Dear LPG readers,

I can’t help it; I love statistics; I am obsessed with working out if I fit into those preconceived little boxes that a survey exposes and if I am a typical average British pensioner.    So many statistics are available on the internet, making it easier than ever to get an idea of the state of play. 

One of the most straightforward comparisons to measure myself up against has to be my mobile phone usage.    The internet statistics I found on more than one website show that I am one of the 69% of British people over 65 who own one, which is not a surprise.  

It would be interesting to find figures on how that 69% came to have their communication implements, but the internet cannot tell me much about that.  

I did my little survey on that subject. Though it reflected no accurate figures, and even though my poll has to be seen as very select, it reflected absolutely nothing statistically.  My one survey question was, ‘How did you obtain your first mobile phone?’ 

My first candidate, an 80-year-old lady, told me hers was a 72nd birthday present from her family, and she had no interest in it when she got it.  In her opinion, she had survived without one while seeing more and more people with them over the years.  Then came the pandemic lockdown and all that time in isolation, which left her with a real reason to work out what to do with it.  She now says that she would not be without it because it is so much easier and cheaper to keep in contact with friends who have moved to far-flung parts of the world. 

Another of my friends, a man now aged 78 who lives with his son, tells me that he thought there would be no point in getting one. However, although he has spent more time asking his son how to get the thing to do what he requires, he is gradually learning to do more than make telephone calls with it.  

The third person I questioned for my survey is a dear friend and an older man whose age I am unsure of. He tells me that he bought one because his brother, whom he has stayed in contact with no matter how far geography has worked at separating them, had one, and sibling rivalry is ongoing between them. He told me there was no way he would allow his brother to get one up on him, even though he had no idea what to do with it. 

My penultimate participant has had one ever since I can remember and told me she got one as soon as they were available.  She was in her late 40s when she joined the mobile set and says that, even though she used it to phone landlines more readily back then because relatively few people had a mobile one, she was one of those commuting-working mums who would check if her teenaged children were at home before she got there, make work-related calls while still on the way home and who could be contacted where ever she was.  She says that getting a signal was a bit of a challenge back then, and the phones were more about staying in touch than any of the other things they do these days. 

Then there was me.  I am in my mid-70s and remember quite clearly the day my son and daughter presented me with my first-ever mobile phone.  It had to be at least 20 years ago, and we were all off somewhere in the car.  I remember feeling a sense of having arrived technologically mixed with one of having entered the fringes of the unknown.  I asked the one who was not driving to hold it, but it was suggested that I put it in my pocket in case it got forgotten when we all went our separate ways at the end of the car journey.  I did as told, not knowing they had set the thing to vibrate without ringing. As my son drove, my daughter phoned the new phone, and I nearly fainted when it started vibrating in my pocket.  If no one prepares you for that experience, the first time it happens to you is a true eye-opener.

One thing we all agreed on is just how different our present phone looks from the ones that were available in earlier times. Can you remember the high-tech handsets used in the 1990s television dramas and soap operas that introduced us to them?  

I know that my survey is not conclusive because of the minimal sample used, and perhaps I was remiss because I could not find a friend who has tried to get to grips with a phone and given up, but it is what it is.

A survey of 5 people does not equate to much in the way of reliable statistics, but I enjoyed collating the evidence. Do any LPG readers recollect their first-ever encounter with mobile phone technology?

GM. Beckenham

For anyone interested, GM shares the statistics that started her thinking process…

(►►►)