Damn Cellphones!!!

[Frustrated Wonderer]

I hate Cellphones! Ever since they came out, it is impossible to leave the house without having someone call you! Argh!

They are everywhere, and they go off in the places they should not. You know what I'm talking about, the damn ringing going off in the middle of a movie or when you are taking a nap, or even when you are at an intimate moment.

And you know what really , really sucks, the fact that if you DO turn it off, you coincidentialy always miss an important call.

In this sense, I HATE them, but unfortunatley, it is very difficult to go out without one these days.

Haven't you had people ask you this:

"Hey man, what's your cell number?"

Fuck off, call my house, or don't bother calling.

"I called like 8 times and you did'nt pick up the phone!!"

Uh, yeah, I know, if I didn't pick up the 3rd time, why do you continue calling, moron?

Damn, it's getting to the point where people don't even bother calling your home, they just the cellphone, and if you don't pick up, you simply cannot be found. What the fuck?

Seriously, people managed to live without these freakin' interupting, noisemaking, privacy neglecting machines for many years. Now, people can't live without one.

Stop showing off you new phone, I don't care, and No, I do not intend on buying the cellphones that show movies and play MP3's, that's what TV's and CD Players are for!!!

:mad:

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

I hate Cellphones! Ever since they came out, it is impossible to leave the house without having someone call you! Argh! They make you gassy too.

:: burp ::

[enipla]

My Wife and I do just fine not being tied to them. We own them, but rarely turn them on unless WE need them.

Just turn the thing off. The world is not going to end if you mis an 'important' call. The simple way not to become dependant on them is to not depend on them.

People either call me at home or work. Simple as that. If I’m away on a road trip or something, it’s handy for both my Wife and I but that’s about it.

[Shayna]

My amazing husband took me to the most spectacular spa in the universe this weekend. Perhaps the biggest thing attributing to its incredibly relaxing atmosphere were these signs (http://www.amschwartz.net/jillandthomas/images/TwoBunchPalms2007/062407sign4-web.jpg) (and their enforcement), which could be found throughout the property.

Aaaaahhhhhh, glorious!

[Swampwolf]

unfortunatley, it is very difficult to go out without one these days.

snip

Now, people can't live without one.


On the one hand, I feel your pain. On the other hand, your pain is, to a degree, self-inflicted.

Will the world end if you are out of reach for a few hours? When do you sleep?
Will you lose your job if Walter from accounting can't get in touch during dinner?

When I was in fifth grade, my teacher told the class a story that has (obviously) stuck with me. Seems when he was younger, he was interviewing an older gentleman for some reason or another. They were sitting in subject's living room when the phone rang. The young "Mister C," as we called him jumped up in a Pavlovian spasm to get the phone. His manners got the better of him, and he sat back down so the person whose phone it was could answer it.
ring.
ring.
ring.
ring.
ring.
ring.
"Aren't you going to pick it up?"
ring.
ring.
"Nope."
ring.
ring.
"Why not?"
ring. (this was before answering machines, so it kept ringing)
ring.
"Cuz I got that thing for my convenience, not anyone else's."

Seiously. That phone is your line to the world, not the world's line to you (unless you choose it to be). Turn it off, let people leave messages, and don't give your number to people you don't want calling you.

[Incensed]

On a related note, am I the only one who is freaked out by the cell phone headsets. I still can't get forget the first time I saw a person talking on one. It was in a grocery store at night, and my thought process went like this.

"There's a guy. He's talking... to...no one-there's no one around him that he could possible converse with. He's a schizophrenic (yes I know its properly called MPD). Why is there a schizophrenic in the grocery store? What is he doing with a shopping cart? Is he in charge of the shopping at the asylum? Lunatics eat bacon?"

Yes I grew up in a rural area, and trends were notoriously late in arriving, but even upon moving to less insular, more urban environs, I still can't get used to seeing people talk to air. At least when they speak into the phone you can see the characteristic contorted arm, and thus have a clue that they are corresponding with someone through electromagnetic phenomena that I can't grasp. But without the phone pressed to their ear, I always have a 2 second WTF-Crazy or Not?-Flight or Fight reaction, and, even after this subsides, I walk around feeling like Winston Smith in a distorted world, trying to figure out what technological marvel is going to blindside me next. Seriously, the people who market such devices need to adopt this slogan:

"Wireless headsets; helping asylum escapees blend in with the general populace since 19XX."

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

My Wife and I do just fine not being tied to them. We own them, but rarely turn them on unless WE need them.Ditto. My cellphone is off 95% of the time. I check its voicemail maybe once a day.

