Apologies in advance to any cell phone junkies, but I hate them! I hate the whole culture of people talking on their phones anywhere, anytime, about nothing. Self-important “business” people in the line at McDonald’s, fat cats in their BMWs with phones stuck to the side of their heads, people on the subway whose phones ring immediately after we come out from underground, people having the conversations that consist of “I’m on the bus/streetcar/subway. I’m at [such and such intersection]. Where are you?” I think cell phones are a bad rash, encouraging rude behaviour and dumbing down communication. I hate the vocabulary: “my mobile,” “my land line,” “my cell.” Even worse, as the earpieces become smaller and smaller, it will be impossible to distinguish the cell phone yakkers from the truly delusional. But somehow that seems appropriate to me.
105 thoughts on “I Hate Cell Phones”
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I totally used to feel that way, and still do to some extent. I was at dinner with some friends and all three of them were on their phones while I sat silent. How rude and ridiculous is that. But I have to admit that it is really nice to have one a lot of the time.
It’s the people with invisible earpieces that freak me out, too. You can’t tell who they’re talking to as they walk down the street or push their shopping carts, and it’s a little weird. When did it become okay to carry on a boisterous conversation in a supermarket or a video store anyhow? I’ve got my own issues with cell phones—I’m a self-loathing txt msger, but I’m trying to quit. At least us txters sorta keep to ourselves.
Actually, text messaging would be a great solution to the cell phone plague. At least you can’t HEAR the stupid things people are saying to each other 🙂
I absolutely agree with you. People have negligable manners to begin with, now have a toy that allows them to be truly rude and offensive.
I had a layover at O’Hare for a few hours and tried to get away from all of the people holding personal cell phone calls that I didn’t want to listen to. It was impossible.
I guess it’s kind of like second hand smoke, but instead of irritating our lungs, it irritates our ears. Actually, it irritates more than that!
There was a comedian a while back who had a joke that she was driving down the freeway, swerving all over the place, bumping into cars and knocking the cell phones out of everyones’ hands. If only I could get away with it ….
Don’t move to England then. Everyone in England owns a mobile phone, so much so that the phone networks now have the problem as to how to continue selling them considering everyone already owns one. They now have to pursuade you that the phone you own is, at just over a year old, embarrassingly out of style, and entice you with the newest $800 model free of charge, if you change networks and sign up a 12 month contract.
All your comments are valid, and could be heard in England a few years ago. However such complaints have diminished as mobile phones have completely taken over and are now an indispensible part of English life, it would be considered quite normal to send and receive anything up to 40 text messages a day. Indeed, the clincher of many network enticing deals is how many free text messages a deal offers each month (and it never costs to receive text messages or calls in England).
Andy
i got a phone solely for the purpose of calling into the office after 6pm. after 6pm the door was locked and we were not given keys. so if i went out for a bag of chips or a plate of poutine then i had to call to get in. then i was laid off.
the phone hung around for a few months not being used. then we moved to TO where i activated it again and it became indispensible in the calling of landlords and supers for possible apts. i must have put $200 in long distance calling Mtl from TO and vice versa.
now it sits on the shelf again.
I think you are mistaking the symbol for the problem it represents, but I know what you mean. It isn’t cell phones, its a world with no sense of etiquette for their use. It goes along with the overall decay of etiquette in response to a philosophy of tolerance. It’s more important to let people do their thing, even if it really has a distinctly negative effect on society.
Personally, I don’t find cell phones any more annoying than real phones, although they take the telephone’s intrusiveness to the next level. Maybe I’ll institute a time slot when I’ll accept phone calls, and otherwise, leave a message. I hate getting phone calls right in the middle of doing something. It’s just as bad if my phone interrupts me as if someone else’s phone interrupts me.
On a side note, James, I never thought I’d ever read a trite term like “fat cats” in your blog.
l8r
I know what you mean about the earpiece things. I constantly thing people have lost it. Talking to themselves, EVERYWHERE. Haha.
But cell phones are good for some things.
I don’t have a land line so my cell phone is it.
When I walk anywhere alone, I dial a friends number or 911 and keep my thumb on the SEND button for those just in case moments.
