Question: "I am a 72-year-old man with giant-sized hands that took a beating during more than 30 years of playing football. I can type on my desktop PC's full-size keyboard with reasonable accuracy but forget about me trying to type on a laptop or a smartphone. I gave up cell phones in June 1997 (a Motorola flip phone -- remember those?) and have been blissfully free of the darn things since then. I regard them as electronic leashes and I am fully aware of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are completely addicted to them. But more and more services these days seem to be tied to smartphone usage. Everything from concert tickets to parking meters to QR codes that must be scanned in order to obtain the product or service. I continue to refuse to allow my wife to stick a cell phone in my hand. (She cannot live without her iPhone.) What is your advice to the few of us left who want to continue to live without being glued to a device they simply cannot feasibly operate due to having massive hands (and no interest to do so)?"

Great question.

Only you can decide if the things you might be missing out on are worth carrying a cell phone for.

My advice would be that you need a phone, especially as you age, as a means of calling for help, if nothing else.

You mention digital event tickets and paying for parking as services you’re missing out on. I’d also add things like access to navigation apps and medical portals as being pretty useful.

Being out in the world, you may find yourself with car trouble or even medical issues that require assistance. Looking up maps or driving directions or even what time a particular restaurant closes can be very helpful.

I’ll also add that a cell phone can let your spouse or your kids know where you are. My wife and I are able to see each other’s location through the “Find My” app, and it is very handy. I get that not everyone will want their location tracked, but as we get older, our priorities shift.

So, what’s my advice for big hands and tiny keyboards?

Get a phone with as big a screen as possible. There are multiple ways to enter text. You can turn the phone horizontally and the keyboard will magically get wider. You can also use a stylus to tap out your keyboard input. And you can use dictation in pretty much every field you need to enter text.

My iPhone has a small microphone icon at the bottom of the screen whenever the onscreen keyboard is visible. Touching the microphone puts the phone in dictation mode, and the words I speak will appear as typed text. This works for words and even when you need to spell out a specific word or name.

Android keyboards have this feature as well. Android phones also have a keyboard size adjustment to make the keys slightly larger.

I understand that for some people NOT having a cell phone is a kind of badge of honor, but I suggest getting a phone and setting It up for occasional use. Be the guy who only grabs the phone when he’s leaving the house and take a stylus along in case you need to pay the parking meter.

Oh, and while we are on the topic, I’ll also suggest you don’t pay AT&T or Verizon or T-Mobile full price for service.

I pay less than $20 per month for unlimited service on Verizon’s network. I’ll talk about that next week.

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