The only time it's on is when my fiancee and I, or the two of us and friends of ours, know we'll be needing to coordinate our whereabouts with hectic schedules. The times when you say "I have no idea when my appointment will be over. Keep your cellphone on, if I get out early enough I can meet you at X."

Recently: one person had our rock concert tickets, another got in line, the other two were arriving separately by car and bicycle respectively, another got sick but was going to try to come... we were sorting out all the logistics on the fly. Once we were all settled, the phones were off again.

[Duke of Rat]

Maybe I'll get one someday so I can be miserable, too.

[ivylass]

Lunatics eat bacon?"



Why yes, yes we do.

Since you ask, I'm feeling much better now. :D

[Troy McClure SF]

Tell you what... you just get rid of your cell phone, and I'll get off your damn lawn.

[dogbutler]

Seriously, the people who market such devices need to adopt this slogan:

"Wireless headsets; helping asylum escapees blend in with the general populace since 19XX."

I resemble that remark.So do I!

[ArizonaTeach]

My mother in law bought me and my wife a cell phone package thing back in November, or I would never, ever own a cell phone. I've used it six times (I've been keeping track). I do not give the number out (I don't even know it); I will not ever check the voice mail; I will not ever text. I have had friends give me a hard time because I will not use a cellphone ("How will we get in touch with you if our plans change?" Don't plan something with me if you think it will change thirty minutes before we're supposed to meet somewhere - I don't do spontaneous, and I won't be upset if you don't include me because of that.). I do not get upset with other people owning cellphones, of course, unless they're being rude about it, and that pretty much means texting. Some of my friends and I do a bar trivia thing, and we almost always win...one of the rules is no cell phones, and one guy is so damned addicted to texting he's gotten us disqualified because he can't go two hours without whipping his phone out. When there's a 100 dollar bar tab on the line, you don't fuck it up beceause you had to text "LOL" to your girlfriend. Man, that pisses me off.

But I really don't understand hating cell phones but choosing to carry one. That I don't get at all. It's really not hard at all to go through life without one (barring the inevitable 'I need my cell phone or MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE" stuff I see when people complain about cell phones).

[Scarlett67]

Mr. S and I each have a cell phone. Tracfone, pay-as-you-go. We rarely give the number out, and when we do we explain that its use is only for today's purpose or only when we tell them we're expecting a call on it; we don't keep our phones on and handy 24/7.

Hell, our HOME phone hardly ever rings. I'm an e-mail girl.

[Omegaman]

I want the "Brick" back. The Cadillac of phones. You could drop it and it would still work. But with all the technology of today. Navigation, a thousand ring tones, a battery that would last a month and maybe a satellite connection just in case I ever get down to Fiji or the Congo. That sucker could hold a city phone book in the memory and still be able to play a million songs of your choice.

[lorene]

He's a schizophrenic (yes I know its properly called MPD).

nitpick:
Schizophrenia and MPD (now Dissociative Disorder) are 2 different things entirely. I know it's picky and a buzzkill to bring that up in your otherwise funny post, but that's one of the common misconceptions that gets my goat every single time I read or hear it.

Carry on.

[descamisado]

. . . "There's a guy. He's talking... to...no one-there's no one around him that he could possible converse with. He's a schizophrenic (yes I know its properly called MPD). Why is there a schizophrenic in the grocery store? What is he doing with a shopping cart? Is he in charge of the shopping at the asylum? Lunatics eat bacon?" . . . "Wireless headsets; helping asylum escapees blend in with the general populace since 19XX."This is the closest I've come asking somebody if I could borrow a siggy.

Funny shit.

[CanvasShoes]

"Real" phones are just the same. I got rid of mine as soon as my cell/phone/internet/cable in one company brought in a package that allowed those amenities without a landline.

Before that my mom and sister would call and if the machine picked up they'd say (all confused and stuff) "where ARE you??? " Then, when I called them back they'd say "where were you, we called 5 times".

I was asleep.

"But we needed you".

I love you guys, but I need my sleep.

(this conversation has been going on since WAY before cell phones came on the scene. And I'll bet that conversations like the OP's were quite common and just as venomous right after landlines became a "one for everyone" kind of thing.

I honestly don't get the hatred aimed at cell phones. People are just as capable of being rude and obnoxious without one as with one. Yes, there are rude, loud, cellphone users who use them in inappropriate places and times. Just as there are rude, loud talks-in-inappropriate-places-and-times talkers (or shouters).

As in the "baby crying DO SOMETHING" thread and the linked news report about the screaming pool kids, society has just gotten ruder and terribly inconsiderate toward their fellow human beings period. Cellphones or no cellphones.

[Incensed]

nitpick:
Schizophrenia and MPD (now Dissociative Disorder) are 2 different things entirely. I know it's picky and a buzzkill...