There’s other good stuff but sometimes it gets a bit ridiculous. 🙂
cellphones are a GREAT source of communication it’s just these ppl who spend ages on them and little 8yr olds with them. I consider them to be rude when you’re in a library and it’s meant to be quite and theres ppl blabbing on their cellphones
other than that they’re great and I can’t go anywhere without them
Ask yourself: why do I dislike cell phones?
ill manners: at one time, cars had an extra charge for turn signals. Then they were seen as a safety feature and came free. Now all have them and most drivers no longer use them. Why?
I hated the time when typewriters replaced pens; and hated the time when computers replaced typewriters; and I still miss my quill pen which is long gone because of fountain pens…moral?
Everyone who says cell phones are a blessing deserve to be shot. They are useless and impractical if you are not a person of any real importance. Like policepeople and medical staff ON CALL ONLY. It’s so frustrating seeing all those self-important morons on their cell phones while they drive, swerving and slowing down, and sporatically slamming on their brakes. There was a study that showed that people who talk for long lengths of times on their phones had the reaction time of a druck driver. Do you believe it? I do. I wish I could just ram everyone off the road when I see them driving with a cell phone pasted to their ear, and hopefully flip over their impractical SUV’s they almost always drive. I hope all those ass clowns get brain tumors.
I fuckin’ hate ’em too!!!!!!!!1
at college everyone and their fucking brother has one. what the fuck is their so much to talk about. “im in the library now…dadadadada” all of you just shut the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!11
I think their toys for adults and status symbols for kids and losers. GROW UP
I HATE cell phones. I agree with everything you said. It’s just another huge way for people to be inconsiderate and annoy everyone around them. Cell phones have transformed the world into a louder, more obnoxious, more annoying place. I hate cell phones. If you do too, check out http://phonebashing.com, a site where they smash cell phones, or http://thecobs.com, a band that hates cell phones and smashes them at concerts.
Seriously, I’ve never talked to anyone who feels the same as me about those things. I commute to school in Chicago and I can’t go somewhere for 2 senconds without hearing some asshole blabbing loud as fuck. Then on the train, it’s even worse, because you’re stuck in there, and in every single car there’s at least 2 or 3 jerks having that exact same stupid cell phone conversation. Everywhere I go, I can’t escape those things, it’s impossible!!! And those annoying ring tones, everytime I hear one of those go off it makes me cringe! If anybody else feels the same as me let me know.
I hate them too but I don’t think we are going to do anything about it. They everywhere now, the movies, the golf course, the beach, dinner, there is no escape. It is definately a technology that I would love to give back if I could. They have made on already stupid society worse. My only hope is that some sort of rule or law is started to govern when and where they can be used. Who knows how long that will take. These things really have changed my quality of life. I Hate them!
Cell phone users are the epitome of rudeness these days. I was at a wedding where right in the middle of the vows, the groom’s cell phone rang in his pocket. He ANSWERED THE CALL IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS WEDDING…..what the hell kind of idiocy is this? He didn’t care that he held up his own wedding for some stupid call where he relayed everything that was going on. If I was the bride there I’d leave the bastard at the altar!
Its not the cell phones themselves that bother me, its the idiots who own them. Yeah there are those rare moments when it would be good to have a cell phone but i mean come on people do you really need it attached to your hip every five seconds? I have friends whos “cell covers” change to match what they are wearing. How sick is that? An than there is the wide selection of Keytones and rings you can have, So that everywhere you go you hear bethoven’s nineth being screamed at you octives higher than it was ever intended to be played at. Every where you go you hear it. “im out hit the cell” Sometimes i wish i could take those suggestions literally and smash the meaningless wad of plastic into tiny peices.
First I want to say that I am Dutch, so excuses for my mistakes in English. In the Netherlands I think I am the only person without a mobile. (As we call cellphones in Holland) I really hate those things. People talking everywhere, anytime the most irritating bullshit to one another. And those horrible ring-tones. What’s wrong with using your phone at home???
I largely agree with the anti-mobile phone comments posted by my learned colleges previously. My problem with mobile phones goes a little deeper than the obvious frustration with those who are without adequate phone etiquette, however. I have problems with how mobiles make the individual accountable to everyone who has their number (friends, co-workers, parents) and how the individual is expected to be in constant contact if they have a mobile. This is why I do not own a mobile phone.
IT IS a waste of money!!
