Rant: mobile refuseniks

Mobile refuseniks There are still a few people left in 2018 who refuse to own a mobile phone. They like to paint themselves as morally superior. In fact, they’re just selfish.

Not to be contactable in an emergency, when the technology exists to make that possible, is simply rude. Your wilful fogeydom is everyone else’s inconvenience. If a traffic snarl-up means you know

you’re going to be late for an appointment – or maybe not make it at all – you’re unable to alert the doctor/dentist/ etc. When a train delay causes you to miss a lunch engagement, the other person heads to the restaurant none the wiser and sits there on their own for an hour.

If it’s the other person whose train is delayed, you’re the one left sitting on your own. One simple call would allow everyone to rejig their day and mitigate the hassle – but your determination to live in the 1970s removes that possibility.

Mobile refuseniks snootily claim that not having a mobile phone instils discipline, makes you ensure you’re on time for things. But motorways and train lines are

beyond their control; so, once in a while, they will be late. That’s the key phrase: ‘once in a while’. I’m not saying they have to get a smartphone and become instantly addicted to it, tapping away at the screen and sitting in cafés having loud conversations about their day at work. They simply have to buy a cheap, basic phone that, on the rare occasion a plan goes awry, will allow them to inform others or be informed themselves.

The author Frederick Forsyth gave the game away when he spoke about not having a mobile. ‘About twelve times a year,’ he said, ‘I’m in some kind of emergency… I’ve always been able to lean over to a guy and say, “Have you got a mobile? You couldn’t just tap in the number, could you?”’

Frederick, how dare you accept the logic of mobiles but refuse to get one yourself? Come on, refuseniks – it’s time to ring the changes.