I sympathize with the anti-cell-phone arguments, I avoided cell phones for years. But this year I finally got one. The economic argument does not apply in my case. A land line here would cost me about half as much as a cell phone, but then I’d spend the rest of the amount on long-distance calls anyway, so the cost comes out to be about the same. And I do travel on a fairly regular basis these days, so it’s convenient to be able to bring my phone with me.
While Xwing’s point is valid, my particular brand of hatred for cell phones is more complicated. Firstly, it is not limited to cell phones, but all phones. I find phones in general to be irritating, its hard to multitask when doing things on the phone whereas chatting or emails is much easier. I don’t particularly like to be bothered so having the chance to be bothered randomly at a time doesn’t appeal to me. If I don’t want to be reached, I don’t want to be reached. My parents gave em a cell phone when I lived in CA just in case anything ever happened while I was driving or at school and it was always off.
I also think don’t like the way cell phones are used. People are rude and inconsiderate by nature and cell phones are just another outlet through which people can behave rudely and inconsiderately. If I’m having a conversation with someone about something and his / her phone rings, I don’t appreciate the guy / gal talking on his / her cell for 15 minutes. Same applies to movie theaters and class rooms. Your meaningless social life can wait.
Bingo. I do believe we have our winner.
Also, along these lines, the newer phenomenon of ostentatious ringtones, and the fact that so many people who make use of them have such awful taste in music as well.
When my phone rings, everyone hears
This is why I’m hot. This is why I’m hot. This is why, this is why, this is why I’m hot.
I kid. They just hear it vibrate, and if I don’t answer in time, they just hear The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I answer in time though.
Hell yeah I have a cell phone, and I love it…mostly for all the reasons that Dev mentioned on the very first page. Just because people are rude on cell phones doesn’t mean that I have to be. Furthermore, if people are mad because I don’t answer their phone calls all the time, then fuck them - I have a cell phone for MY convenience after all, and not theirs.
The only reason I have a cell phone is because it’s a Motorola Razor.
And that’s cool… 'cause I can cut people with it.
And it’s fun to make children think that I have a taser function with it. Children are stupid.
In conclusion, cell phones are… neutral…?
Okay, I’m so glad I found this thread today because at dinner I had the most amazing thing happen that will forever redeem cell phone usage.
At dinner in my college’s cafeteria, my friends and I were sitting around when TrkJac had a great idea. There are these containers full of plastic and regular utensils, right? Every cafeteria needs one.
So, TrkJac put my cell phone in the bottom of one of the containers and put it on speakerphone on call with one of my other friends. We sat at a table decently far away so that we could see people walking by, and talked to them. We’d say stuff like “I’m a spoon! Pick me!” and when they would grab other things we’d be like, “Don’t pick that fork or napkin, pick up a spoon!” “I’m a shiny silver spoon!”.
Then people would get this look on their faces like “WTF!!!” and when TrkJac went to investigate these two girls told him “I’m scared…” because it freaked people out.
Well, eventually the cafeteria employees figured out something was going on, and heard us talking to them. So they started looking for the phone; they didnt’ know what was going on. TrkJac went and retrieved the phone before they found it and they still looked for it like ten minutes later going through all of the utensils. It was amazing.
THAT IS WHY YOU NEED A CELL PHONE!!!
This has indeed convinced me
It better have. My sides hurt from all the laughing I was doing.
While I acknowledge that I’m necro posting here. I’m doing so for two very good reasons.
The first is that I’ve lost part of my techno virginity last night and am now the proudly disgruntled owner of a cell phone. The second reason is that I felt it to soon for yet another cell phone thread. (plus I doubt that I can start a thread as awesome as this one was)
Anyway my question is this. What are some good places to acquire a sufficiently nerdy ring tone and wallpaper within a reasonable budget of zero dollars and zippity zilch cents?
Cuba, you fucking commie.
(Most cell-phones can transfer material from a computer via USB, so the good ol’ internet will work.)
Hey! I resent that remark. Do you know how hard I’ve worked at being a hippie these last seventeen years? I refuse to be seen as a mere commie anymore. You could at least show some respect and refer to me as a commie hippie.
Real men compose their own ringtones. If need be, just sing every time you’ve got a call.