Cell phones can be a practical tool if used properly and in moderation. Otherwise, there’s no reason to be on the phone as much as people are. It’s almost as if people tell everyone they know exactly what they’re doing and where they are. This must save a lot of time later in the evening when one would tell another about their day in its entirety. Also, there’s a subtle kind of beauty that goes with leaving your house and knowing that no one can get in touch with you. Sometimes it’s better not to talk.
I think cell phones were invented so people could have yet another excuse to be obnoxious and rude. I particularly think women are the worst offenders…any excuse to talk about nothing is a good one. Having a cell allows them to talk all day, while shopping, on the toilet, in line at the bank, at the gym on a machine, or driving their huge hunk of SUV across 3 lanes on the expressway…without looking. I’m so damn sick of having to get out of the way of some idiot talking on their phone…man or woman, driving or walking. They don’t look, they are unaware, and they enjoy being clueless as they show the whole world how important they are. I swear some folks just walk around with them on their ears even if not talking to anyone. Just the need to have that damn thing on their ear must be like some sort of comfort, like a drug. They probably sleep with them like teddy bears.
Other than that, they’re great.
The real crux of the mobile phone issue (I’m a 20 year-old ex-user) is the bubble effect. It’s the final nail in the coffin of community. If the man on the bus starts talking to you, you can now avoid the intellectual challenge of directing his attention away from you (if he’s annoying) or the prospect of an interesting human-to-human conversation (if he’s nice). Either way, you never need find out, as you can simply hide yourself in your phone, and that is his indication to sod off: you are no longer there – you are somewhere else. Which brings me to another crucial point: the culture of discontent. We are far less happy to be where we are any more (our complsive neo-imperial holidaying habit also tells us this). If we come out of a meeting and have a walk to get to the bus stop, how many of us will switch on our phones and spend that walk communicating with someone somewhere else, instead of looking at the trees or noticing an old friend over the road (who hasn’t seen you cos he’s got his head in a text message…)?
There is this fantastic feeling of liberation (I felt it often when I owned a phone) when you come out of a meeting, a concert, a show, and you are allowed to open up two hundred potential lines of communication – or however many numbers you have in your phone’book’. You feel that you have returned to the world, when actually you have regained the ability to escape from the world or the place you are in. We like that feeling now. That is what I mean by discontent. A lack of focus, a restlessness.
Apart from putting us all into bubbles, and encouraging discontent and short attention spans, these things have radically transformed etiquette in most parts of life. If you really think about it, it is phenominally rude to be in someone’s company while your phone is on. You are then potentially in the company of hundreds more, who could interrupt you at any point. There is no way that you can engage with your companion to the same degree as if you were disconnected from your mobile ‘community’. Nowadays, if you arrange to meet a friend for a drink, you are arranging to meet not only them, but everyone they know; the chances of you getting their undivided attention for an evening are minimal. Even if their phone is off, they will wonder in the back of their mind who might have tried to contact them.
One quick point: they are the ultimate consumer accessory. Think about it: who introduced and encouraged us all to get mobile phones (and still do)? People who want to make money, that’s who. Are O2 and T-Mobile public services? British Telecom certainly was, but then that was in a public-spirited age, so perhaps we are all content now to be private, privatised, best-deal-obsessed quick-fix-freaks.
Think back about ten years. Hmm. No mobile phones. Things seemed to work rather well, didn’t they? In fact, weren’t bus and train journies much more relaxing? No-one seemed to be crying out for some magical invention to save us all from imminent doom and disorganisation. In fact, the odd flashy businessman with a silly car and a silly phone got laughed at by, well, pretty much everyone.
What short memories we all have.
I hate them. I’m sitting in a public library right now and some asshole is using his cell phone. Despite signs on the doors pleading for people NOT to use cell phones here. Amazing.
The thing is, there’s no goddamn Need to walk around yakking away on a phone all day. I really don’t so much care about how rude people can be, it’s the whole PRINCIPLE of the thing that drives me nuts. Originally they were for businessmen and yuppies but in order to make big bucks the current trend’s to sell them to any and all assholes, even children. You should’ve seen my aunt after she got hers (she’s a natural chatterbox bimbette) Everywhere she’d go she’d be flaunting this frigging box like she was Someone Special because she had a portable phone!
If people want to yap, that’s their business–but when they Get In My Way, that’s something Else!
