Can You Afford To Live Without A Mobile Phone?

Mobile phones are playing an increasingly important part in the way we live our lives, but could you afford to live without one?

A recent survey of consumers in the UK found that an estimated 40 million Britons owned and regularly used a mobile phone. With it becoming increasingly easy to live our lives via the help of a handset, the thought of going back to a time when the only phone we used was a landline is a scary proposition. So if we were to find ourselves without our trusty mobile phones how would we go about day-to-day live in terms of keeping in touch, sticking to schedules and socialising with friends?

Despite the addictive gadgets and games that today's mobile phones are packed with, the primary purpose of the mobile phone is, of course, to make a phone call. Without mobile phones , communication would undoubtedly become a lot less flexible – meetings couldn't be rearranged at the last minute, venues couldn't changed because the price of a pint is too high and running 30 minutes late would quite possibly result in a very irate friend wondering if you'd forgotten about your coffee date. Recent years have seen a decline in the use of the telephone boxes but without mobile phones to hand these humble and iconic features of the high street would be back in business.

Believe it or not, without mobile phone technology life would be much more dangerous. For followers of extreme sports such as snowboarding, rock jumping and mountaineering, mobile phones are a life line should an individual get into danger and need to phone the relevant emergency service. The same applies to individuals who live a much more sedentary life too, such as those who are housebound or poorly – since mobile phone technology in its many guises allows patients to be connected to carers and health workers at the click of a button at any time of day.

Finally, the economic benefits of mobile phone service providers are perhaps one of the most popular benefits of using a mobile. The ability to call friends and family abroad, conduct business with clients in a different country or even book a holiday with an operator based in your intended destination, is all possible via a mobile phone and often for a severely discounted rate in comparison to a standard land line.

Without the option to make cheap calls, however, people and businesses would become much more reliant on the use of other modes of communication such as email while a resurgence in the popularity of currently outmoded formats such as letter, landline and fax would all become likely.

For the meantime, however, it seems like mobile phones are here to stay although who's to stay what's round the corner!