Posted on 08/08/2009 5:47:39 PM PDT by SkipJames
I don’t like carrying cell phones. When it came to buying a wireless phone, I was one of the last holdouts. My house is a bit remote and to this date it has absolutely no cell coverage. Back in 2001, almost everyone I knew already had a cell phone. Finally, I broke down and bought a top of the line Motorola. It was in the $300 plus price range with a two year contract. I even bought a serial port Outlook synchronization device to download contacts and calendar information. I did have fun learning to use all of the device’s options, but after mastering it, the thrill soon wore off and it was placed in the glove compartment for emergency use.
A few years later in 2005, I was given a Blackberry to use. Excited once again, I downloaded Eclipse and the BB SDK and was soon creating sample applications and having some fun with our internal BB server. After mastering the device it seemed to lose it’s luster. To this day, the site of four or five people simultaneously reaching for their Blackberries still reminds me of some absurd synchronized swimming event. Sometimes I would send them messages myself, just to see the coordinated reach. I di tell them that I certainly don’t use it while I’m driving, I can’t use it at home, as I have no coverage and I don’t use it while I’m here because you folks already look silly enough at the meetings. That’s when they took away my BB and reminded me of the monthly cost.
In 2005 I dropped the Motorola and switched to a cheap no name camera phone. I took and sent a few pictures for 25 frigging cents a pop, learned all of the features and then once again placed it in the glove compartment. It only came out once every few months for the occasional call or to be recharged. It was a sturdy and reliable little phone. It lasted 3 years and over that time, I believe I actually made several calls. I let the contract expire and went without a phone for a few months. I never missed it.
Then, last year, I received a very interesting gift. I received an IPhone. I immediately downloaded the SDK and free XCode development environment to my IMac. I had fun breaking the IPhone 3 different ways and downloading ripped DVDs. I applied to the Apple Development Center and waited and waited and I mean waited! Months went by with no response. Finally I gave up and gave the IPhone to my wife who loves it and actually puts it to use.
So here I am with no phone again. Do I care? Should I? Well I don’t and I don’t give a damn. If you want to reach me, call me at work or home and leave a message. Better yet, try talking to me in person. You might actually like it, unless you pull out you cell phone during our conversation.
I see no need for a cellphone. It is just something else to have to carry around. And when I am out of touch, I want to be out of touch.
I take the opposing view though, I see no reason to have a landline, so I skip that in lieu of a cell phone. As for not wanting to be reachable, I simply don't answer it when I choose to not be bothered.
I have one but only very rarely use it.
They have off switches.
I call three people on mine...once a month that’s it. It’s good to have on a vacation though.
Good grief - people still make telephone calls with the things?
I’ve got a $14 Tracphone that I bought almost 3 years ago. No bells and whistles at all. I got a deal on 1000 minutes and I pay $3 a month to keep those minutes active.
After 3 years I still have 485 minutes of use.
Finally I gave up and gave the IPhone to my wife who loves it and actually puts it to use. So here I am with no phone again.
Welcome Skip. Nicely written!
Ever heard of a prepaid cell phone? Good for emergencies and cheap.
And when someone can’t reach you, especially a family member, there are recriminations. I have seen that with others and I it definitely does not help to kindle in me a desire for a cell phone. I just do not feel a need to be constantly wired to everyone else or to not have an excuse for declining endless pointless chitchat.
We have cell phones and a Magic Jack
I’m guessing you don’t get caught in a lot of snowstorms down there.
Emergencies is the primary reason I have mine. I got it after an ice storm took out my utility pole and left me without a phone for nearly a week.
I hate phones but my husband insisted that I get a cell phone about 8 yrs ago, I kept forgetting it and one day I came home from town and he asked where it was and that he had been calling me all morning. I went and found it, handed it to my son and said “here, have a phone”.
4 years later I did get another one but I still don’t like it and I accidently leave it home or at work or in the car, or forget to charge it, so I don’t know why I keep it.
Is anyone who posted on this thread less than 85 years old? Cause it sure doesn’t seem like it.
The story is told that Alexander Graham Bell absolutely refused to have a phone in his house. In is senior years the family insisted he have a phone for security and safety reason. He finally gave in, but with the stipulation it would have no ringer! All he cared to do was call out when the fancy struck him, he wanted NO incoming messages. He was very outspoken about what an intrusion on life his invention had become!
