I don’t understand smart phones at all. I just want to make calls on the damn thing and if they could make it smaller I wouldn’t loathe it so much.
I totally understand smart phones. I’m not going to get one because I don’t want to spend my waking hours walking into things because I’m looking at mine. 
I hate my cell phone. I take it with me everywhere, because my husband worries that I’ll have some sort of accident. I only take it with me to humor him. To be fair, he sometimes does things to humor ME.
This might change if I got out more and had a Blackberry or similar.
I have to admit, though…cell phones are damned handy when picking up someone at the airport and their arrival gate has changed, or if I’m out and I can’t remember where the Lowe’s is. So I do use mine sometimes…but most months I don’t use it at all.
I picked from time to time. My cell phone hardly ever leaves my car. I’m not allowed to take it into work, and I don’t need it at home. It’s a basic, bottom-of-the-line freebie Nokia that I’ve had for 6 or 7 years.
It stays in the car because that’s where I’d need it if I had a problem or if I got stuck in traffic or something. In all the time I’ve had it, I don’t think I’ve logged 100 hours of use. We’ve got a LOT of rollover minutes going away every month.
I picked “What is this thing you call a “cell phone”?” because, seriously, it’s the closest to my actual situation. I have no antipathy towards them, and have been thinking for some time now that I ought to get me one, but I’m too stupid to know what to get, and too scared to take a chance because, apparently, you can’t get one without signing up for some sort of long term commitment.
There’s any number of pre-paid options available. You can by a TracPhone for 15 bucks and 120 minutes for about 30, I think, so your initial invesment needn’t be daunting.
IMHO, you should have broken the poll up between smartphone users and dumbphone users as I would think that the % of people who can’t go w/o their phone is greater among smartphone users.
See I would have broken it up between “my cell phone is my only phone” and “I have it in addition to a landline.”
Why? Do you think that people that have landlines are less apt to take their cell phone with them everywhere they go? or the other way around?
If you have a land line, you can’t take it with you when you leave the house. So I fail to see the connection.
There’s no answer in the poll for my situation. I don’t have a landline, so I don’t just use my cell phone for work. I take it almost everywhere, but when I go to the gym I leave it in the trunk of my car, and when I take a walk I leave it at home unless I’m expecting a call. I take it with me when I ride my bike in case I need help. It is on me most of the time, but I hate talking on the phone, so I’m not one of those people who talks while driving, shopping, and so on. It’s more of a safety or convenience thing than something I’m completely devoted and attached to.
People for whom it is their only phone are used to relying on it. They generally don’t, say, leave it locked in the trunk of the car for weeks at a time. They mentally think of a cell phone as “basic equipment” as opposed to “extra convenience” or “emergencies only.”
Just two ideas that spring to mind. Obviously, I could be wrong & there’s actually no connection.
I think the idea is if you don’t have a land line, you’re sort of tied to your cell phone be default. Like me. I don’t make a million calls, and nothing is so important that I generally have to be contacted RIGHT EFFING NOW!!! but if I didn’t have a cell phone, I’d be totally incommunicado.
It’s more often a annoyance, although sometimes a convenience. I take it along because I have to, and in case of emergencies.
My cell phone is the most accurate clock I’ve ever owned. It gets the correct time from my provider. I never have to adjust it or wind it - just keep the phone charged. Even if the battery dies it starts up again with the correct time as soon as it’s recharged. It automatically resets itself for whatever time zone I’m in. It’s great. And it’s conveniently right here in my pocket at all times.
I just signed up for a Virgin Mobile no contract, pay-as-you-go android phone. $25/month for unlimited internet, data, email and 300 minutes. I doubt I’ll use all 300 minutes, especially since I have skype and google voice installed on my phone.
I went 15 months without a cell phone (or any phone at all) and I was fine. I used my computer for making calls when I needed to, and if I was away from my computer or away from an internet connection, I’d borrow a friend’s phone and people just had to wait for me to get back.
The whole reason I bought a cell phone was so that I could have a mini computer that I could take with me everywhere. I do a bit of work online, so it helps with that, but I mostly just like it for the convenience. Like other posters, I don’t use it so much as phone, but I do use it as a calendar, calculator, watch, alarm clock, grocery list, coupon finder, map, gps, restaurant finder, service finder, chat program, constellation/planet finder, notepad, dictionary/thesaurus, contact list, news program, price comparison device, file sharer, internet browser, music player, etc. I even track my menstrual cycles using my phone. Most of my dope posts have been made on my phone whilst I was in a waiting room, on a long car trip, or lazying around in bed.
I know I don’t NEED a phone (lasted 15 months fine with no phone at all), but $25/month for all of the above whenever I need it is sure worth it.
Mine lives in my purse, turned off so no one can call me. I take it pretty much everywhere my purse goes, but I only use it when it’s convenient for me.
Except for the fact that mine is turned on, this is my situation. Right now it’s in my purse, way at the other end of the house. I occasionally have to check it to make sure it still has a charge. Actually, my voice mail message says something like “I don’t ever check this, so if you really know me, call me at the house or work.” Otherwise, I make maybe 1 call a week unless we are meeting people someplace and have to coordinate.
I finally bought my first one in July. Turns out I use it to call the wife once occasionally when I’m out and about.
I am disappointed in the 100% reliance on unreliable technology.
I don’t know what you mean by that - I don’t use my cell often, but when I need it (like my flat tire last week), it hasn’t let me down.