Why the dislike of cellphones on the boards?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Wait a minute, are you me?..

I deal with morons for eight hours a day, morons who shouldn’t operate anything more complicated than a wooden pencil, or perhaps a toaster, people who call me are invariably pissed off because their computer “isn’t working” (99% of the time the problem is either a DEU*, ESO** or ID-10-T*** issue), is there any wonder that I screen all my calls, and don’t give out my cell phone number, the only person with my cell phone number is the alarm monitoring company at work, if the phone rings, I know that someone’s trying to break into the store, so I need to make a trip down to the store with my good freind Mr. Mossberg…

<EDIT>;
I just discovered that my new cellphone (that I had to get for work) has a really cool feature, “Auto-Reject”, by default, anyone that calls my phone gets a message that the number does not accept incoming calls, and they must leave a voicemail (that i have not set up, so they can’t leave a voicemail, I may leave VM this way, that way nobody can contact me :slight_smile:
*Defective End User
**Equipment Smarter than Operator
*** remove the dashes and run the characters together, you’ll get it :wink:

62

D’oh, turns out the stupid thing only rejects specific numbers, frak, I was hoping for a global rejection feature

63

I ride a bicycle. I don’t drive. 9 out of the last 10 drivers who almost hit me were talking on the phone. That’s my main objection; I’m not too keen on the microwaves either.

But to each his own. Just watch where you’re going, please.

64

On reflection, I realized that I should have clarified - as many others have - that I have no hatred for cellphones. As many others have noted, that would be silly, as the device is simply a tool, nothing more or less. Same as saying I don’t hate “cars” per se. Tho I don’t understand why some people need/want huge, overpowered, gas guzzling polluters, drive inconsiderately, drive when they could walk, externalize the costs of their driving preferences, etc.

As others have noted, my “anti-cell” feelings are of various sorts.
-Personally, I have no compelling need/desire for one, certainly not enough to warrant the cost.
-I do not understand what appears to me as other people’s very heavy dependence on their cells - an apparent need/desire to always be in touch with something/someone other than their immediate surroundings.
-As others have noted, I dislike the various manners of rudeness that cellphones seem to permit/encourage.
-As a phone call receiver, I’m not thrilled when I get a phone call from someone simply because they are bored somewhere, and decided to pull out their cell and waste my time. And using my clear and dependable landline, I have little interest/tolerance in hearing the person on the other end comment, “How many bars do I have?,” “Is that clearer now?,” etc.

But I think I have come up with one reason (albeit minor) to actually dislike cellphones themselves. As I understand it, when cells and computer modems spread, there was opposition to assigning them their own area codes. I’m not sure if the opposition was from the phone companies, or the makers/sellers of the technology. (My dim recollection is the latter, as they did not want there to be any distinction between the new and old technologies.) Instead, cells and modems were offered numbers in the existing telephone area codes.

Because the choice was made to go this way, various area codes have had complicated “overlay” schemes, where your next-dor neighbor’s landline might have a different phone number than yours. And now (at least in my area) you have to dial 1 + area code to call someone within your own area code.

Admittedly, not a huge problem, but a minor hassle that I would not have to face if cells and modems had been handled differently from the start.

65

Interesting, I can see why this would be annoying. Japan went the opposite route, with the result that you can immediately tell at a glance whether a number is a mobile phone or a land line. The problems you mention don’t seem to exist here, AFAIK.

66

I don’t hate cell phones. I hate assholes. Their cell phones just make them easier to spot.

More seriously, I actually quite like my cell phone, even though I only turn it on about once a month. I mostly work from home and thus am reachable most of the time, but it’s incredibly handy to have a cell phone, especially when I’m traveling.

The rude behaviour of some other people with cell phones is a different issue from the feeling that some people have of being tethered by their phone.

67

Even though I’m guilty of it as well, I don’t understand the psychology of getting annoyed when youre in line at Walgreens and someone is talking on the phone, when you wouldn’t mind at all if the same person was carrying on the same conversation with someone standing beside them.