I knew this going in and was trying to pre-empt your buzzkill with my parenthetical acknowledgement of MPD, while also trying to play (poorly) on the fact(?) that many people confuse the two afflictions. I took a bit of artistic license(schizo is such a funnier than word than MPD/DD) and got called for it, but I assure that I didn't mean you or your strangely beloved goat any harm.

[Auntbeast]

Me: Cell phone use is prohibited at the table.
Dumbfuck: But I'm not in the hand.
Me: Cell PHONE use is PROHIBITED at the table.
Dumbfuck: *leans back* or *turns head*
Me: Sir, Cell phone use is prohibited at the table. Please step away from the table.
Dumbfuck: BITCH!
Me: *yelling* Supervisor, Table 14!

Lather, rinse, repeat.

My favorites are the regulars who forget. I can do a quick *cut it out* motion with my hand and they typically "EEK! I have to get off the phone, BYE!" Or saying "I know you couldn't POSSIBLY be using a cell phone at my table, because I *KNOW* that you know better, I must be mistaken." and before I'm done, they have hung up. :)

[Leaper]

It took me a few minutes to realize you were talking about casino poker. (ETA: And even then, it was one single line that told me that this was the situation you were talking about.)

I can't believe that the kind you mention in the dialog don't see the HUGE potential for, I dunno, CHEATING with those things.

[Jodi]

Me: Cell phone use is prohibited at the table.
Dumbfuck: But I'm not in the hand.
Me: Cell PHONE use is PROHIBITED at the table.
Dumbfuck: *leans back* or *turns head*
Me: Sir, Cell phone use is prohibited at the table. Please step away from the table.
Dumbfuck: BITCH!
Me: *yelling* Supervisor, Table 14!

Preach it, girlfriend. When I was shooting craps at Mandalay Bay earlier this month, there was some asshole who wouldn't turn his phone off and apparently was Mr. Important Guy Who Gets A Call Every Ten Minutes: Ring! "Hey, I can't talk; I'm in the casino. Yeah, I'll call you later. Okay. Okay. 'Bye." Ring! "Hey, I can't talk; I'm in the casino . . . " Finally the stick man said "Sir, you'll have to turn your phone off." He says, "The rule isn't that it has to be off, just that I can't talk on it at the table. I'm not talking on it." The guy next to him said, "Buddy, if that phone rings again I'm gonna rip it out of your hands and throw it into the street." The guy turned it off, and left the table shortly after.

Inconsiderate fuckers. OTOH, I think it's funny that casinos accurately reflect that cell phones are NOT truly necessary. In a situation where a cell phone may interfere with someone else's money-making (or, God forbid, the casino's money-making), they are almost religiously forbidden.

[lorene]

I knew this going in and was trying to pre-empt your buzzkill with my parenthetical acknowledgement of MPD, while also trying to play (poorly) on the fact(?) that many people confuse the two afflictions. I took a bit of artistic license(schizo is such a funnier than word than MPD/DD) and got called for it, but I assure that I didn't mean you or your strangely beloved goat any harm.

Me and my goat apologize for jumping the gun. And we love bacon. :cool:

[Trunk]

And you know what really , really sucks, the fact that if you DO turn it off, you coincidentialy always miss an important call.
How is it that all these people are inundated with "important calls" and yet, I'm 35 years old, and I've never had a call in my life that was so important that it couldn't wait.

Is it possible that what I call "minor inconvenience" everyone else calls "important"?

[Incensed]

Me and my goat apologize for jumping the gun. And we love bacon. :cool:

Nah, its totally understandable. Since this board is on a sight dedicated to fighting ignorance, I'm actually glad you posted, since my post was a little misleading, and could theoretically have propagated an already widespread misunderstanding. I'll attempt to be more forthright in any future rants.

But seriously schizophrenic is such a fucking fantastic word, I think I'll just start using it as a random interjection, like selective Tourette's.

Co-worker-"So what do you want to do for lunch?"
Me-"SCHIZOPHRENIC!"
Co-worker(baffled)-"Bwah?...uh okay..I just remembered that my wife packed my lunch." (sidles away, leering at me with appropriate suspicion.)

[glee]

I hate Cellphones! Ever since they came out, it is impossible to leave the house without having someone call you! Argh!


Just turn it off.


They are everywhere, and they go off in the places they should not. You know what I'm talking about, the damn ringing going off in the middle of a movie or when you are taking a nap, or even when you are at an intimate moment.


Actually I don't know what you are talking about, because I turn mine off on all such occasions.
I am in charge, not the phone. :cool:
Why would you want to disturb an entire cinema?
Why would you want to be woken up by a telemarketer?