Good example: yapping while driving. I’ve seen a whole Convoy of cars crawling along because some yuppie yapping Bitch in the front of the line was making the traffic crawl because her precious conversation was more imporant than driving and paying attention to the speed limit (should be going 40 not 15 MPH!). And I won’t even get into safety issues, which are blindly apparent.
Bottom line: there’s no Need for this crap. If I want to make a phone call I’ll do it the old fashioned way. Right now I’m probably the only guy in NJ who’s never used nor owned one of those yuppie yapping boxes. Never have, never will!
CELL PHONES ARE EVIL!
They destroy peoples’ minds. Turn them into babbling idiots. It’s a chatterbox’s dream come true: the ultimate toy to allow that mouth to go 24 hours a day if necessary anyplace anytime! People are no longer Reading (and by that I mean Books and newspapers) but instead are walking around gabbing mindless drivel (“I’m in front of the dolly dress shop now, it looks nearly empty, oh there’s a nice bird, and there’s a totally awesome BMW, and I think I’ll walk over Here now..”).
Wherever you go you SEE THESE FOOLS wearing out their vocal cords with the things. When they’re Eating they’re yapping. When they’re driving they’re yapping. When they’re crapping they’re yapping (go into a public rest room and see them talking in the stalls!).
And please don’t tell me they’re better and cheaper than traditional nailed-down telephones. The calling plans have Scam written all over them. They run on batteries which have to be recharged or replaced. They can be misplaced, lost, or damaged Easily.
Here is a good one for you. i was in a little mom and pop store. there was like a pre teen using food stamps. when all of a sudden you hear a cell phone ring and low and behold out he pulls a cell phone.
I work my ass off but make to much for food stamps but can not afford a cell phone.
ahhh there is something wrong here
I think it would be interesting for some comic genius to to think of some kind of remark to noisy mobile users that we can all use to protect ourselves from this invidiuous invasion of our privacy that is the mobile phone. The comment should be not be aggressive (cos that would just make the phone user shitty and ignore you) but should be kinda wryly funny, acknowledging that the phone user is human and deserving of respect (appealing to their better side, hey, everyone has one!), but that at this point in time, while using their phone, they are pissing off everyone around them. And then send this comment round the world so it becomes available to everyone. In the western world now we’ve got many smokers apologetic for their vile habit, lets work out some way to do the same to mobile phone users.
NOt 5 minutes ago I’m in the men’s room, standing at the urinal enjoying some nice quiet relief. In comes one of these self-involved so&so’s, he stands in the next stall, wazoo in one hand cell phone in the other – I shoulda peed on his leg!
Sorry about the last essay – I got a bit carried away, but then this issue does trouble me more than anything at the moment. I have recently taken up smoking again, after going a whole year fag-free, however my mother is more pleased that I have also relinquished my mobile phone than she is distressed by my smoking again. This way round, at least my mind is safe from zombification, even if my lungs take a bit of a battering. I think I was partly driven back into smoking by how much mobile phones were depressing me, and also because the ignorant, moralising New Labour Government, whose National Health Service funding comes almost entirely from cigarette taxation while they portray the smoker as some sort of mutated social recluse, in contrast treats the mobile phone user as an upstanding citizen who is wise to be embracing these wonderfully modern times (and lining the pockets of Blair’s business buddies, no doubt). Mobiles have certainly quickly become more of a widespread public irritant than smoking did in its early years (not that I speak as a witness, of course…). Some people, as many used to, still like the scent of various tobaccos (although we are given a much more artificial, flavourless crop these days). How many can say that they like the noise of somebody else’s phone ringing?
The most disturbing sight for me at the moment (and its everywhere) is parents with their young children, but of course, not actually with them. I often see toddlers pulling on trouser legs and screaming for attention, and the parent actually reprimands them for interrupting their mobile phone conversation! How rude of the child to expect to have a proper, loving upbringing! I fear for future generations…
I live in Turkey where people are obsessed about cell phones. I am the only exception.
Last month, I went to a travel agency to book a place at a hotel for the holidays. They asked for all kinds of info to fill out on the computer. They asked for my cell phone and I told them I don’t have one. They did not believe me and explained to me that they would not contact me by the number, they just needed it for info. When I told them again I did not have one, the women behind the counter called the manager. He said “Okay then give us a friend’s cell phone number?” I told them that it did not make any sense to give a friend’s cell number. The woman once again told me that it’s just for info and they would not use it. “Just any number” she said. So, my reply was “Okay then, just enter there any number please. Make up a number.” And that’s exactly what she had to do.