68

I’m not sure I get “annoyed” with someone talking on their phone on-line IF they are conversing in tones similar to those they’d use to someone next to them, and are paying attention to what is going on around them. Not sure if 2 line-standers jabbering on are on-average more or less clueless than one guy on a phone.

69

If you want to call a celly a communications tool, I’d say that most of their use would be similar to putting neon lights, a sub-woofer, and a spoiler on your car and claiming, “hey, it’s a transportation tool.” Let’s be honest here. . .it’s an entertainment device, not a communication tool. It’s to keep someone from being bored, or looking bored for the two minutes that they need to walk down the street solo and they don’t know what to do with their arms.

That said, I used to be more annoyed by them. Their ubiquity has definitely worn me down some.

But, to address some of what scr4 is saying. . .I wouldnt’ criticize someone who truly has a need for a cell phone from work. I think that people who tend to be on them a lot for work are neither busy nor productive.

What gets me are people like the following

  1. They like to appear busy even though they aren’t (and, this is just annoying to me. YMMV)

or

  1. They are actually much less efficient at their jobs, and need to be doing them away from their desk (only annoying if they further have the attitude that they are more crucial than I due to their constant busy nature. YMMV)

or

  1. They are truly unable to distinguish effective work from “busy work”, for example, tyring to cover something important on the phone while driving/golfing/eating that has to be covered again when they’re actually in a work environment. I would distrust most work (or write it off as meaningless) that can effectively be conducted over a cell phone call. In this case, they are a person just making noise, and strike me as somewhat insecure (again goes back to their need to appear busy).

Yes, of course I’ve known a guy to take a call (or taken one myself) to answer real work questions that can be resolved with a quick call. I’m willing to wager that 95% of all “work related” calls don’t fall into that category. That’s a little annoying.

As to personal use. . .personally, I don’t get the need to be connected all the time, but that’s just me. A guy at work is complaining to me about how his mom is calling him every hour to ask about updates in wedding planning (8 months away). Another work mate is ALWAYS getting calls from his wife (the toilet is plugged, the smoke alarm is beeping, the cable box isn’t working). It’s just chatter.

I truly use mine as a communications tool. E.g. it’s a day I’m going golfing. I call my wife from the 18th hole so she knows when to have dinner ready (that sounded assy, but you get it).

Or, she takes it on the road when she travels so we can talk, or there’s an emergency.

But, they’re not used as tools. They’re used so that every mundane thought that passes through someone’s brain can be fired off to another person who, for some reason, finds that interesting.

70

The actual psychology of it, I would guess, is similar to being annoyed when you’re in a restaurant that’s playing music, and it’s loud enough that you can tell it has lyrics, but not loud enough for you to understand the lyrics. Namely, your brain is trying very hard to fill in the blanks on the lyrics or the other half of the conversation, so you find yourself more actively paying attention to it and being distracted by it, instead of just letting it recede into the background as something you don’t care about.

That, and people on cell phones tend to talk much louder than normal conversation.

71

I like that- thanks :slight_smile:

72

Yes, this is a weird suggestion. I hate douchebag cell-phone behaviour as much as anyone, but I don’t see that as a reason to deny myself a reasonable level of telecommunications technology. What, I’m going to scout out a payphone or ask to borrow a shop phone every time I need a taxi? Put myself out of communication every time I venture outside?

I wonder if people who make this argument feel compelled to disable their automobile horns, too?Their use by irritating cnuts is equally conspicuous, but still, you kinda want it to be there if you have a legitimate use for it.

73

Reply without reading ALL of the other posts:

It’s been my experience that people who are against something speak out more often than people who are for something. It’s not an indicator that more people hold that opinion, but rather that more of those people feel compelled to voice the opinion. It’s called a “vocal minority,” and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, just part of human nature.

