How attached are you to your smart phone and how important has it become to you?

[Kurioxan]

I have it with me everywhere, but only to be able to be reached anywhere I go. I hardly use it to make calls to anyone. The most important feature other than the obvious calling the phone does for me....is to be a clock.

Pretty much, although sometimes I purposefully leave it home, as to not be reachable.

[Aliessil]

It varies - I have a phone, a tablet and a computer and for a lot of things, use them interchangeably depending on where I am. At the moment I work mostly from home so probably 90% of the time I'll use the computer, and 10% the tablet. When I'm away from the house I'll use the phone a lot more - how much depends on whether I have the tablet with me as well.

[ls-]

I use my phone as an mp3 player mostly, I do use it messaging, but when I feel like doing so, cuz I have many friends and/or colleagues in different countries. I also use it as a test bench for software we/I develop.

To describe how addicted I am to my phone I'll just say that I often forget it at work or at home.

[Kurioxan]

I use my phone as an mp3 player mostly, I do use it messaging, but when I feel like doing so, cuz I have many friends and/or colleagues in different countries. I also use it as a test bench for software we/I develop.

To describe how addicted I am to my phone I'll just say that I often forget it at work or at home.

B-but... it says there you are in Thailand... and and, news say Asia is addicted to smartphones! my reality is being broken

[Fencers]

My smartphone is extremely important. I use it for work, communication, entertainment, information, directions, banking, finance, weather reports, photos, etc, etc. Both the convenience and power of having a device with so many broad applications is actually astounding.

I read a post on Reddit last week asking the question: What did people use to "Google" information before the internet and phones?

There were a lot replies but basically, we did nothing. We lived in ignorance largely- with the only information available on a day-today basis being word of mouth, trial & error and perhaps television or newspapers. Yes, we could go to the library and seek more accurate or discrete information. But in terms of day to day living? Nothing. You just winged it and went by whatever seemed sensible which other people told you about.

I was struck by the realization of just how ignorant I was before the cellphone. I could not look up information when in a new city on the fly, I couldn't find the latest news in Syria while riding the train or look at my stocks while standing in line at the grocer. These things are very convenient, but the other side of it is the power to be informed to a fairly high degree instantly.

"Ok Google, when was the Mesolithic era?"

"Ok Google, what is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?"

"OK Google, what are the best restaurants in this area?"

"Ok Google, who is the President of Turkey?

"Ok Google, what does the 13th amendment say?"

This is a real power of access to information that no human has enjoyed before out current era. Real power.

There is no going back.

[Mueller Greyhound]

I'm not fanatic. I just use it for daily uses such as looking at bus transportation schedule and other important stuff like homework and etc.

[ls-]

B-but... it says there you are in Thailand... and and, news say Asia is addicted to smartphones! my reality is being broken

I'm white Caucasian male though I'd say that here it's not as bad as it is in China.

[timberx]

Texting, calling, and checking my email are extremely important to pretty much all aspects of my life ranging from social to professional, so I guess I'm sorta attached.

[tibben]

Considering I was 30 years old when I got my first smart phone, I'm pretty sure I can manage without one. But it is very convenient for navigating without having to plan out a route ahead of time or checking social media or weather on the fly. I'd notice if it was gone, but I wouldn't freak out.

[Vizardlorde]

I dont care much about my phone but i cant live without my pc. I only use the phone to talk and browse the internet when im away from my pc.

[Cerilis]

Meh, it's useful. But that's it.

[zephid]

I'm not very attached to my smart phone. I mostly use it for phone calls/sms. Sure, it's handy to be able to browse the internet whenever you feel like it but I only use the phone for that when I don't have access to my computer.

[Spraxle]

In all truthfulness I don't use my phone that much. I only use it to snap pictures now and then (very rare) or to surf Reddit. And I'm tired of Reddit so I just carry it in case someone contacts me (rarer then me taking pictures). I don't do social media stuff so over all the internet is pretty bland to me since more and more it's geared towards 'social media' type stuff. Hell I don't use my computer that much either.

If cell phones went away I guess I wouldn't really care. I am not overly attached to mine for a variety of reasons.

[zenkai]

Other than to kill boredom when I am away from home, I don't use it much if at all at home. IT drives my GF crazy because I am hard to get into touch with as my phone will usually be in another room. I HATE talking on the phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh I dont care for them too much.

[Addict]

I do calls on my phone - thats it :3

[Deleted]

The answers in the poll feel biased, you're either a fanatic of varying degree ("[...] but I am noticing its changed me."), use it only out of necessity ("[...]for business or stay in touch[...]"), or not at all.

I'm personally neither of those, I use it because it's useful for so much more than just staying in touch with people, although that is a huge plus as well.
I use it as a notebook (my memory is best described as nonexistent), for GPS navigation, to listen to music, take pictures/videos, remote access my PC, diagnose other people's PCs, the flash as a makeshift flashlight, for business emails and instant communication, entertainment, scientific calculator, lexicon, dictionary, two-factor authentication (for online banking and work accounts), and I even can order pizza through it while on the move to have it at my door when I get home.

It's totally possible for me to survive without one (sans the two-factor authentication) but it's a lot more comfortable with one, but if my phone breaks it won't be the end of the world, I'll just get another one. What may be important to note is that I do not own the newest or flashiest smartphone, I only buy slightly older ones that others could test for quite some time and that will work without issues for a year or two, I value durability and usability more than my ability to brag.

All of that said, my smartphone will never replace my desktop. I can't work as comfortably on my smartphone as I can on my computer, I can grab or edit email templates much quicker on my PC, websites and documents are displayed better on bigger desktops, triple monitor setup is amazing to keep track of multiple things at the same time, better and faster hardware, no heat issues, around 200x the local storage for important things / entertainment (with local, automated backups of everything), and 10 finger typing on a large keyboard is still faster and easier on my fingers than swype.

Having a mechanical keyboard on a smartphone or tablet won't do anything as well, it would still suffer from a much smaller screen, forced neck position on the table, worse hardware, and the requirement for cloud storage (which is nice for off-site backups but nothing else without fast internet).
At that point they'd just be flashy netbooks, which are really nice and convenient if you're on the move a lot (college, traveling on business) but as soon as you spend more time stationary it becomes worse than a proper setup.

[Vash The Stampede]

"Ok Google, when was the Mesolithic era?"

"Ok Google, what is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?"

"OK Google, what are the best restaurants in this area?"

"Ok Google, who is the President of Turkey?

"Ok Google, what does the 13th amendment say?"

This is a real power of access to information that no human has enjoyed before out current era. Real power.

There is no going back.

I use "Ok Google" to try and find my way around and I get lost a lot when driving.

"Ok Google, navigate to Walmart"

or

"Ok Google, I want to go home"

But you will look like a total asshat for speaking into your cell phone or other devices. But why stop at your cell phone when you could have it in your car like I do. Though not my stereo cause it came with Android 4.0 and no microphone so no "Ok Google".

[Deleted]

The only huge thing for me is spotify. I can't live without anymore. The other I could live without.

[FuxieDK]

My Smart Phone (Huawei Ascend Y530) is my least imporatant piece of electronics..
My iPad, my Smart TV, my old school land line phone and my stationary PC are all much more important to me..