And, let’s not forget their use for cheating on your spouse/significant other. Hide the bill, and it’s hard for the spouse to find out with whom you’ve been talking. The same goes for e-mail, IM, etc.
They can be a great convenience, but they can also be used for PURE EVIL!
For the life of me, I don’t get the whole cell phone thing. Somebody needs to explain what the big deal is about a FUCKING PHONE! They’ve been around for alomst a century. Is it a big freaking deal because you can take it to a ballgame or to the gym or to a mall? I could see people getting excited about the internet, it was a new thing and a pretty cool one at that. But cell phones? If there is a corner of the planet where these things don’t exist, let me know. And build me a house because I’m moving there. Permanently! I’m so glad to read these posts because I hate them so much. People who yak on these things all day are:
1) very inecure. They feel a stupid electronic gadget is going to somehow make them ‘cool’ or ‘important’. I get crap all the time for not owning one of these things and I always just say, “I don’t need a cell phone to fell good about myself.”
2) in dire need of a life. If they had meaningful things in their lives to truly occupy their time and energy, they wouldn’t have time to gab about every minute, unmeaningful detail of their day.
I was hoping that when these things came out, the initial novelty of having one would wear off and people would get sick of them. But it hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully, some day it will be considered “un-hip” and not so cool to be carting one of these things around every step you take. When that happens, these insecure idiots won’t be able to get rid of them fast enough.
Alexander Graham Bell is the Antichrist.
I understand why people bring cellular phones with them when they travel by car. If the car breaks down or runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere or if the driver gets lost (the latter two mishaps of course being the result of a nincompoop driver, which most people are),
a cellular phone comes in handy to call a tow truck or AAA or to call someone for directions. These are emergency situations which, by the rule I have established (see above), allow for extended phone usage.
I do *not* understand why people bring cellular phones with them to the mall and while waiting in line at, say, Electronics Boutique, decide to call up three different friends and ask them
which Sony PlayStation game they should buy: Spice World or Flintstones Bowling? If you
encounter people like this (and I’m sure you do regularly…they’re everywhere), I give you three different ways to publicly point out their assery:
A) “I beg your pardon, but your Spice World-Flintstones Bowling dilemma is not even *close* to being an emergency, so stop tying up the satellite’s phone lines and annoying everyone in the store with your imbecilic babble.”
B) “Out of the thousands of video games here in Electronics Boutique, only a life-threateningly
gay dunce like you would find Spice World and Flitstones Bowling to be the two most appealing.”
C) “You sir (or ma’am), need a severe golf-club beating for not being able to formulate your own opinion about something as relatively inexpensive and ultimately inconsequential as video games.”
Harsh words, but true nonetheless. Of course, you’ll have to slightly modify my examples to suit the store whose line you’re waiting in. The phone abuser will feel stupid and, in turn, you will feel better.
Note: Reacting to a cellular phone abuser at the mall in this way *might* backfire. Chances are, the mall will be *filled* with ignorant, phone abusing human-asscracks who will react negatively to your rant because they all exhibit the same behavior as the original phone abuser. Use with
caution…although I bet if you are reading this web site, you already have enough common sense to use caution without me having to tell you.
I hate cell phones also and agree with everyone who does. I had one for a while it was suppose to be for emergency use only like in a life or death situation or if I was stranded out in my car in a bad area and didnt want to get mugged. But no it turned in to this annoying nag. Every where I was people would call me mainly my parents and nag me to do something. Why dont people understand that when you leave that means you want to be left alone not getting contacted on a cell phone and then your expected to always be there. Not to mention if you cant make it to the cell phone and your at home you barely get to one and just because you didnt get there in time someone calls the other one and if its your parents they gripe you out over it. I suggest anyone that has this problem as I did and feel the same way buy a trac phone there in expensive and buy only a few minutes enough that you could use if you had car trouble and then dont give anyone the number. Thank you. ANTI CELL PHONE USER.
