I hate phones in general. I rarely use them, and never when I can avoid it.
It pisses me off when I’m doing something with my friends and I constantly see them flipping them open and checking texts, missed calls, or whatever. If they want to be somewhere else they should just fucking leave. Otherwise, attention, here.
I’m not blind to the fact that they ARE somewhat useful and I kind of do want one because they seem to be becoming the standard way of imposing yourself in everyone’s life no matter where they are or what they are doing.
But if I had to choose between a world where everyone had cells and one where no one did, I’d pick no one.
Tell me someone else feels the same way? They seem like really redundant and obnoxious pieces of technology to me, and I’m tired of seeing them.
Anyone else here not have a cell and not really want one? Or am I alone?
I don’t really see just how they’re reduntant, since there isn’t another device which achieves the same function.
That aside, I keep mine for when I need to get in touch with people. I don’t answer if it’s not somebody I wanna talk to, I don’t have the money for a text messaging lan, so I don’t get those, either.
There are people who use cellphones because they are useful communication devices for things like reminding one’s spouse to pick up the kids from school, and then there are people who should just have cellular device implanted permanently in their skull, looking not unlike the Borg.
I myself have enough rollover minutes that I could probably read all of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Tolkien’s works to someone, and still have minutes left over. I have all those minutes because I don’t feel that I need to dispense live feed information about my life for every freaking waking hour.
I can use my regular phone when I’m driving to a party to call someone at said party and ask them for directions? You must have a longer phone chord than I? Oh, and by the way, I don’t have a home phone.
And phones are only reduntant as a means of long-distance, rapid communication if you’re counting the telegraph. Letters are one-way at one-time and take a much longer interval of time. Internet communication, such as these forums and instant messaging, are rapid, but were invented after the telephone, thereby making them, and not said phone, redundant.
I don’t usually find it that annoying, although this might be because my cell phone conversations are generally as short as I can make them, and few and far between.
Of course, a recent one included me instructing the other person, in no uncertain terms, to use email instead of text-messaging, and for God’s sake don’t text message me to tell me you’ve sent me an email.
I love my phone. If I don’t have it I feel like I’ve lost my connection to the WORLD. I like keeping in touch with certain people and if someone needs to reach me how else are they going to do it? Drive around Lincoln randomly until they see me?
Different country, different customs. I just got mine handed to me when I was 13 for “emergencies” and whaddya know, it stuck on me. All members of the family have their phones (Ma and PA need theirs for their work business too) and it’s sorta nice to know who is calling you so you can… “lose” the phone if necessary >_>;
Usage: Very low. I get most of my communication with friends done via IRC, and I get billed about twenty smackers every other month. And text messaging removes the need for short calls overall.
My mother has one that I’m forced to carry on thursdays when I have classes at 10PM at my college (1.5 hour trip from my home). Meaning I end classes at fucking 12 PM and am forced to travel home in the dead of the night by train, which is about as safe as taking a stroll nude through to the rapist section of your nearest prison.
Otherwise, I avoid the damn thing like cancer.
Though I would probably not hate them so much if people used them as actual PHONES. You need to tell someone something right now? Okay. But for the love of fuck don’t:
1)Call/message someone who’s less than two blocks away from you. Just walk over and fucking TALK to them.
2)Play your ringtone over and over in public spaces where I’m forced to be. Particularily packed trains. No one cares that you have Living la Vida Loca on your goddamn phone and we certainly don’t want to hear it fifteen times in a row. It’s a pretty stupid song anyway.
3)Interrupt a conversation to check backlogged text messages that for some goddamn reason couldn’t wait.
4)Interrupt a conversation to have a text message exchange with someone else while everyone else is stuck watching you giggle at your phone like an idiot.
5)Play games in public with the sound on. One hour straight of peep peep peep does wonders to awaken murderous tendencies in those around you.
6)Have an important/embarrasing conversation in public spaces without lowering your voice. There are things I simply do NOT need to know and would have rather remain ignorant of.
i dont have one and i dont plan on getting one but i think there really useful, because if your hanging out with your friends and you need to call someone you cant. I just use all my friends phones. i am the only person i know who doesnt have one outta my friends
I only got a cell phone because someone foirced it on me. I hate using phones because I feel awkward when I onl;y have the voice to go by. Text is fine, and speaking to someone face to face is normal, but there’s too much silence in phone calls.
Of course, I don;t talk long, and only so I can know if I’m getting a ride, or need to pick something up on the way home.
I quite like my phone. It means that if I’m searching for my friends in town or on campus or something, they’re very easy to find. It’s good for finding other things, like if I don’t see a friend for a while (on or offline), organising a place to meet and hang out for a while is really easy.
And really, if they’re invading your privacy then it’s your own fault. It’s really easy to just avoid answering the phone call/text message and continue whatever you’re doing. Or just turn the damn thing off. Or learn to text and talk at the same time. It’s not hard to do. At all.
I’m glad I have one, mostly because it helps in a pinch. A few months ago, for instance, I was driving through the middle of nowhere and got a flat tire. If I hadn’t have had my cell phone, I wouldn’t have been able to call CAA to get a tow truck out there. (And before people say “why not just change the tire yourself?” it was good that I hadn’t done that, because a part of the tire holding thing was broken and the next one would have gone flat right away too.)
i don’t have one at the moment because i am beyond broke but i miss it terribly. it was a cheapo phone that was free with a contract signup. it had a mirror on the front, rather than a caller-id screen -____-
i loved having my phone. maybe i just have a different personality but i don’t mind people calling me whenever they want. plus if i’m out at the store or something and someone calls and says they’re going out tonight, i would have missed that call if i only had a house phone. i also love texting! i’m guessing i’m definitely in the minority there.
also my phone had ragnarok online on it…if there is a better way to kill a long train ride than slaughtering porings, i’ve yet to find it (books??? what are those)
yeah and you would hate hanging out with me hades, because i check my phone constantly. whenever the car gets quiet or people are having a conversation or something, bam, i’m checking up on texts. whats the alternative? staring out the window? plus it gives you something to do during those awkward pauses in conversation. and if you’re hanging out with someone and bored? just send somebody a text and see if they want to come over, then go out and have a little adventure picking them up, boredom killed.
edit: oh and there are no long distance charges on a cell. woot woot
Yeah i can agree with this. Especially the important conversations bit. I’m not one of those crazy people who laments the death of privacy and intimacy whenever they see someone talking on the phone on the street, but when you’re yelling at your girlfriend to explain her not coming home last night, or yelling at your son/daughter, or breaking up with somebody in the middle of the food court, its pretty stupid. At least have the respect for the person on the other end to take their call in private, failing that, respect the fact that nobody else wants to hear you yelling at your boyfriend!!!
I don’t use cells cause I don’t need them. I don’t hate them. I just have no interest in them. If I actually needed one, I would buy it.
I don’t care about people using cell phones. People do a hundred thousand things which annoy me. I’ve forced myself to not care about them. If I start in on cell phones, who knows where it will end??
Point being: why single out cell phones amongst the huge array of rude behaviors in American culture?
