July 08, 2004

Am I the only person on the planet that hates cell phones? Um. . .apparently notthe ONLY one.
posted by mecurious 20 years ago
  • I don't understand this. First, beepers are WAY more of a nuisance - insistant, demanding, robotic - where are the Haters of Beepers? Second, while I can understand a bit of pique against those who leave their cells on during movies, theatre performances, etc so that we may all enjoy their zippy new recently-downloaded Maroon 5 ringtone (VIBRATE, people!), cell phones in general are a lifesaver. How many people's asses have been saved, do you think, by the simple fact that they had a phone with them? Thousands. Even more so, a HUGE convenience. With the free long distance? You can't beat that. If we can somehow convince the world to cut it out with the ringers and go to vibrate, it's all to the good, I think.
  • you are indeed not alone... my pet peeve: folks on bad cell-phone connections who have to speak very loudly for the other person(CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLO?) to be able (CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? IS THIS BETTER?) to converse with them (WE'RE COMING OUT OF THE TUNNEL CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???)
  • I used to hate them, but that was before I realized how useful they are. I got one, and all of that hatred fell away.
  • Of course cell phones are not evil themselves. It's just that...so many people seem to always be needing to talk on them all the time. I can't count the number of times I've been on a train and heard someone say on their phone: "Oh, I didn't have any reason for calling, blah, blah, blah...." Sure, that's a nice gesture if it is your grandmother you are calling, but I get the feeling that reason is to make the caller feel good, not the callee. If you have to resort to a phone for comfort, it might be time to rethink your priorities.
  • amen, morris. they're perfect for finding people in a crowd, or emergency situations.
  • HELLO? WHAT? YEAH, JUST COMMENTING ON MONKEYFILTER. WHAT? YEAH, ITS PRETTY SHIT. /Dom Jolly
  • Have had one for five or six years now. The latest model is an analog-digital model, doesn't work any better than the old one. Too many hills here. And Fes, no fooling, drivers using cell phones while they're driving in traffic scare the [bodily waste of choice] out of me.
  • or even using the phone when they're walking! they have a tendancy to slow way down and wander across the sidewalk. arg.
  • I've never owned a mobile phone. I don't really understand why people get so annoyed at other people using them, either.
  • My mom was nearly killed by a driver who was looking up a number to dial on his cell phone and didn't see that the light had changed. So I'm not a big fan of the driving and talking thing. She's mostly fine now. But cell phones are extremely useful tools in the right situation- finding people in crowds, getting into a locked building when there's no buzzer, etc.
  • Oh, and as a sci-fi nerd, mobile phones are tangible proof that we're all living in the future. (I still don't want one, though)
  • I don't hate mobile phones, I just hate people. Self-absorbed, stupid people who are basically unable to incorporate new technology into their existing system of etiquette and/or ethics, choosing instead to be rude (and often dangerous) to others.
  • I hate everything. This cuts out the uh, you know.. difficult part of deciding who or what.. hey.. FUCK YOU ASSHIOLE!!! HEY!! (etc)
  • ASSHIOLE ooo! a new insult! i think it should be "ass-high-oh-lee."
  • see, I think much of the lack-of-courtesy problem does lie at the feet of users, but we cannot forget to equally revile the SERVICE PROVIDERS. They are the true satanic cabal, never to rest until all the world has signed 10-year contracts with mandatory ring-tone 'upgrades' biweekly. Yes, Vodaphone fuckwits, I am looking in your direction.
  • do we have vodaphone in the states? i've seen it a lot overseas but not here.
  • I agree that driving while talking on the phone is extremely dangerous to others. I would also include driving while reading, eating, drinking or smoking. (But not playing the drum part to Edgar Winters' Frankenstein on the steering wheel)
  • Cell phones don't kill people, people kill people. That's what speed dial and hands free kits are for. I live in LA where the population density seems only slightly lower than Tokyo so I know how stupid people can be. I see people behaving stupidly many times a day. There is a lot of stupid behavior centered around cell phones, but that doesn't make cell phones evil. My life is way, way, way easier with a cell phone. I'm one of those directionally challenged people that gets lost by blinking and has a difficult time reading maps. I can't tell you how nice it is to always know I can call someone to help me figure out where I am. Most of the time, I'm more likely to drive around and try and figure it out because I don't feel like I will get irrevocably lost in some LA ghetto and die a horrible death. I can also call my honey at any given time and ask him to look up traffic on sigalert and tell me if I should get off the freeway or not when I'm in a messy commuting situation. And then there's the whole, "ok! My bags should be here at any moment, I'll meet you outside terminal 6!" thing when trying to pick up someone or be picked up from the airport. Don't hate cell phones. Love cell phones. Hate stupid people who have Toxic set as their ringtone.
  • rocket88 does that include the wah-wah part right before then?
