We haven't had a poll in awhile, so I thought we'd start one. There was an article in the travel section of the NY Times today about different types of travelers with smart phones. I thought it would make a great poll!

Question:
When you travel with your smartphone, which of the following are you?

Choices:
Blissfully disconnected - You leave your cell phone and laptop at home because traveling is getting away from it all.
Semi-Connected - You can wait until you're connected to your hotel's Wi-Fi to call home, check email and plan your next day.
Moderate - You love to make friends in a new country and want to call and text them later. Or you'd like to tweet when you've reached a destination. Or you want to check with Yelp about a restaurant. You check email occasionally.
Power User - You want connectivity 24/7 and will sacrifice convenience, but not money, for it.
Addict - You looked up from your Smartphone once and didn't like it! Your greatest fear is that you'll die and heaven doesn't have Wi-Fi!
N/A - I do not bring a laptop, smartphone, iPad, etc., with me on vacation. Further, I never use the hotel, or any other, computer while I vacation (go on holiday).
I never take a vacation (holiday).

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

There's no option for "I don't have a smart 'phone - the 'phone I have is already too smart for me and I don't want one that's even less usable".

So...one person has taken my poll? Where is everyone???

As Richard's post indicates, you might get more responses if you added "Not Applicable" or "None of the Above" to your poll.

Ditto to Richard's and tinman's responses.

Seriously? You guys don't have smart phones? Even Arnie, the computer-savvy guy?

My wife has a cell phone but it's remarkably dumb. I have a land line but I connect it to an answering machine so I don't have to answer it.

CW, I, too, am surprised about that. However, I have added that selection for those of you who just couldn't vote the way it was...which, by the way, I found a little odd. We all have computers, obviously, so couldn't you reply with that in mind? The questions did not just talk about smart phones. It mentioned laptops as well, and you could even take it further, I'd think, and apply it to hotel computers that you might use. By the way, this exact verbiage was in the NY Times, so I did not make it up.

Editing the poll question meant zeroing out the survey so, for the two of you who voted, please vote again.

When I'm on holiday I use a borrowed computer (or the hotel's/ship's if it's not too expensive) to check my emails. I usually do not bother to text or 'phone except to respond to others.

So where does that put me on the poll?

?Can somene explain to me the advantage of texting as opposed to actually talking on the phone? It seems like an awful lot of work for a limited purpose.

I'm similar to Richard. I might use a borrowed computer to check emails once or twice. I might make phone calls or send texts when I'm away but usually only when arranging to meet someone while I'm away or similar. I don't use the phone for internet-related stuff. The first choice (Blissfully connected) and the sixth (N/A) look pretty much the same to me.

I use my phone very little for phone calls. I also do not have a landline (or non-mobile phone) anymore. I prefer email or texting to talking with somebody on the phone. The former allow for offline communication. I can send email or text somebody at any time of the day or night without concern that it will awaken or otherwise bother them. They get my message and can answer in their own good time. Of course, I could call, get an answering machine or service and handle things that way, but I still prefer typing to talking. I'd say it's not for everybody, but it makes things easier for me. The other web-related activity is answering questions that arise during a conversation with somebody by looking them up on Wikipedia or in a dictionary. I am not one of those folks who are bothered by the fact that anybody can edit Wikipedia because I can always check the references (sometimes even online) of any doubtful material. I also have my calendar app which is synchronized between all my devices (in the cloud). It is very handy. I don't even think of my smart phone as a technological wonder anymore. It's simply a tool I use to make my life easier.

Oh for heaven's sake...none of you can find an answer that would work for you? (Mine is the one and only answer.) Talk about literalism! Oy vey.

Perhaps this is why we don't see many polls used here. People want the most specific answer possible, or they won't answer.

I certainly wonder how all of you would do on the SATs.

I voted though I don't have a smart phone. I voted on the principle that I do sometimes connect via internet in hotels etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
?Can somene explain to me the advantage of texting as opposed to actually talking on the phone? It seems like an awful lot of work for a limited purpose.

