I don’t mind having a mobile phone. I can choose to ignore calls and messages, to switch the phone to silent, or to switch it off. I find text messages particularly useful; without annoying other people or bothering with small talk, I can send a short message while on the move (“train was delayed, will be fifteen minutes late” or “change of venue, try the Red Lion instead”).
Or for people who aren’t allowed to talk on a cell phone while at work but can take a moment to peck out a text message to someone else who also can’t talk on a cell phone at work. At least, that’s how my husband and I use it to ask questions about whether I should pick up dinner for that night, etc. We also use complete sentences with properly-spelled words. For us it’s more like an easy E-mail unit than a chat line.
Damn, hit return too quickly. This is mostly how I use it; I probably make a real call on it maybe every other week. It’s easier to get a “train delayed” text message through (especially when you’re in an area with bad reception) than it is to make a phone call, hear that my husband isn’t answering his cell phone (either driving or already home), call home, get the answering machine, wonder if he’s still at work and thus unable to pick up his cell phone, decide to leave a possibly-unintelligible message on the answering machine, etc.
I keep my phone in silent mode all the time, and the only time anyone other than my husband calls it is when we’re on vacation and trying to meet up with friends. My husband gets irritated when his sisters call him on his cell phone when we’re out shopping or something - just leave a message on our home machine, we’ll get back to you!
I definitely don’t like people calling me all the time. I like the idea that there are people that want to call me all the time, but in reality, I find talking on the phone exhausting and a bit boring.
I don’t even have a cell phone. I wouldn’t mind the SO carrying one for emergencies but we have made it okay without one.
I hate talking on the phone so I usually leave the callwave on all the time and won’t return a call unless it’s something important. Chatting about nothing just doesn’t happen with me. I’d rather get an email or wait until we’re together with friends to do much talking.
My work required I got a cell phone, and they pay for it. If they stopped, I wouldn’t miss it in the slightest.
Maybe once a month I need it to make a call.
Yep, I like talking to my friends and family. I’m not bothered when the phone rings, if it’s a political or charity telemarketer or something I simply tell them goodbye and hang up. I enjoy chatting with my loved ones, with careers and kids and significant others filling most of our time, a phone call is sometimes the only contact we’ll have for weeks on end.
My girlfriends and I will talk while we do dishes or laundry, it’s not unusual to be on one call for over an hour. Maybe we just never grew out of our teenaged phone habits.
I think the type of career you have makes a big difference in how you answer this question too. If you’re answering calls all day it makes sense to not want to deal with a phone at home too.
I don’t have a cell phone, either. My wife does, but I don’t even know how to turn it on. You can get me at work, or at home, or by e-mail at my home address (if you are one of about 12 people on Earth, otherwise, you are blocked - no spam!). I guess I’m rebelling against the world having become a public phone booth. I don’t want to join that crowd of people who don’t consider that everyone can hear what they’re talking about, or care.
There is one advantage to using a cell phone: You don’t have to worry if the number you’re dialing is in the local calling area. In many major ciites, there are a multitude of area codes. Before my cell phone, I always had to figure out which ones were free local calls and which ones were “local toll” calls which used to really add up.
I also like being able to call across the country without an extra charge.
In general, I don’t like for people to call me just to shoot the shit. But, most of my friends aren’t like that.
Text messaging can be useful. There are times it is too noisy to make a call. Also, if I get a TM I can remember it. Sending me a TM as a reminder to pick up bread will guarantee I"ll remember. Also, it is useful for addresses.
First off, as this link demonstrates, not everybody takes an unreasonably long time to send an SMS, especially since predictive text input takes most of the guess work out of the equation. Secondly, there are times and places where it might be advantageous to send and receive information but a phone call is completely inappropriate–for example, I work in a call center and the agents can’t put customers on hold to answer their cell phones, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be reached. Thirdly, there are times when you don’t need to chitchat back and forth but simply need to convey information in a fashion which leaves a record, for example texting your SO while he/she is in a meeting with a shopping list of ten items, just as you yourself are going incommunicado for a long period of time. A phone call will not be answered under these circumstances, and the recipient definitely will not be able to write down the items required while everyone waits patiently. Text message arrives, one beep can be ignored, it can be read when convenient and the shopping list is right there for future reference.