Have no idea how true this is, but it would be ironic to say the least!
What I really hate is how people have come to feel you have some obligation to answer their call or return their call. The get absolutely incensed if you don’t pick up or call them back. There are people that I simply have interest in talking to and I avoid them like the plague. Thank goodness for caller ID!
Remember all the static that came about before caller ID was approved? Somehow people thought they had the right to call you without you knowing who was calling. My solution is to have my phone ring only when the caller is identified and even then I feel it’s my right to ignore anyone I want to ignore!
LOL we’re confused and disoriented. The government will be along to take us to a happy sleepy place soon enough.
I love my cell phone. I have no land line. My name and address are not in a phone book. My wife a couple of close friends and a few family members are the only people who have the number. I may get and/or place 10 calls a month. I do not get robo calls, telemarketers, RNC calls or other annoying calls.
I think elderly people should have one too. There is a feature that can be aded to contacts called ICE. If someone winds up in an accident or emergency room & cannot give any information, the ICE is programmed to dial their emergency contact so that info is immediately available. It could save someone's life. Most emergency crews & hospital ERs know about it - look for it & dial family or whoever the contact # belongs to.
My purse has a little outside velcro pocket to carry my cell phone. I don't leave home without it.
No, but we do get hurricanes. I stayed through Opal and some lesser storms with power and phones out. There were no cell phones at the time of Opal. I, we, did fine. Cell phones have only been available for a few years and people cannot imagine survival without one now. My favorite scene is 14 or 15 youths on vacation together walking in a group on the beach, all but one of them with phones their ears. I wondered if they were talking to each other. The existence of cell phones does not make them necessary for existence.
You whippersnapper. ;-)
If you are sitting in your living room and someone rings the doorbell, do you get up and answer the door? Same thing. I actually don't get up all the time, especially if I am not expecting anyone, but it seems to be a long-standing social convention. In business, it is absolutely essential to answer all customer calls within a reasonable time frame.
These days, I usually don't answer the landline, and we will probably get rid of it one of these days. Anyone who wants to get hold of me can call my cell. The cell phone has caller ID and I can choose who to answer. If I want it not to ring, I can turn the ringer off or put it on vibrate or turn the whole thing off.
Good luck if you ever stranded on a freeway some place cell phones are a must in any urban area Don’yt give out the number
Almost 45 here.
I used my cell phone twice last weekend and that’s more than I use it in a month. Once I used it to call my dad so I could locate our campsite and then my mother called me later that night about something else.
They make 'em with speaker phones now. Just put the cell phone in your ear trumpet. Or get a bluetooth hearing aid.
In reality, I'm not exactly a yoot, but I like playing with gadgets. And the kids, hoo boy, they couldn't live without their texting and the music and other stuff they do on their phones. I use mine for email, streaming music, listening to Rush and Mark Levin (it gets internet over the Sprint network or over wi-fi), texting my kids, GPS navigation, checking baseball scores, listening to out of town NFL games on the radio (they are all carried), checking the weather, making restaurant reservations, and coordinating my calendar between Google and Outlook. It is a portable computer that I can talk on.
BUMP!
Your wife just texted me, and she said she needs a break.
......Just kidding!!!
I have no problem with the sentiments being expressed, but I am here to tell you that the cell phone is embedded in the identity of young people these days. They will laugh at the romantic notion of not having a cell phone, the way we feel about eco-nuts who have a thing against electricity.
I shouldn't mock. I'm looking at The Upgrade, that is, from an old phone that only does voice and texting to something that does the other things I like to do, like you. September, although I could jump carriers anytime at this point. And there's some sweet stuff out there.
The problem is mission creep. I'd love to have one you could plug into a full-size monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and then I'd only have to replace the CPU to have a...wait a minute. :-(
As a customer service rep who fields phone calls from all over the country, some of those cheap cell phones are a detriment to clear comunication. How's your Tracphone sound? It's just a matter of getting words across - no hi-fi necessary - but I've received some voice mails that leave me scratching my head wondering "what the heck?"
