Bring back carrier pigeons!

[Caligula]

Am I the only person left in the world who doesn't have a mobile phone? What do folk make of this now seemingly indispensable item of electrickery? Could you live without? Do they irritate you as much as me? (I mean are you as irritated as I am, not are they as irritating as I am. I think.)

I use a couple of taxi drivers regularly who are cool guys. They like to know who's calling (some of their regulars are on the shit list for various reasons), and as I usually borrow a phone or use a call box, they can't in my case. On this account, one of them's got me a phone and the other a sim card (whatever one of those is), which they're giving me gratis in order to force me kicking and screaming into the 21st century whether I like it or not.

Am I the only one who thinks it's nice to be unavailable sometimes? That gets all misty eyed over the days when the barman would ask you whether you were there or not when your girl called the pub?

[HempKnight]

I'm right there with you... when I was in business for myself it was an unfortunate evil and there was nothing more irritating than driving cross-country and having friends call to chat me up in the middle of BFE during the night, providing there WAS any service.

But now that I am 'semi-retired' at the moment and have absolutely no need for the damn thing, I now have a $600 paperweight on my desk and have no plans on putting it back into service. And being that we are stuck with dialup service, with the 'war dialer' going, we are always connected so we get no land line calls either

You see some of these people with two cell phones, a pager, a WIFI PDA with fax, IM and e-mail services, makes you wonder WTF is so important that you need all that shit? You know you're gonna die young, all that microwave radiation pulsing through your body isn't good for you. Have your fax, fax my fax and we'll fax each other for lunch plans.

[Kidthorazine]

i have a cell phone the landline in my dormroom isnt even hooked up so all i use is the cell its a lot cheaper but my cells always turned off when i dont use it because i hate it when people call me unless its important

[Poisondove]

I haven't even got a watch yet.....let alone a cell phone

[TheQuietPlace]

Carrier Squirrels All The Way!!!

[Lange]

I'm really good at smoke signals...

[Trotter]

I personally don't like cellphones. I saw this guy the other day talking to himself but it turns out he had one of those ear pieces connected to the phone. I thought he was crazy. But then he bit me;turns out he was crazy.

[Macabre_Dreams]

I carry a cell phone whenever I'm driving because I live way outta town and if I get stranded, I'll probably be picked to death by ground squirrels long before anyone else drives by.

[Ouroboros]

I have had a couple of cell phones, but I usually lose them.

[Kidthorazine]

im suprised i havent lost mine while drunk ive lost lots of things when i was drunk my keys my wallet my virginity and a bunch of other crap but my $20 cell phone (the one you get free when you sign like a three year contract) hasnt gotten lost in the two years since ive had it

[CPRB]

I am kind where hemp night is, I have actually lost jobs because I would nto carry a cell phone, I found most times they would be calling to see what was up or where I was and I will not drive and talk on a cell phone it is one of THE major causes of motor vehicle accidents. It would be like" whatcah ya doing?" I am stopped on the side of the road talking to you. I do not own a cell phone and I never will. I have an answering machine and it explcitly ask you to leave your name and number for a reason. That reason being there's a number code whihc allows me to acces the messgaes and I cna call you back I check it the moring, at lunch and at supper also it's has a marker ability and if it's urgent it moves it to the front and I HATRE being bothered on the weekends those are when i cna sit back and take time to create new ideas and designs and stuff plus sleep in and do chores about my humble aboad. youwant me to come in on a weekend and work ask me during the week wehn youdamn well know yer going to need somone jst buy doing a check on production and time and delivery..thank god I am working for myself and have strict guidleines with clients

[Mekahoel The Pandafist]

I am quite a private person, and I love being unavailable for days at a time. My personal record: Unreachable for three months straight in my own town, no running amok in the woods or anything. I will not buy a mobile ever, or a pager for that matter. If you want my time, I will tell you when you may have some. Muah-ha-ha-ha-haaa!

[purplepixie]

I have a mobile but I could quite easily live without one (or I could of but payphones now cost 30p a minute)
Yes I do find them extremly irratating especially nokias as they all look the same and have the most irratating ringtones and camera phones I hate them too as people take nasty photos of you and refuse to delete them and guess what phone I have yep a nokis camera phone grrr I brought it off my friend when mine broke


and the sim card is the bit that goes inside and stores information such as your number and other peoples numbers

[KilLAtomiK]

i actualy dont have a phone either and its for two simple reasons
1) i dont like people calling me all the time
2)i dont like talking to people on the phone
so a cell phnoe would be a prety stupid investment for me

[MistressJennifer]

I agree, they overcharge you for everything, and I think it is a bit rude when people always take calls when they are with you, it's like they are saying that you are not important.

I have four e-mail addresses, a website, a home phone, a work phone and I am always on some message board, so there is really no time when someone could not get in touch with me.

But if I ever become SO famous that I just HAVE to have a cell, then I will get a diamond studded one and talk on it in the bubble bath...

[Amelia G]

Designer Molly Made has a rhinestone-studded cell phone which totally rocks.

I got a cell phone around the same time I got a California drivers license and admitted I lived in Los Angeles. I don't answer it or even play the messages most of the time, unless I am out of town. But I use it constantly when coordinating with other people. It is so much easier for someone picking me up to drive somewhere to phone from the car than for me to wait outside or them to try to find parking or both of us to show up at a super-precise time. Much less waiting around with cell phones. Much less timeline and tardiness stress. Out at night, especially at a convention, it is great to be able to call friends and be like what are you at, is it good, where do you want to meet up.

[Haplology]

Yes, now with cell phones you can ask where they're at, find out that it's not that good, and talk seven times during the course of the evening without ever meeting up. I was an early cell phone adopter and now I think that the internet and cell phones make frequent faux real interaction easier, but make genuine interaction and actually "seeing" people more difficult.

I find it indispensible for work, but an ersatz solution to human contact for personal use. In all fairness, maybe that's a function of Los Angeles and not of cell phones in general.

And it's mainly phones in the West that all look the same. In Japan, they are years ahead of us in their mobile phones and have whole series of phones that are purely based on cool or weird designs with multi colored keypads, twirling and folding screens, etc. Nokia has almost zero market share in Japan.

[Nightingale]

I have a mobile because I move around all the time with my job and others need to be in touch with me. I put it off for a very long time, but the cable on my landline isn't long enough any more ...