1950s but whose legend lives on.
She could have been someone; her songs suggest she should have been.
On August 10 1974, a week after her 50th birthday, she posted letters to family and friends, telling some she was returning to New York.
She drove out of Ann Arbor and has not been heard from since. Neither her body nor her car was ever found.