I'd be game for simple cell phone that was only a phone, has clear sound, and is economical.
My tracphone sounds as good as any depending on the signal. I never use it while driving so I’m not changing signal strength or anything like that.
For under 20 bucks you could check one out without losing much.
Well I've got half of it the hearing aid part. BTW early 50's for me. My Bluetooth is on order and should be available in a couple more months. There's a newer version coming out I understand for hearing aid technology.
I've had a cell phone for over 10 years and it's one modern invention I really appreciate. Due to my wife's medical situation I need to be able to be reached when I leave the house and it gives me that freedom and peace of mind. Before that it was a digital pager and I'd have to go find a pay phone which now are almost extinct.
I'm in a rural area and originally used a transportable. Now my handheld reaches anywhere I go. I also like the texting and voice mail. That way if I miss a call due to terrain I can still be reached.
I also have one for my wife and one for my parents all on one contract.
I got a 286 computer around 1986 or 1987 and used that a few years. Then a 386 in the early 90s and so on. A Mac laptop in 1993. I was on the web in 1993, and was one of the first lawyers to use the web for research and to communicate, which gave me an advantage.
I got my first cell phone in 1991, and it allowed me to be anywhere and be in reach of business calls, which gave me more freedom and ability to service my clients. I remember first noticing the big difference that technology was making around 1996 or so, when we took a vacation to Pismo Beach. I had a cell phone, fax modem, and a laptop, and was able to send and receive faxes, send emails, and receive calls. By answering messages and dealing with office stuff for an hour or two a day, I could then spend 14 hours with the family on vacation. Before then, to go on vacation, there was an entirely different protocol, and it was always scary to worry about something happening while you were out of reach.
As I got older, there were times when I did want to be completely out of reach. It can be tough to enjoy a vacation if you have to think about work. If I want that, it's not too hard. There are still places where no cell phone or internet can go, and even if it can, you can turn them off.
Every new development brings new tools that can be useful or oppressive. It depends on you which they are.
Enjoy your evening, but don't think you have found all the answers, young fellow.
Is there a Luddite ping list on FR that I hadn’t heard of?
Eleven years ago I got my teen daughter and myself cellphones after she suffered her 1st kidney stone attack. I decided I needed to be completely reachable for her.
When my kids were in college our phones kept us in touch and missing them was bearable. They’re still thousands of miles away and we talk all the time. I got my husband a phone and made him learn how to use it. When we go to Costco he has a habit of getting lost and with our phones I can track him down. Can’t imagine life without my iPhone.
Funny, but while I was typing this the Verizon ad with the parents typing away on their phones while the kids complain about it came on. LOL.
So, anyway, I don't really think it is an age thing, except I do think that below a certain age (25 or 30) the use of cell phones constantly and without thought or effort is pretty much 100 percent, and as they age, old farts who wish to eliminate such infernal devices will become extinct.
You bring to mind another issue, which is the ease with which we communicate with anyone anywhere in the world. In the bad old days of ATT monopoly, calling someone in the next county was an expensive proposition, forget about calling New York, or another country. Cell Phones, combined with cheap network technology, have made communication cheap, in addition to being easy. Long distance charges are pretty much a thing of the past, as most cell phone plans include free long distance. So you can pick up a phone and call someone with nary a thought that you have to keep it short.
I got rid of my land line... Just have cell..
They can track you when you use a cellphone.
Use a computer and they keep tabs where you go.
The digital converter box’s are hooked into phone lines
so who knows.
If your state has a chip in your drivers license they can
track you at red light cameras.
Technology is not free
1. You either need to hire an editor or buy a good spell-checker.
2. You win the Blog Pimp award for today.
LOL.
The cell phone is a huge time saver. Many times it rings while in my car. I never talk on it in city driving and I also use a head set. I love it.
No kidding. I was reading through the comments wondering if there's a "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!" ping list.
now that’s a pretty good deal and you’ve got all those minutes after 3 yrs.
I have a landline,for which I pay 15.00 a mo for w/no voice mail. I’m very happy with that . I used to have a cell phone but it just didn’t fit my lifestyle.
I’m looking around for a WORKING 1980’s style desktop pushbutton phone if anyone has one and wants to get rid of it contact me.
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