Yes. I have a phone. When I’m out in town, or walking, or chilling, or however otherwise receptable to contact, I have it on. When I’m asleep, or working, or otherwise want to relax, I have it off. In cinemas, I have it on silent. (I know, I know, but I do occasionally want to text people in a cinema if we arranged to meet. I don’t see the problem, so long as (1) It doesn’t ring, which is bad, and (2) YOU DON’T SPEAK INTO IT WHICH IS RUDE BEYOND FUCKING IMAGINING.)
I am happy. What’s wrong with that?
Some of my friends have phones they generally leave off, but use for outgoing calls and voicemail mostly, and occasional times they DO want to be contacted. I find this annoying - OK, if you’re perfect at arranging to meet, fine, but if you’re running late, have your phone on you, and I want to say “Hi, meet us at … instead” it’s just annoying.
Re: the golf. If everyone could be trusted to keep them on silent, fine. (Do they search you? Can you get away with it so long as you don’t answer it?) But people can’t be, can they?
Cell phones are a wonderful technology that people can make very annoying to others. I’m not generally hounded by friends and family, so if I get contacted while out of the house, it’s a positive experience. The convenience of making emergency or out of the blue calls is also rather nice.
Here’s a nice shout out to these brain sturgeons
Leave your sick child home while you have a grand old time at the links… :mad:
I have a friend who refuses to get on because he works for an airline and says he sees waaaaaaay too much rude behavior with the things. He’s a gate agent most of the time, and I suggested to him that a) HE does not need to be rude with the things, but he travels a lot, and a cell phone makes arranging to meet up with people a heck of a lot easier, and b) that if he gets people who are on the phone at the head of the line, send 'em to the back.
B is not under his control, so I gather, but I think it ought to be policy just about everywhere.
I hate them, even though I own one. I leave it off most of the time, and I feel sorry for people who feel they MUST answer theirs. I refuse to let a phone boss me around.
Not that I’m defending the cell phone maniacs, but it’s getting harder and harder to find pay phones these days, as a direct result of the popularity of cell phones.
This is true. Occasionally I need to find a pay phone in an emergency, or if I’m lost while driving, and they are getting rarer these days. Often they’re in a state of disrepair or just “out of order,” too–nobody worries as much about keeping them operational, because almost everyone has cell phones now.
Mr. S and I both have one. He uses his mainly to call me on his work breaks (he’s working as a school custodian and doesn’t have an office), and I use mine mainly to send him necessary text messages while he’s working. We usually have our phones with us when we’re out and about, but they are almost always turned OFF. Only two or three people have the numbers, and they understand that the phones are usually off and we will tell them the time period during which they can call – for instance, if we’re gone for the weekend and my mom is puppysitting, or if we’re traveling to meet friends and will arrange a place/time to meet when we get close. At other times we give the numbers out only as needed – for example, to the garage guy to let us know when the car is ready while we run errands. We almost never use our phones for chatting.
Amd we are firmly in the camp of those who detest rude cell phone users. Why not try being where you ARE – like with your lunch companions or behind the wheel of a moving vehicle – instead of with some voice coming out of that thing plastered to your ear?
Let me redo that: I feel sorry for people who feel they MUST answer theirs at all times. If it was an emergency then I could understand. Otherwise, it wouldn’t kill you to let the caller leave a message.
I have to have one for my business. When clients want to talk to me, they do not want to wait. Yes, they would have had to wait in the “old days” but if I’m not responsive enough, they’ll find someone who is. Any of you are free to be a one man army and refuse to use the cell but it you’re in my business you’re going to slowly go hungry.
I try to be curteous. It’s never on at the movies. I triple check to make sure its turned off and would be mortified if it rang while the film was playing. If it rings when I am getting lunch, I say “hello, one minute please” and then go outside for my conversation. I don’t shout into it when I am in a crowd. I have a hands free kit for the car. It’s not that difficult.
Not a solution pal because if you turn off the dam thing, later you receive complaints (from bosses and family) about why was the cell phone off (it happens to me).