And you know what really , really sucks, the fact that if you DO turn it off, you coincidentialy always miss an important call.


Can you give examples of these important calls that you miss?

(I check my landline answerphone every day and messages promptly reach me at work. No need for a cell phone annoyance.)


In this sense, I HATE them, but unfortunatley, it is very difficult to go out without one these days.


It's not difficult.
Do carry one. Just turn it off when it would disturb others. Your messages will be recorded.


Haven't you had people ask you this:

"Hey man, what's your cell number?"


Certainly. I give them my landline number.


"I called like 8 times and you did'nt pick up the phone!!"


Ah yes, the younger generation:

"Like, you know, I called you like 8 times and like every time I got a message and like why don't you answer because it's like urgent because I want to know if you've seen like the latest You Tube."

Seriously, people managed to live without these freakin' interupting, noisemaking, privacy neglecting machines for many years. Now, people can't live without one.


Well like you know I asked one friend what she thought of like cell phones and she went like "Oh God! I gotta like keep it on ALL THE TIME BECAUSE YOU NEVER LIKE KNOW WHO MIGHT CALL AND LIKE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF I MISSED ONE?!"
My other friend just switches his cell on when it's convenient to use it. At that time he checks his messages.

[Annie-Xmas]

I know people who have gotten a second cell phone. That way, when you call them on the first one, they can tell you to hold on and then let you listen while they talk on the second one!

I fucking give up!

[vivalostwages]

You wanna know what I really fucking hate about my brand new upgraded cell phone? That I can't figure out a way to give different contacts individual ringtones.
:D


Seriously, I have mine off most of the time and very few people have the number anyway.

[Sean Factotum]

Important calls that I've gotten on my cell phone in the six years I've had it:

-my Mom got lost the first time she tried to get to my new house, and I had to drive to where she ended up and lead her to the right place;

- co-worker needed a ride at the last minute to get to work on time (medical emergency in his family that required the car but not his prescence);

Everything else was just nice to know or less important. And the number is on my business card.

[UncleBeer]

And what about those fucking telegrams? Goddamn Western Union. Some fucker comes up to your house, rings the bell, and has the unmitigated audacity to shove a piece of paper under your nose. And then wants you to sign for it. I blame it all on the alphabet.

[descamisado]

And what about those fucking telegrams? Goddamn Western Union. Some fucker comes up to your house, rings the bell, and has the unmitigated audacity to shove a piece of paper under your nose. And then wants you to sign for it. I blame it all on the alphabet.Okay, let's just go all the way. It's those words, man, goddamned words. People spittin' 'em at each all the time, misunderstanding 'em, categorizin' 'em as nouns, verbs, adjectives and whatnot when they should just leave well enough alone.

Words (and crying babies) are gonna be the downfall of civilization yet, I tell ya.

[Orbifold]

So my wife and I have been hunting for a new apartment lately. One place was having open inspections, so we go to the property management office to pick up a set of keys. We show ID, give them the $50 deposit, sign the sheet, but then we get...the question...

"What's your mobile number?" (Note: cell phones are called mobile phones in Australia.)
"We don't have a mobile phone."
"Oh." long pause "Well...alright, but normally we don't give out keys to people without a mobile number."
"What? Why not?"
"So we can call you if you don't return the keys in an hour."
So what the hell is the deposit for? is the question I didn't ask at this point.

There you have it. Mobile phones aren't just commonplace in Melbourne, they're expected, and if you don't have one then apparently you're some kind of untrustworthy Luddite freak.

[Epimetheus]

I love Cell phone bashers. I really do.

You are all the same as the previous generations before you, talking bad about MP3 players, CD's, Walkmans, boomboxes, Color Television, cars, etc.

I love how people talk like everybody NEEDS a cell phone, or that our calls are SOOO important, as if we were all doctors. Sometimes when at the mall it is nice to be able to be reached by your party in case of separation. Sure, there are ways around it, and it is only one example, but all the little convenience that a cell phone offers add up.

You don't NEED a car to live, but it makes it easier. You don't need internet to live, but it makes it more enjoyable. You don't NEED a cell phone, but some of us actually LIKE to be able to be reached at all times.

And some of us still turn off our phone (or in my case my ringer is hardly ever on unless I am at home). Many of us don't talk on the cell phone while standing in line, and many of us cell phone users are considerate.

But you keep the good fight going! Down with those new fangled printing presses.

[billyb0b]

I hate the things but have to carry one for my job. The Air Force provides it and it must be turned on from 0500 until 2200. Otherwise, its off. I don't even answer it unless it is my boss...wait a minute, my cell is ringing...I'll finish this post later, my buddy is calling to see if I saw the newest YouTube.