Gah! …If we weren’t so broke,
AbbySthrnAccent writes,
<No cell phones here, although if we we’re so broke, we would get one for the new teenage driver to take with him when he’s driving for emergencies only.>
Yeah. Money is the main reason why I don’t do anything serious about getting one even just for emergencies. I don’t like to spend money on things I don’t absolutely need (unless I plan to use them often, which wouldn’t be the case with the cell phone) and thus far I’ve always been able to find a payphone, even though I would concede that a cell phone would be a lot more convenient.
However, is the reason you’re so broke BECAUSE you have a teenager?
Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question. 
Like many others have posted, my cell phone lives in my car. It gets used maybe once a month tops for emergencies or when I really want to be available to get important news (like when my dad was in surgery and I couldn’t be there but wanted to know how it went ASAP).
But I like that there are some times in my life when I am unreachable. I think I deserve that time.
I don’t have a cellphone and I doubt I will ever acquire such a device because I have no need for one. When I am out and away from the phone it’s intentional because I do not want to be contacted by anyone.
Most times I refuse to call people who have cellphones because the signal quality is so poor even on those digital phones which are supposed to be crystal clear. I rather have a conversation with someone instead of shouting WHAT WHAT. Plus I’d rather not put a cell phone user in a situation where they’ll be distracted and get into an accident.
There was only one time where I thought cellphones would be a good idea was meeting up with people in NYC when I lived in that area but mostly that was because my friends were incompetent and perennially late.
I do the cell phone / no land line thing. So yes, I have a cell phone, and use it rather frequently, but it usually lives on the bookshelf in the corner. The free long distance thing makes more sense for my calling pattern. That and I have this habit of driving half way across the country occasionally.
I don’t have a cell phone and I have no plans to get one. Every once in a long while I have something happen where I wish I did, but much more often, I’m glad that I can’t be reached constantly.
The only reason I have a cell is because my volunteer work requires me to be on call for a week at a time and the chapter can’t afford to lend me one.
We had one briefly and wound up giving it to one of our teenagers who drove in rural areas to see her friends. After the contract was up, she turned 18 and we told her to get her own if she wanted it.
Recently, I’ve considered getting another because Mr. Adoptamom is self employed and I’d like to be able to talk to him during the day sometimes, but not enough to pay $40-50 per month for the privilege. He likes the fact that contractors can’t call him all day and that leaves him free to do his work. So we nixed that idea.
Then we decided to take a vacation and my BOSS decided I need one since I’m a one woman office. So far, I’ve managed to avoid him whenever he brings it up 
I just don’t want him to be able to contact me 24/7 - know what I mean? When I’m at work, he gets 100% of me, and when I’m at home my family does - I don’t think the two should mix unless it’s an emergency.
Wasn’t one of the big things (you know what I mean) with 9-11 that cell communications were down because the transmission towers were located atop the WTC?
I bought a pre-paid cell phone about three years ago, which I told myself was for emergencies but which was actually because I decided I wanted a cell phone. The one actual emergency I’ve had since owning the cell phone was being stuck in the Denver airport waiting for my brother to pick me up and being unable to reach him by cell because, even though I’d checked the company’s website before leaving home, there was nothing telling me I had to program the phone to roam.
I now use it mostly for calling people when I’m bored in traffic jams. Not too long ago I used it as part of a friend’s elaborate scheme to pay back a vindictive ex by getting the ex arrested for drunk driving (didn’t work). And of course I used it last month extensively while I was being held hostage. I keep thinking I’m going to upgrade to a digital the next time I run out of minutes but then I never do.
I don’t use one. My wife has one for practicle purposes. I feel like a schmuck when I have to use it on the road or whilst at the mall. I seldom do it. When I worked a particular job, I had to be able to drive, write and speak. It is hard for some, but I can multitask fairly well. Don’t be jealous.
Anyway, I don’t own one and rarely use my wifes. I’ve never had a pager and don’t need on. I’m so unimportant.
I’ve never even used one before, and hopefully will never be required to. I hate phones. All phones. They’re intrusive. Now that I’m out of college, I never call people up to chat(mom and dad required a weekly call to prove I was alive), and avoid phone use whenever possible. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never liked phones. That suited my parents just fine when I was a teenager 
I don’t own one and refuse to buy one. I just don’t feel that anyone needs to get in touch with me so badly that it can’t wait until I get home or get to the office.
I don’t own one and have no plans to buy one. I don’t like phones, at all, really. They’re intrusive and disrupt whatever else I was doing, which annoys me greatly.
