For me, the tablet is like having a small television where I can watch Amazon Prime videos and YouTube while I am in bed, winding down before going to sleep. We don't have any working regular televisions in our house (we got rid of those years ago), and I haven't missed it at all. But it is nice to be able to watch the programs mentioned above for an hour or so in the evening. Even better, I am not bombarded with prescription drug commercials like I would be if I were watching regular television.

Wow, no televisions at all. I have a small one in my bedroom that is on almost constantly. I need it to fall asleep. If it is quiet, my mind goes to bad places.

Mine is a 5G Android, but we don't have 5G service out here in the country. But if they ever DO get it here, I can get it. Won't be that useful for me because I don't use my phone for anything but calls, texting and taking pictures.

I had some bad news this evening from the cousin of a friend of mine and while talking to her she sent me something via text. I have never used text but knowing that she sent something I went looking and found it along with a couple hundred others which took me 20 minutes or so to delete. But - now I know where to find text messages even if I don't know how to send one. Such progress huh?

John was always bad with text messages. I finally gave up.

But the most resistant to change is my brother in law, who lives in Southampton. He's now 76, and STILL, to this day, doesn't have a cell phone. He doesn't even have an answering machine. This is a supremely intelligent man, but electronics just defeat him. I've bought a second tablet with a little clip-on microphone so I can Skype him (yes, he still uses Skype only) every now and then. I walk around the house showing him the cats and the view and we can have little visit.

It was awful when I tried to get in touch with him to tell him about John, though. I finally had to email him.

I've never used Skype, Face Time, or Zoom or anything like that, nor have I ever used a tablet.

Me neither, oldbroad .... except for tablets.

I buy refurbished iPads that come with a guarantee and am currently on my second one.

Both have been good buys and lasted very well indeed and without any problems

My husband couldn't text even if I showed him how! The man is 6' 6" tall and has huge hands. The idea of him trying to tap those tiny little keys with his fingers is hysterical. However, he's really good about using his cell phone - probably better than I am. I had to make sure he was comfortable with it before I got rid of the horrible land line. We got so many tele-marketers and spam calls on it, it was impossible to wade through them to find a message from a doctor or someone else. SO glad to get rid of that thing.

I dearly love my Surface tablet for reading every night and for taking with me when we go up to visit my family in Iowa. I can use the internet, do email, post on GB, read the paper etc.

When my mom was still living at home, I set her up with a desktop I built. Her favorite thing was to play pinochle on it, but she could email. At some point, I got her a little camera mounted on the screen and taught her how to Skype. So we could Skype face-to-face every week - it was really nice since I'm 600 miles away. Definitely better than a plain phone call.

We do video chats with the Germans once a month or so using Messenger. That's nice too since they are on the other side of the big pond!

I like having the face-to face of a Skype call -- it's almost like a real visit.

During the last five years of my father-in-law's life John and I would Skype my brother in law Mike and John's father Tony about once every two weeks (Mike lived with his parents until their deaths). Tony was already into his 90's and because of John's illness we couldn't visit in person, so it was a great compromise. I think Tony really enjoyed the calls. He never knew John was sick, so he didn't have that worry, and we'd have tea together on either side of the pond, talk politics, visit with the cat, and tour the garden, if it was summer.

I have used Skype for years with a friend of mine in Portugal as well as to chat with my daughter.

Drac, I get just as many spam calls on the cell phone. That's what those couple hundred texts were that I deleted. But of all the stupid things, I usually delete all those calls off of my answering machine. Well, it just happens that for 3 days I didn't, and wouldn't you know I hear an actual real person leaving a message for me all of a sudden. I had to delete 38 tele-marketing calls before I got to the only real call.

Interesting to see how differently we use our gadgets. Linda and I both read on kindles, and prefer screens not backlit for that, but otherwise she lives on her iPad while I use the a desktop computer (partly because my eyesight is too poor for a small screen).
We still have a landline via fibre with our internet connection (some scam calls but not an oppressive number), but I have a very old mobile for business: good for phone, text, and camera but not suitable for much else as it cannot handle the latest apps!
I only learned to use texts when one of my daughters sent me one while I was on a train travelling to meet her, and it offered me a reply option..., but I still prefer email from a desktop (probably partly because my height and hand size are similar to those of Drac's husband).
Nether of us enjoy films or TV on a small screen so we have a big TV in the lounge with a soundbar for greater clarity of dialogue, and a smaller one in the kitchen, but so far we have not been tempted to add one in the bedroom.

Oh, I get 3 or 4 spam calls a week on my cell phone too, oldbroad. But I immediately block and then delete them. If I hadn't looked at my phone calls and texts for months, I'd have a ton of them too! We were getting a minimum of 15 - 20 telemarketer and spam calls every DAY on the old land line.

I get a couple of scam phone calls on my cell every week, usually in both English and Chinese, saying I owe tax money and the cops are coming to my door to arrest me unless I go out and buy some Bitcoin to pay. It's laughable, except that apparently a lot of recent immigrants and elderly people have been taken in by the scam. At one point it was every day, but our phone companies have started to crack down somehow..

I use my landline a lot.

When I replaced the equipment a few years ago, I got a set-up put in place that won't accept calls from anyone who doesn't disclose the number they're calling from.
And on the very infrequent occasions a cold call DOES get through I can immediately block it from ever getting through again and then delete it.

[As far as I'm aware, many businesses do still have the freeedom to buy and sell phone numbers if they so desire, be they landline or mobile numbers.]

I still like my land line best for calls, and just use my cell phone for texts. I delete the spam calls on the landline daily. We have six TV's , one in each bedroom, one in the kitchen dining area, one in the living room, and one on the porch. The one in the living room rarely gets used.

Yes indeed, technology presents us with new and differing challenges and the telemarketers are taking full advantage off all means of communication...

When I had my landline, NONE of these telemarketers or spammers were legal. They are supposedly NOT to call you unless you have a prior relationship with them. Every one was illegal. I did get one of them charged and fined. I used to report the worst of them to my attorney general's office. One that was persistent was the American Girl Doll company. I reported them several times and saw about a year later they were fined almost $500,000 for making these illegal calls. But the telemarketers and spammers finally over ran the AGO's ability to prosecute. They spoofed real numbers like my bank or my hairdresser or even my OWN number! I finally waved the white flag and got rid of the landline.

"When I had my landline, NONE of these telemarketers or spammers were legal"

I think that is still the case, Draclvr, but why would that stop them ????

It DIDN'T stop them! That's why I finally got rid of the landline 3 years ago. The phone rang constantly, I literally wore out an answering machine and I just got tired of wading through 10 or 15 messages every day to make sure something important wasn't there. SUCH a relief to get rid of it.

Well, I'm very glad not to have had YOUR landline facility then, Draclvr !!
You don't seem to have had any help at all 👎

It's the biggest one in the entire USA! Even THEY were overrun by the spammers and telemarketers. We need help from our legislators to ENFORCE the laws they already passed against this stuff. They talk, but nothing happens.

😱😱😱

I think we get spam calls whether it's on a cell or land line. We have a land line & hubby has a flip phone pay as you go from our major grocery store for emergencies, like when hubby calls from the grocery store saying they don't have Duncan Hines spice cake mix but they do have Betty Crocker, is that OK.

Now, THAT is definitely an emergency! We do get spam calls on both, but 10 - 15 a day on the land line as opposed to 3 or 4 a week on my cell phone is tolerable. Plus on my cell phone, I block and delete immediately. I've noticed if I don't block them, I will get 2 or 3 more calls from the same number very shortly. But if I immediately block, it cuts it down to a very low number that I find at least tolerable.