The only solution is a worldwide ban on cellphones. That and a similar ban on nukes will let us achieve universal peace.-
I almost always have my phone with me, and it’s constantly on. I have to; I’m either directly or indirectly on call. However, the ringer is never on, vibrate is enough for me to know someone is calling/paging me, and I can get to place where it won’t disturb those around me to answer the damn thing. I really get pissed at people who are jabbering away in restaurants and theaters; I mean, go to the bar or the lobby and deal with the call there.
*“If I have a heart attack, who’s going to call 911?” said Claudia Mutter, 50, from Coventry, R.I., who said she was unaware of the cellphone ban, even though it was printed on the back of tournament tickets. *
The correct answer to this, of course, is “No one. We are all just going to stand here and watch you die!”
A ceel phone is a wonderful tool, but like all wonderful tools, it can be grossly misused by wankers.
The only two things I hate about cell phones are both due to wankers. One is those with the loudest, most annoying rings possible. A big, look at me!
The others are those two way nextel phones. Those things should be shoved in the orifices of the users. Nothing more I hate than having to listen to BOTH sides of the fucking conversation at walkie-talkie level sound accompanied by the constant beeping in between.
Normal phones- ok, nextel phones, very very very rarely justified.
We don’t have one. The temptation has been there once or twice (when I really could have used a phone RIGHT THEN), but it’s generally just so unnecessary. I bought one for my dad because he’ll be on the road at night some times. But it’s strictly for emergencies. In fact, he buys minutes for the phone, and has to use them up by calling me. I guess he can’t save them up.
For years I shunned the idea of having a cell phone, mainly because of the arrogance and rudeness they seemed to bring out in the people who used them. I finally broke down and got one after I realized how many times I had been someplace and wished I had a cell phone. I don’t use mine very much in public, mostly at home in the evenings and on the weekends when I have unlimited long distance.
Recently my family took a car trip from Boise to Seattle and back. We had two cars. I must say it was sure nice to have cell phones along. That way we could easily call the people in the other car if someone needed to make a stop at the next exit, and if we got separated we could stay in close contact. A few years ago, before any of us had cell phones, when we were traveling in separate vehicles my sister suddenly realized she was about to run out of gas and the nearest gas station was in some small mountain town about 12 miles off the main highway. She was in the last car and we were already separated, so my mom and dad could not see that we had turned off. Several minutes later we caught up to my mom and dad, who had no idea what happened to us, thinking the worst (it was a dangerous road with lots of turns, steep dropoffs and high-speed traffic). All the worrying and anxiety could have been saved if we only had cell phones at the time.
This said, like most other things, if cell phones are used appropriately they’re great things to have, but they can be misused, too, so there has to be limits to how, when and where to use them.
Ignore the complaints. What’s so hard about that? If you are at work, then the boss has a right to expect you to be available. Otherwise, grow a backbone.
That’s another issue with the user, not the technology. Those phones can be used in walkie-talkie mode with the flip open and the phone held up to the user’s ear. That they choose not to is not the fault of Nextel and Motorola. That said, I agree with you – anyone who uses it turned all the way up wandering through my store deserves to have it shoved up his ass.
There’s no problem as long as your phone doesn’t emit a glow of any kind whatsoever. My pet peeve (since most people seem to have gotten the “don’t talk on your phone in the theater” thing, I think) is people texting in the theater while their phone emits the most powerful burst of light this side of the sun and completely distracts me and drives me insane until they put it away.
I have a phone, but I mostly leave it off/at home, because I despise phones of any sort (I’m pretty bad about it, actually; I didn’t even bother to set up voice mail in the last two dorms I lived in because I knew I’d never check it). I’m an email/instant messenger kind of guy.
Lord, I hate these cell phones, but they are a necessity in this day and age. Especially if you have to contact a teenage daughter! I was griping to my 17 year old about not responding to some important e-mails. She told me, basically, that “computers and e-mail are for you older folk and the little kids (meaning her 13 year old sister) who use IM. WE (meaning the cool, hip, teenager set) use cell phones! I do not check my e-amil anymore, because it is not important”. My head spins! How do you fight such a view except by natural consequences, if an important e-mail is missed, let her fall on her face rather than help out until a lesson is learned?