  • Great! Now the whole damn song's stuck in my head, and my coworkers don't know why I'm rockin' out in my cubicle. Ba-da-ba-ba ba-da-da-da ba-da-da-da-da wee-deedle-deedle-deedle-dee!
  • We all hate cell phones but these guys did something about it. Quicktime.
  • i hope to someday published a text under the title "Don't Be Flattered, I'm Calling You From the Bus." I love taking public transporation and having people try to talk about the shoes they just bought, the game they just saw, the passing nothingness of themselves, over the roar of an engine. I also find it quaint that conversation or dialogue exists less and less, and instead we have at the emerging forefront tools that allow the other to become receptacles for our lonliness / interim moments. a good look at this loss, for all you hatas is Heidegger, Habermas and the Mobile Phone. It is a small wee of a book that is pretty interesting.
  • I had a cell phone for a couple of years, but cancelled because (a) I began resenting the bloated cell phone monopoly overlords, and (b) disliked the idea of taking my "personal office" with me wherever I went and being at everyone's beck and call. Now when we go on daytrips to the beach, it feels like a clean break and a bona fide vacation rather than another extension of home.
  • on those guys who are Doin' It for Themselves: how awesome: random petty theft, assault & possible battery! Surely, these are crusaders for the public good. My heroes.
  • I don't see why prisoners shouldn't have phones.
  • At a movie or performance of some kind, the cell phone becomes a pinpoint precision directional moron detector.
  • Having a cell phone is much cheaper than having a landline, especially if you make a lot of long distance calls. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that I hate landlines. Actually, I don't hate them, but often find them to be a waste of money since few people actually need them. Oh, my cell phone's ring is a wav file of the Busters song Summertime.
  • and dogwalkers who talk on their phones instead of talking to their dogs .... well, they suck too. signed, that lady who talks to dogs. constantly.
  • How about people who drive Ford pickups with Bush-Cheney and Calvin-peeing-on-Chevy stickers while gabbing on the cell phone, with the dog in the cargo area. They suck!
  • or soccer moms in their SUVs talking on the celle.
  • I have several cell phones tossed in a drawer at home. On some of them, the service lapsed, and one I never activated. I suppose I should donate them to charity and maybe keep the one with the coolest games. I just never really used them -- I'd forget I was carrying a cell, or maybe all the programmable features just confounded me. But thanks for reminding me I need to clean out that drawer.
  • What really bothers me about cell phones is not the phone itself, but the way that it is changing our society. I have no desire for a cell phone whatsoever - I don't have a life and check my email every few hours; if you need to talk to me more often than that, you can send the national guard out. I have enough trouble with procrastination - I don't need telephone everywhere (though wireless internet in cafes is very nice). But people are beginning to just expect you to have a cell phone, and some are put out when you say you don't. Worst of all - the pay phones are disapeering! I can't find a payphone when I need one! I don't need a $30 or more/ month bill when I want to make maybe 5 calls a month outside my house - I just want to be able to pay my $0.25 (or $0.50 in the States) to call home occasionally to ask whether we need milk. If not for me, then think of the poor homeless people. What else can they use? The worst was visiting MIT. At my undergrad university (Shout out to York U in Toronto) there were payphones around every other corner of its labrythine halls. But when I was desparately trying to reach my friend in Cambridge, Mass. so we knew where we would be sleeping that night, we couldn't get a phone ANYWHERE in the campus. Finally I found one in a mall across the street. My other friend just thought that maybe all of the students have cell phones. His college in the UK has just removed all payphones from its building too. When will the one on the corner disapeer? I don't want to be forced to get a cell phone out of necessity. If it gets worse, I think I will start grabbing the phones out random people's hands when I need it. I'll hand them a quarter afterwards.
  • Yes, the societal implications are interesting. I personally just hate the increase in the level of noise. I mean, do all the shoppers in the grocery aisle really need to hear Mom calling her kids and asking them what kind of breakfast cereal they want her to buy? This seems to encourage not exercising any forethought (which is always great for society). Worse are the walkie-talkie styles of phones in which you hear BOTH sides of the conversation. Most of us would like to assume that we are not on a speakerphone when we call someone, but with those kinds of phones, how do you know?
  • Wow. I didn't know so many people did hate cell phones. Heaven help those cell phone smashers when they run into someone who is armed. I can understand people being angry at some of the people who use cell phones, but isn't this just another example of technology revealing morons? I mean, it could be that cell phones are merely a tool of the Darwin Awards. In fact, leading demented conspiracy theorists believe Darwin Awards employees invented the car simply to get more nominees.
  • I'm one of the ones who blames the lack of manners, not the technology. Or what uncleozzy said already, assuming the people have preexisting standards of etiquette/ethics. That said, I have to be a jerk for a moment and say that I wonder about people who seem to be always, always on the phone, every moment, talking about everything that happens to them, no matter how trivial. I wonder if they're afraid to be alone. But that's just random speculation. Anywho, one can be polite with a cell phone. One can be rude while passing notes, if one tries hard enough. It's just become commonplace, expected and acceptable to use a cell phone as an excuse to be rude, which is why they tend to inspire not so nice reactions in politeness-obsessed people such as myself. But I wouldn't go so far as to say cell phones suck. Rude people suck. Rude people on cell phones suck loudly.