Price

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Oh for heaven's sake...none of you can find an answer that would work for you? (Mine is the one and only answer.) Talk about literalism! Oy vey.

Perhaps this is why we don't see many polls used here. People want the most specific answer possible, or they won't answer. I certainly wonder how all of you would do on the SATs.

I assume that SATs use a multiple choice question (MCQ) format. And if I am correct then this is and important point. I have been trained by City and Guilds to write MCQs and can tell you that MCQ tests are quick to answer and easy to mark - but good MCQs are neither quick nor easy to write.

The polls here are multiple choice and you have fallen into the common trap of not covering all possible answers - which an MCQ must do if it is to test what it is supposed to test.

Bob has given us some excellent examples of badly-written MCQs and I am sure Arnie will have seen some as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kalleh:


Bob has given us some excellent examples of badly-written MCQs and I am sure Arnie will have seen some as well.

Look out for more in a thread coming in the next five minutes!



And it isn't, as we shall see, restricted to MCQs.

Proof, I find texting so much better than calling someone and either interrupting them or leaving a message and then they leave you a message and so on. The text is great for short messages. "I'll meet you for dinner at Panera," for example.

I would probably text more were it not for the unsatisfactory telephone keypad and its requirement for multiple keystrokes to get a single letter or punctuation mark.

I think my next 'phone will be one with a QWERTY keyboard.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
I would probably text more were it not for the unsatisfactory telephone keypad and its requirement for multiple keystrokes to get a single letter or punctuation mark.

That's why they invented predictive texting.
Sadly the only predictive texting available on my phone is Chinese so my texting in English has to use the multiple tap method.

We are quite fussy here, aren't we? I can't believe only 2 people voted (and one of them was I!) because the selections weren't exactly what you would do. Take a leap and vote the closest to what you'd do!

Fussy? Unless you travel and have a smartphone, none of the answers apply.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
I would probably text more were it not for the unsatisfactory telephone keypad and its requirement for multiple keystrokes to get a single letter or punctuation mark.

That's why they invented predictive texting.
Sadly the only predictive texting available on my phone is Chinese so my texting in English has to use the multiple tap method.

I turned off my predictive texting since it almost always comes up with the wrong word and it's actually quite difficult to correct the error since the stupid prediction software keeps trying to change what you are trying to re-write.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
We are quite fussy here, aren't we? I can't believe only 2 people voted (and one of them was I!) because the selections weren't exactly what you would do. Take a leap and vote the closest to what you'd do!

When I go to Turkey tomorrow I will keep in touch using the hotel's internet room - providing it's not too expensive.

I don't know whether I'll ever bother to get a smartphone or tablet - I just don't travel as much as I once did.

In fact, my telephone - the most basic I could get (a Nokia C3) - will connect to the internet - but it's so expensive and the screen is so small and hard to read I have rarely ever used it.

quote:

Fussy? Unless you travel and have a smartphone, none of the answers apply.

Balderdash (one of my favorite words!)! The N/A applies, Tinman. One need not specify if the person owns one at all. The point is, the smartphone, laptop, etc. was not brought on the vacation.

No more polls for me!

PS to Richard: I love my laptop and smartphone (you can't always use your laptop). I am having a hard time liking my iPad. I really don't much like reading books on it (I miss holding the book, turning the pages, etc.), and the functions of the iPhone and laptop seem to be enough. Others love the iPad though (my husband!).

The question was about the smartphone. The N/A covers much more. I don't have a smartphone or a laptop, but if I had access to a computer while on vacation, I would probably use it. So, which answer do I choose?

You got me there, I guess. I give...

For future reference, when taking informal polls like this, if I don't precisely fit into a category, I choose the one that's the closest.

Does the name, "smartphone" derive from the feeling of pain you get upon paying the monthly charges?

Luddite Geoff