I hate cell-phones because I get very painful headaches whenever I am around someone using one, for more than a few minutes. I take medication now, to relieve this pain, but -because of the rise in cellphones- my headaches are increasing. -I have no idea what causes it; something in the technology, I’m betting. Does anyone else have this problem?
My film company, Don’t Call Me Productions, is in pre-production for a short film I wrote entitled, Conversationally Challenged. The shoot is scheduled for late May. It is a ten minute short about two people who literally can not live without their cell phones. I wrote is as a darkly humorous statement against the frivolous use of cellular technology.
I found this chat list doing a Yahoo search interested to see if anyone or organization with a similar viewpoint in and/or out of the cell phone industry existed. I was pleasantly surprised to find this. It is reassuring to know I’m not the only person who feels that cell phones are a valuable but improperly used resource.
I’m wondering if anyone would be interested in investing in the project or if you know anyone who might be. We will be throwing the first of many fund raising parties on February 7th in NYC. Details are being finalized as I type. Any support, especially word of mouth, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Cell phones have ruined New York! You hear twice as much yakking now that solitary people are conversing — loudly — too. I had no idea, B.C., that people were such lonely idiots. And the hell with anyone who wants to read in a park, a train station, on a ferry, or any public space except subways — and they’re next! We really should have thought twice about these things. Just because we can bring our telephones out in the street with us doesn’t mean we should.
How about cell phone booths?
I think people who hate cell phones so much actually hate the fact that they have to acknowledge that there is actually so many people around them.
(Not withstanding cell use in theaters, while driving etc. That’s understandable)
Before cell phones people in crowded cities just viewed passer-bys who they don’t know as part of the scenery. Giving them no more thought than say a streetlight,building,trash can – nameless faces.
So I think it’s more of an underlying psychological thing that bugs people about cell phones when they have to realize they are compacted together like cattle when they hear someone talking and realize there is an actual person/persons there. Kind of the same underlying principle with traffic jams or 15 plus people in your way in an aisle when you are trying to shop.
Simple solution: MOVE OUT OF THE CITY.
Plenty of people have them in rural areas. Only difference here is you have more SPACE!
Call it a hunch…
Ahhhh…..I have been feeling somewhat like a minority in today’s society, what with my loathing of cell phones, SUV’s and the like. But tonight I did some surfing and here I am! As I am reading through everyone’s comments I feel better and better.
I have tried to figure out a way do deal with this reality tv-based, spotlight-loving, one-upmanship society lately, but I just can’t. Visiting sites like this is comforting, just to know there are many out there like me.
If anyone knows of a website with bumperstickers or any other product that will allow me to proclaim my hatred for cell phones let me know.
I dread to see what we will be like 10 years from now. Normal conversation, occuring while actually looking directly at someone and acknowledging his/her comments will soon be a thing of the past. People already stick their phones to their head in order to avoid people, looking self-important all the while. People like to go on about how busy and chaotic their lives are these days – not enough time to do this or that, etc. Well, you cellphone users only have yourselves to blame, as you dial up a friend’s number, only to have meaningless conversation while on the crapper! I used to have a cell phone for a short while, but then I found myself constantly looking for it, and becoming more like the other cellphone-using idiots out there. It was at that moment I decided the good old-fashioned wall-mounted phone of yesteryear was good enough for me. Can’t get a hold of me because I don’t own one? Too bad – I guess I’ll just have to miss hearing about the boring details of your commute while your phone cuts in and out!
Cellphone Bashers Unite!
Cell phone customer service is also ranked 2nd WORST in the nation behind car dealers. It was actually 1st last year, hey, they ARE improving. Right. Best thing I ever did was get rid of my cell phone 3 years ago. I consider myself a very social person, and if you need to get a hold of me call my house, and I’ll check my messages. Simple. I don’t miss it. It has become an addiction to many people, and what the fuck do 10 year olds need with a cell phone? The truly uneducated apparently don’t know what a cell phone is for? Screaming at the top of their lungs, in the back of the bus, you know who I’m talking about. Just another reason to be annoying.
Monte, I’m with you. But the biggest reason I hate cell phones is the sheer numbness of it all. No one has to think anymore. Bored on the bus? Whip out your cell phone and blather on.
If I decide it’s a nice day, and I go to the park, why would I want to receive a telephone call? I leave my home to get away from that crap. I don’t understand who all these people are that like to be reachable all the fucking time.