I don’t have one and strenuously resist getting one. There have been a few rumblings at work that I should requisition one so I can be reachable at all times and places. I think not. IME as the availability of calling increases, so do the unneccessary calls. During meetings, while dining…I was eating out tonight with friends. One pal got four phone calls from (adult) family during dinner, none of them in the least crucial. Even she was annoyed and apologetic. They were along the lines of, “Where is…?” A little patience, common sense and effort would have saved all the calls. Same pattern w/ calls during meetings. Most of the interrupting calls are communication clutter rather than “gotta be handled right NOW” situations.
Besides, I reject the idea that I must be at the beck and call of all and sundry at all times. Nope, not gonna happen.
That said, I would consider a very cheap, pre-paid version for the car for emergencies.
Veb
i think i may have used a cell phone once. there was an accident on the road going by the stables, and the guy in the middle car was all concerned that his fiance be contacted to let her know where he was being taken. the phone was somebody else’s.
otherwise, whenever there’s been any immediate crisis (time i broke my ankle; time car slide on ice into a ditch), somebody else with a cell phone has usually appeared to save the day. (i have a sneaking suspicion that they JUMP at a chance to do that, because it helps them justify having the darn thing.)
as for me, isn’t enough money to pay me to get one. don’t need more solicitors trying to contact me. don’t want to talk to anyone that badly. i hate the phone–just leave me alone!
I don’t own one. Just this week, however, I had to borrow a friend’s. ( Had to get her to show me how to operate it. Duh!) We were in a hotel/conference center place, and they had removed all the pay phones! There were these blank holes in the walls where the pay phones used to be.
The manager told me that so many people have cell phones that pay phones are now money losers for them.
At one break, I counted nine people outside talking on cell phones.
I think as more people get them, it will be less and less necessary for me to think about acquiring one. I will always be able to mooch. :o
I used to never use my cell phone. I mean, after all, if I wanted someone to call me, I would be at home. The phone went with me when I went out–on my parents orders, basically–and spent most of the time turned off or shoved in the bottom of my backpack. Its chief function seemed to be to allow my dad to call me for no good reason–a function I could cheerfully disable by keeping the power off. I think that I left it off for a good six months at one point.
Then, however, I got a boyfriend who lived close enough for me to drive out, but not so close that it’s a five minute jaunt. And I spent a lot of time there. And I found myself needing to call home, to say when I’d be back, to say when I’d get to my boyfriend’s. . .all while in my car, or in a place with no free phone. From that moment on, the cell phone got used.
Doesn’t mean I like it, though. I try to use it as little as possible. Unfortunately, certain people insist on calling my cell phone instead of my land lines, thus forcing me to keep it on at all hours. They don’t understand that I don’t like my cell phone, that I only own it because my parents are paying for it, that I’d much rather prefer to talk on a real phone (which we don’t even have in our house anymore because my parents bought these godforsaken cordless phones that have friggin’ ringtones). But they forget, and I must field these calls, seemingly for eternity.
As soon as I graduate, that cell phone’s going to be chucked out of something either very high up or moving at a great velocity.
I don’t have one, and have used someone else’s once. I have no earthly reason to have one of the things. I have few friends and family, and they rarely call.
Plus, I couldn’t hear a dang thing on the one I used. I have a hearing problem – it sounded like someone drowning on the other side. Almost needed an interpreter.
I don’t have a cell phone. Why would I want an electronic leash? It’s bad enough having a phone at all.
People that talk to me need to know that cellular static combined with the tinninitus from the chemo meds makes it sound like a conversation with a popcorn popper. However, they always get defensive when I tell them.
That being said, I do borrow one when I go for my major testing at the cancer hospital. It’s easier to call someone to come get me without having to get up and go to a phone when i’m still goofy from the good drugs. They get tweaked out if you lie down on the floor by the pay phone to wait for your turn.
I’m surprised that so many people think of their phones as a leash. I have caller id at home and on my cel. If I don’t want to talk to you - I don’t answer! Both phones are for my convenience and not the caller’s!!!
(small plug… on our land line we got the call intercept the phone company offers where if there is no caller ID it prompts the caller for their name before allowing the call… haven’t had a telemarketer since!!!)
My husband and I both have phones. I use mine for my convenience and I like having it as I am often out alone with the munchkin… if I break down I don’t want to haul a 2 year old off to a pay phone who knows where to call AAA! His was a godsend when he was driving into Boston every day to work, Since the drive took anywhere from a half an hour to four hours it was nice to know he wasn’t dead and was just stuck in traffic on the really bad days!