I hate cell phones

Pengwuino

Don't you?

After having a cell phone for about 3 years, I have realized that I am sick of them. I hate having to take calls and talking to people. If I'm not home, what makes people think I want to talk? All talking should happen in-home with a big handlebar up to your ear and a cord running from it. Otherwise, it should be face-to-face. When im elected President, im banning all cell phones.

Lisa!

I always turn it off when I'm having a nice time out of home!

TheStatutoryApe

I don't have one. I would much rather have one though. I'm rarely at home so most of the time when I want to try to get ahold of someone I can't. I don't know how many times now I have been out and about and needed to call someone but didn't have change or wasn't able to find a pay phone that worked.
I was really astounded when I realized just how much we've changed over to cell phones. It happened when I was supposed to be meeting a friend at a really nice pub near Fascist Island in Newport. When I looked for a pay phone, because I wasn't in the mall but across the street, There Weren't Any! None, no where, no how. The only reason I could think of was that the area I was in was rather well to do and they figured they didn't need any because they all have cell phones.

Smurf

Cell Phones are evil incarnate.

Moonbear

If you don't want to be disturbed while out, you can always turn the phone off or simply choose not to answer it. I wish more people would learn that skill. I like having a cell phone because I can go for long stretches of time when I'm hardly home except to sleep, so it gives me the freedom to still talk to people when I'm away from home. But, if I'm away doing stuff and don't want to be disturbed, I turn the phone off or to silent mode. I also set different ringtones for the people I do like to talk to more often so I can tell by the ringtone if I want to answer it or hit the silence button (it's sort of like the concept of screening calls on the answering machine when home). Really, it's no different than when you're home doing something you don't want interrupted (entertaining guests, or watching a favorite movie, or snuggling with your best beloved) and let the answering machine take the call.

Though, if you don't want to talk to people when you're out, ever, then you might only want a phone for emergency use. If so, then you can get the cheapest plan possible and leave the phone off. You won't mind paying 60 cents/min for roaming or whatever other fees if the only time you use the phone is when you're stranded on the side of the road somewhere.

Kerrie

i never carry mine, my husband always has it for now since i can call him at anytime to say it's time to go to the hospital! (i am due in 4 weeks!!!) what i love is my broadband phone because i can check who has called and even check my voice mails from a computer.

rocketboy

I got mine for my 16th birthday last summer and I noticed an increase in my freedom afterwards since my parents were always able to contact me. Tonight for instance, my rents let me go to a party (and they even let me take the car there...got my liscense last week ) and they didn't even give me a curfew because I had my phone on me. (Although my mom tried my dad just said "be home when you think it is a reasonable time.")

The irony...my cellphone battery died at about 10:30. I'm still home at a reasonable time though...what a good kid I am.

Moonbear

Oh, you have such evil parents! When they told you to be home at a "reasonable time," did you have all these thoughts race through your head about "what's reasonable?" "What if I stay too late?" "What if they never trust me again because I took advantage of 'reasonable'?"

The most evil thing my one friend's mom did when we were teens was to hand her the credit card and drop us off at the mall and not give her a spending limit for the day, just told her to use her own judgement. She was so afraid of spending too much, I don't think we ended up buying much of anything. Parents are devious like that!

Pengwuino

Pff, evil!? If I had a kid, he'd have to lie and jump out a window to get to a party.

Smurf

And if you didn't find out about it for 4 weeks I bet you'd congradulate him.

To me, my parents saying "Reasonable" just meant actually coming home that night (morning).

hypatia

I hardly ever have my cell phone on, and when I do, I mostly use the 2-way.

brewnog

I've got a wonderful button on my phone.

When someone rings who you don't want to talk to, you press it, and it silences the phone, but on their end it carries on ringing. That way, you don't get bugged by the ringing/vibrating, and they think that you're just not next to your phone, rather than ignoring them on purpose!

Mwhahahaha.

Monique

My dad once told a story, of the era before cell phones:
Some friends of his went out in a motorized boat on the lake for a day, my dad was going to pick them up on a specified location at the end of the day. So at the agreed time my dad was standing at the lake, waiting for the boat to arrive. He stood there, waiting, waiting, noone showed up. After an hour he was afraid that he was in the wrong spot, so started driving along the lake to see if he could spot them, no luck, so he returned to the original spot. Noone there. He waited and figured that they might somehow already had returned home, so he drove home and started looking for them, nobody there, he called their house, noone there. He drove back to the lake to see if they had arrived in the meanwhile, but noone was there. At that point it started to get dark and he was getting worried. In order to call the police he had to drive back home, alarmed them, they told him to keep looking and call back with information. So, he drove back to the lake where he could spot them coming towards the shore. It turned out that they had run out of fuel halfway and that they somewhere were able to get some. So, my dad had to pick them up and rush home, he called the police that they were found, but the police had already launched a search action, since a lot of time had passed since my dad had to drive back and forth etc.

Moral of the story: if he would have had a cellphone, he could have called the boat where they were. He could also easily have called the police to warn them or to inform them that the boat had been found.

So, if you don't want people to call you outside of your house, turn off your phone when you're not home. Having a phone with you can be very handy.

Echo 6 Sierra

Yesterday afternoon during rush hour traffic in downtown Austin I spied a school bus driver yacking on a cell phone while driving. I could not tell if there were any nose-pickers on board because the windows were tinted. I would probably be more upset if I were a parent but just the fact that such a large vehicle is being herded in heavy traffic by someone not paying complete attention to the task at hand is unnerving to me.

BobG

I was at the barber shop and the barber was talking on her cell phone while giving a haircut. She just propped the phone between her head and shoulder and kept on cutting, even though I don't think she was tall enough to see the top of the person's head while cutting. Sure enough, I was lucky enough to get her. I decided to let the next person go ahead of me.

I think cell phones should definitely be banned while driving. Why do so many people weave back and forth in their lane while talking on their phone?

Monique

They are already banned in the Netherlands, driving sets are mandatory if you want to talk on a phone.

rocketboy

HAHA u got it exactly. My parents like that trick. I came home at 12:30 just in case. I think you're right about "What if they never trust me again...." because they a) let me take the car to a party, b) didn't give me a curfew. I think they were testing me. I refrained from drinking a drop and was home at a time I figured they wud see as reasonable....hopefully they agree and let me out again.

I agree, when I drive I never answer my phone, unless I'm able to pull into a parking lot or something. (another one of those things that allows my parents to see me as a responsible kid )