You know, in hindsight, I think I may have dumped my last girlfriend in large part over cell phones.
-Her mother would talk endlessly over the phone while driving, and both she and my ex would look at me in annoyance at my rather terrified reaction…
-There wasn’t a day when I wasn’t told I should get one….
-Her phone once went off FOUR TIMES during an hour and a half movie. I didn’t hear that many rings from the rest of the audience…
The list goes on. A month into my current relationship, Lauren told me that she hated cell phones and everything about them.
I think this one’s a keeper.
i hate fucking cell phones and all the people who use them!
Good topic! Bad cell-phone using people! Cell phones are tools for mini-self-resolved-celebrities in public places. Where I’m from, any time a cell phone goes off, in a group of ten, at least seven will turn their heads. DON’T!!! I scream to myself DO THAT! The cell-phone users LOVE the attention!!! Once they’ve established a 2/3rds audience, they are further encouraged to “entertain” us with their worldy experiences and plans by talking at a higher than normal tone of voice usually in a most arrogant and narcissistic way. Obnoxious!! IGNORE THEM!! The lack of attention will bore them enough to make them want to sell the things.
Without trying to sound holier-than-thou, anytime I carry my phone, I have it on vibrate so that anytime it does go off I can escape the situation and engage in a meaningful conversation elsewhere that will not annoy others around me.
Cells and drivers are bad enough, but lately I’ve been observing (and sometimes swerving from) truck drivers (read: 18-wheeler!) with their phones stuck to their ears. Last time I checked, a semi is a manually shifted machine (automatics do exist but are rare). How is the guy who almost smoked me going around a corner yesterday able to shift that beast to regain speed with a phone to his head and steer at the same time moving 80,000 pounds of truck, trailer, and goods???!
I’ll be damned if I’ll be a cell-phone poser.
Dear Monte:
I have always regarded cellphones as a product looking for a market. They provide a useful service for maybe ten percent of the people who use them, the other ninety per cent use them to swap imbecilities and other banal claptrap. They are an unnecessary pox on our society.
I find that the people who use them the most have nothing of value to say, and rarely spend any time in contemplation or any other kind of thinking. The don’t read and they can’t write, they know nothing of current events save what they see on television.
The have no sense of history, no manners, no commonly shared culture, nothing but a shallow fixation on immediate gratification.
I have telephones in my home, but I never answer them. When someone calls you, they have foreknowledge of the fact that they are going to be speaking to you momentarily, while you are always caught unawares. For that reason I always allow my calls to go to recording, and answer them later at my convenience when I have some inkling of what the conversation is going to be about.
My favorite mode of communication is email, because you can send it when you like, and the addressee can read it and either respond or not. I write a good deal of emails, but find that I receive very few in return. I think that this is because a.) most people have never taken the trouble to learn how to touch-type, and b.) because most people are incapable of stringing together enough words to make a coherent sentence.
Talking is something that every baby learns to do naturally in the course of childhood development, but higher skills such as writing, thinking, typing, etc., require much more rigor and intelligence.
Perhaps the most egregious cellphone offense I encountered was in the middle of a movie, when, on hearing someone talking behind me, I turned and saw a person lurking at the back of the theater bloviating into one of the accursed contraptions.
I really detest cellphones and the people who use them in a conspicuous and intrusive way.
Yours Sincerely, Nigel Boag.
Because of everything that has been said, I think the damn things should be outlawed! I’ve never owned one and never will. This girl at work was so mad that she was called into work on her day off, and she was even out of town! I just turned to her and asked: You own a cell phone, hm? Of course she did. I just smiled at her. Oh the pleasure of not owning one! I have nothing that important to say at all times of day and night. If I have something important to say to someone over a phone, I have a home where it’s privite where I have phone and other people don’t have a chance to hear my conversation. Remember the good ol’ days when there weren’t any cell phones? Everbody could live without cell phones back then! Cell phones are ingnorant. I love to be at peace. Cell phones interupt. If any of you out there think that there needs to be a movement to ban these useless things, well hellfire, lets get together and make one! THE END.
When I was at the airport, I saw a woman talking to a vending machine. “Hey! I havent talked to you forever! how you been!” for about five minutes until I saw she had a headset. shit creeps me out. I admit, I use my cell phone in public, but not often.