I actually turned down £170 cash today to attend a market research on mobile phones.
I'm not a stupid man and I'm quite capable if understanding complexed issues still but I've never had the interest to spend a goodly portion if my life with my nose glued to a mobile phone.
I know I'm in a minority and even my own daughter seems to live her life through her phone but I don't get the need nor the dependancy of smart phones.
I took my daugher out for a meal a few days back and noticed that her phone was not beeping and whirling at her, nor had she the compulsion to pick it up and look at it every five seconds, and we even managed to have a proper conversation without her having to cut it short to text someone back (or I think it is called I-texting or something similar?).
I asked her was there something the matter with her phone and she replied that she'd used up her monthly contracted internet usage and had to wait until next months allocation was available.
How pleasant her company was now that she actually had the time to give me her attention for once and not her phone!
I've never really understood texting and social media, nor the need to communicate over nothing.
I remember some years back picking her up from school and the first thing she did when she got in the car was to start texting the very people she'd just spent the whole day talking too!
I know women are better at communicating then men but how much do they need to say to each other - surely they must run out of things to talk about sooner or later?
I also am not a great lover of games on the phone - I don't mind a game of chess, or bridge or similar but I don't get why anybody would want to spend hour after hour playing something that doesn't take any thought to play at all - what's the point - may as well watch paint dry.
My daughter is at university and was telling me a story about when she was in the Halls of Residence that she and the people who she lived with set up a group page (or something?) whereby they could all communicate with each other if and when required.
Very sensible I thought, until she started telling me that they even used this group chat even when they were at home and the people they were talking to were just a few feet away in another room!
To my mind face to face chat seems to be getting less and less with the younger generation and they somehow seem less able 'talk' to people - they seem to not be able to read body language or voice nuances, or have the subtlety of speach - through such a lack of actual interactions between real people due to living living their lives now through tweets and snapchats.
I know it is a generation thing but who would have thought that actually talking to someone may become a thing of the past!
I appreciate my friend putting this chance of a nice little earner my way - they actually phoned me and spoke to me about it rather than text me - just in case you may have wonderd - but I simply could not face up to spending a day with five others talking about how important in their lives their mobile is, when a phone to me is simply a tool (to be in contact with others and to use the internet for information and updates) and not a toy.
At least someone else gained today from me being a modern day luddite.