Opinion: I’ve lived into my 40s without ever owning a smartphone. Hopefully I’ll never have to

But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to access the world without a smartphone. — Dreamstime/TNS

I’ve never had a smartphone or used social media, and I’m in my 40s, so when I see young people like 17-year-old Logan Lane and those in her “Luddite Club” take a stand and pause the technology that’s been in their lives since birth I am in awe.

Poverty made me a late adopter. I had no computer throughout college nor any phone — not even a landline — in my early 20s. My boyfriend’s family lived nearby and I could use theirs when I needed one. In 2006, I bought my first cellphone, a prepaid Nokia brick phone, to coordinate my father’s cancer treatment while away from home, and finally committed to a monthly plan 11 years later, in 2017.