74

As a mom of three busy teenagers, I rely on them calling me to keep up with sports practices, work schedules, etc. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable if I know they can get ahold of me if they need me to pick them up. On the other hand, I teach in a small school where all the staff are very friendly with each other. One person, who only lasted one year, persisted in walking around with his Bluetooth thingie in his ear, talking loudly to whoever was on the other end. Many were the times that I came around the corner to hear him make some comment, and of course I brightly replied, only to get the blank stare. Being older (and having more insurance) I finally started saying loudly, “Are you talking to me? Probably not!”. I felt like I was in that beer commercial… :rolleyes:

75

You’re kidding about that part, right?

76

But don’t you contradict yourself later on in the same post? You use the cell phone to call your wife when you are done with golf? Thus, it’s a communications tool? And it’s not like you’ve found the only unique non-rude non-emergency-services-oriented use for a cell phone…

You claim you’re pitting cell phones, but really you’re pitting rude/addicted cell phone users.

77

I don’t claim that at all. The op states "I’ve never seen a cellphone as anything but a useful communications tool, much as my car is a useful transportation tool. "

I use my cell phone as a communications tool. I use about 400 minutes per year (more minutes on a landline, of course).

The claim that it is “anything but a useful communication tool” is laughable. It’s OVERWHELMINGLY an entertainment device, not a communication tool.

78

Plus, there’s the bizzare “one-upsmanship” cellphone addicts display…

I brought the accursed device into work today, so we can add the phone number to our alarm system call list, I handed to the phone to the store manager (really just a figurehead title, he’s actually another fellow tech, but a tech with “Authori-tah”), and his immediate response;

“this is a cool phone (Samsung A-737)…i hate you, how much did you pay for this?”
$20 (actually, it was free, as I was returning a webcam that didn’t work with my Mac, and the phone just so happened to be the same price)
“Now i really hate you, this thing is seriously cool it has <insert meaningless phone technobabble stuff about 3G networks and web-enabled this or that>, i’m a serious phone geek (he lusts after the boss’s iPhone, that the boss hasn’t even taken out of the packaging, the bossman bought it at the release date just because he has a hoarder’s personality and likes “stuff”) and this is a sweet phone!”
Meh…it’s just a bloody phone
“no, seriously, it can do <more boring technobabble>”
Meh, what’s the big deal, it’s just a stupid phone…
note - the manager has a Motorola Razr and he’s drooling over my stupid little Samsung thingy, guess that shows how far out of the loop I am, admittedly, I did have fun last night stuffing in a bunch of Futurama sound clips and turning them into ringtones (my ringtone is Bender’s infamous “Bite my shiny metal ass!”, I figure that gets across my hatred of phones well enough)

…i have yet to even make a phone call with the bloody thing, it’s sitting next to my computer, powered off, and I feel no need to even look at it, it’s just…there, looks like I’m going to build up a lot of rollover minutes on it…

I don’t get this “one upsmanship” with cell phones, it’s nothing more than a “Mine’s Bigger than Yours” contest, what’s the big deal, it’s just a bloody phone, an annoying, privacy-destroying, noisy, irritating phone

I HATE phones…

79

You know what, you’re right.

The thread in question is here, the relevant posts are 41, 42, and 43.

No one (unless it happened somewhere else in the thread and I missed it) accused her of lying. However, for attempting to point out potentially positive, and even life-saving, benefits of having a cell phone, she was accused of being “one of the people who goes into anaphylactic shock without one in her ear every sec”. Which I find pretty hilarious, given that I’m taking as much of a pro-cellphone stance as anyone on the board in this thread and that one, and I make maybe 2 calls a week averaging maybe 45 seconds each.

80

Isn’t that true of just about all communication tools? The printing press, the internet, television, radio, the human voice?

Humans didn’t evolve the ability to talk so that they could chatter about their trip to the mall, they evolved the ability to talk so that (one imagines) they could better coordinate their actions while hunting and killing mastadons. Using it for fun is a fringe benefit.

I guess my point is… what’s your point? If it’s “lots of people who use cell phones are assholes in a very visible way”, well, who’s arguing with you?