Just because texting is misused by teenagers doesn’t mean it has no place in the adult world. It’s an alternate means of communication which is low impact, compact and can be really fun–diss not until you’ve explored the full parameters of the technology!
Truer words were never spoken. I take calls all day long. The sound of a ringing phone makes me twitch. I shut the ringer off at home, and check the phone once a night or so to see if anyone I actually *want * to speak to has called.
I refuse to carry a cell phone. Other people complain that I’m difficult to reach, and I just tell them that yes, I am. And since I don’t actually exist for their convenince, I’m okay with that.
Count me in as one of those who does not like being called all the time. Or ever, pretty much. That said, I do carry my phone around with me most of the time. I’ve been in any number of situations where I was glad I was able to make a phone call.
I keep my phone on vibrate (unless I am expecting a very important call), and as a result miss about 90% of my phone calls anyway. That’s why god invented voicemail. Basically, I like that I can make a call if necessary, but no, I don’t really want to go around talking on the phone all the time. God forbid I should ever get one of those headset things.
I know people can be irritating as fuck with cell phones (like any Nextel walkie-talkie phone users who leave the two way feature on in public…god, I hate this), but the animosity and curmudgeosity I see towards them is sometimes baffling to me.
Exactly!
There seem to be a lot of people who think that a ringing phone – either mobile or landline – must be answered. And there are also some people who think that because someone else has a cell phone, they should answer it every time it rings. I will never understand the hangup (no pun intended) these kinds of people have with phones.
I get tired of hearing “I don’t have a cell phone because I don’t want to be available 24/7”, blah blah blah. I don’t want to be available 24/7, either, and I’m not: having a cell phone just makes it much easier for me to be available when I do want to be.
I barely get calls anyway since the only people who have my number are my parents and close friends and I tend to talk to my friends over email and IM more often. I get maybe three calls a week, and that isn’t a lot. So having a phone isn’t a burden to me. I don’t get these people who think it’s like a ball and chain dragging you down, if you hate it that much, just turn it off. Also, it’s good for emergencies–if I got stranded without a phone I’d have to track down a pay phone (not easy considering that they’re getting rid of a lot of them because everyone has cells), hope I had enough change, etc. When you’re a female non-driver who lives in the city, that counts for a lot.
I also think texting is pointless when you have email. I’ve never received or sent one.
I don’t like people being able to yak at me all the time. For this reason, I got a Sidekick with an unlimited data plan. No Voice. I love it and its cheaper. If people really want to bug me, they can do so for 150 text characters at a time.
Does everyone on here without a landline have cable internet service, not dsl? I chose dsl because it has an added benefit of allowing me to make phone calls. And no cell phone for me-in some ways it’s like an electronic version of a leash.
Huh? What? Go ahead?
Might as well be a cheap walki talki.
I have the best service I can get, and a brand new phone. But STILL even in a large city(when I go to them),I have to be careful not to move to fast because half the conversation gets lost.
How people use them while driving around town is beyond me.
Cell phones are great when you have no other choice, that’s why I have one. Otherwise, IMHO they suck.
If the caller and the callie talk at the same time. Only one is heard. It’s a friggin’ radio. Not so with land lines.
Over.
10-4
Rodger.
Who?
Over
What?
They are good at what they do. But do not call me to chat on one unless your butt is firmly in place and you can tilt your head to get the best signal.
I only have a cell phone now. I got rid of my landline after I purchased my cell phone and I can not take calls at work. I didn’t want a cell phone but was forced to purchase one after my then-roommates kept answering the phone and not giving me the messages. It was negatively affecting my relationship with my then-boss who never understood the fact that it was a landline and not a cell phone. “Why don’t you ever answer your cell!?”
