[user104658]

Originally Posted by jaxie

Perhaps its just that every young generation thinks its hard done by at the time, even though standards of living are a lot better than they were when their parents were young. I mean everyone has a phone these days. To me real poverty is not being able to afford things like that but others have posted before that they think having a phone is a necessity of life and not a luxury item.

I'm not really talking about "poverty" though, I'm just saying... "things" aren't really what makes life fulfilling, are they? A lot of very lonely and miserable people out there with a lot of "things".

That said, I would say that having at least a basic android mobile phone IS a necessity these days to hold down even a basic job, etc... for example, you have to be involved in staff group chats, things like social media and skype are becoming more and more standard. We don't even do paper rotas anymore - it's all via app. Also payslips are all electronic. So we sort of are at a point where these devices aren't entirely "luxury items". Although obviously having the latest / best model all of the time isn't exactly necessary.