Although I bought my cell out of necessity, I now absolutely love it and would not part with it which is a bit odd considering how much I don’t like talking on the phone. I’ve found it has helped me keep in touch with my friends and family a lot more than a landline did. I work and go to school full time and most of my very busy immediate family lives 3 hours away. It is difficult for us to catch each other when we are both at home. Every Monday I call my mother and we chitchat for 2+ hours as I run various errands between shifts. In addition to that set time I am now able to call her at other times with greater ease. When I only had the landline it seemed we were always playing phone tag.
I have my cell phone with me at most times, although it is off while I am at school or work. If I don’t feel like answering then I will turn it off. If I am with company or in a situation where it would be rude to answer then I turn it off or put in on vibrate. A lot of times I don’t feel like answering so I just ignore it while it rings and then check my voice mail later.
As for text messaging, I absolutely love it. That is my favorite part of having a cell phone. Text messaging does not replace phone calls or email, they serve different purposes. One you learn how to do it (only took me a few weeks) you can tap one out almost as fast as you can speak. I use full sentences and punctuation in my messages and I still think it is faster than calling in some situations.
Advantages for text messaging:
It’s non-obtrusive. I am out to lunch with a friend and my mom wants me to pick up some milk and bread at the store on my way home. If she calls, then I will not answer because I am with my friend. After meeting with my friend I would have to check my voice mail and if I got any other calls or have other messages in my inbox, that might take a while. If she sends me a text message I can check it in seconds and if I do it right, my friend won’t ever notice me checking the text messages.
I think it is less rude to send a text message than to call, say a short phrase and then hang up again. If you are late to meet your friend then (for me anyway) it takes less time to send a quick text message and you can do it while doing other things to get ready. Phone calls take longer and (I think) require more politeness which means more time spent.
They are great for situations where you want to send someone a note to let them know that you are thinking of them but don’t have the time for a phone call. On Christmas day as my brother was driving us to my Grandparent’s house, I sent a picture of our Christmas tree along with a text message wishing the recipient a merry Christmas to ~15 people in my phone book. The friends were in a variety of different time zones and it would have been impossible to try and call each of them up to wish them merry Christmas, not to mention it would have been rude of me to do so while in the presence of my siblings. I was able to send several people a Christmas greeting while still conversing with the people I was with in person. What’s more, the people who received the greeting weren’t interrupted from their festivities for more than a few seconds, and that’s if they chose to check the messages then. Similarily, I love sending and getting little notes that say things like “Thinking of you” “I hope you have a nice day today.”
Text messages also will go through sometimes when the grid is too busy. When I got lost in San Fran this October I couldn’t call any of my friends but I could text them.
Finally, text messages eat up less battery life than calling. When I went to an outdoor music festival for a weekend, almost everyone there text messaged instead of calling because most of them needed their batteries to last them for three days.
Yes!
Owing to my personal phone issue, it takes an act of Og for me to call someone, most of the time, but I love getting calls. (I do return messages promptly–that’s one of the few ways people can get me to call them.) As someone else said, it’s good to know that there are people who want to talk to me. I’ve always enjoyed talking on the phone, and as I have a number of friends that I rarely get to see, talking on the phone makes me feel closer to them than instant messaging does, though I like that too. I’m just a chatty sort, though.
I have one phone that functions as both my landline and my mobile. It’s a great deal from Orange that they keep trying to get me to quit. I have two different ringtones, one for people whose ID shows and another for people who show as restricted. I look to see who the former are and decide whether to answer and ignore the latter. Since the restricted numbers never leave messages I can safely assume they were marketting calls I have missed.
The most amusing thing about only talking on the phone when you feel like it is the anger it generates in other people. I have had conversations like this:
“Have you been away all weekend?”
“No, I was home.”
“Your phone must be playing up. I rang you several times.”
“Oh the phone rang, I was just doing stuff and couldn’t be bothered talking to anyone on the phone.”
You can tell that on one level the other party wants to abuse you for not being at their beck and call.