  • I own a cellphone, hooked into Vodaphone's prepaid system where I don't have to pay any more than I want to. I probably take three months to get through $20 of credit. I have to admit that I have a deep dislike of talking on the phone. I don't know why, but I don't feel comfortable talking on the phone. So mostly I use text messaging, because then the recipient can reply in their own time. Most of the people I know, with one exception, actually use real English in their messages, which is nice. There's nothing I loathe more than getting a message from someone saying, "WUT R U UP 2 CU L8R". Texting, however, is an antisocial activity if you're with other people, as I found out last Friday night when I went out with friends and all four of us were sending and receiving messages tryng to hook up with various other people. I also found that when I drive and talk on my phone, it seriously lowers my driving attention span, so I don't do it. Because I'm aware of how it affects my driving, I get rather nervous and irritated when I see other people doing it.
  • Wurlwilf -- no, that's a great thought. I have had that SAME exact idea about cell phones serving as security blankets or psychological lifelines. After all, remember, the supermarkets are all filled with creeps, pedophiles, and stalkers, you know. Or at least unfriendly strangers. I think the ramifications of that idea (multiplied by millions of people) are pretty significant.
  • jb: I don't know about other cities (in Canada or elsewhere), but in downtown Toronto [I typed TO there for a minute before I remember we are a slightly wider audience], the city has shut off, if not actually removed all the pay-phones (e.g.along Queen St. W, Spadina, College, Younge etc.). Rationale? Drug dealers use these phones, therefore, the city will be safer without them in operation. Now, hands up, whose dealer doesn't have a cell? They were first adopters, for the love of Pete. Stupid City of Toronto.
  • Cell phones are one way of making the world smaller. One hundred years ago, it would take at least a day for information to be disseminated around a country. Two hundred years ago, it would take maybe a week. Four hundred: a month? Two thousand years ago, most information hardly went anywhere. Four thousand years ago a journey to the next valley would have been a considerable trek. People could travel away from information - a criminal could start anew or avert suspicion - a youth could leave their parents. Now there is nowhere left to hide. I don't dislike cell phones, but sometimes I do yearn for greater distance.
  • yeah i second roly and wur... it strikes me that people who spend all their time on cell phones can't deal with being alone, or being in the moment, or something. or maybe they think they look more important if they're chatting away? and those little dangly ear thingies make it look like they're talking to themselves. hmmm.
  • Another thing I love about my cell phone is calling my mother in DC on my drive home in nasty LA traffic. I have 35 minutes two or three times a week to keep in touch with her and see how things are going. (And yes, I have her on speed dial and set up hands free before I even start the car.) I have a nationwide, no roaming calling plan at a very reasonable rate that lets me take my cell phone with me when I travel and I don't have to worry about calling collect or paying long distance to get a hold of people. It has games for when I'm trapped somewhere without a book. It has a calendar and an alarm clock. It takes pictures like the time we were at Johnny Rockets and there was a sign that says, "Chris Eats Here" which I took to show my friend Chris. I took a lovely picture of the sunset the other day too. When I'm out at a club and I need to find my friend, but it's a big place and too noisy to actually talk on the phone I can send her a quick message. When I don't want to talk to anyone, I don't answer my phone and no one gets pissed off at me, they just text me or leave me a message. When my tire ruptured on a busy freeway and I was only able to squeeze into a spot where there was no possibility of me getting out of my car, I was able to call my insurance and have them send someone to help me. I think all this anger directed towards cell phones is misplaced. Cell phones are *awesome*. It's inconsiderate cell phone users who suck. Speaking of, Memo to chick in bathroom stall who was talking on her cell: Dude. It. Can. Wait.
  • That's what irks me of cell proliferation: you're available 24/7. I'm no hermit, but still, there are times when I don't want to be disturbed. CallerID and answering machines are my allies. One thing that hit me on last vacation: people answering their cells on tours. On the buffett line. On the beach. And talking loudly about business, jobs. I didn't knew whether to welcome the future or feel like a chracter from Metropolis.
  • I make a point of having the most Godawful, cheesy, Europappy ringtone I can find. Just to annoy people. Incidentally, I remember reading a study somewhere that found that talking on a mobile whilst driving - even when talking handsfree, is actually more dangerous than driving after drinking a pint of beer.
  • I personally love my cellphone. I've been verbally assaulted for using it, though. Seriously, if I was talking to a friend on the bus, I would have been no louder, yet for some reason because the friend was not on the bus, I was a legitimate target for a jerk of a person with a pet peeve. (some time into the abuse) Abuser: "I'm just sharing my feelings, don't you respect honesty?" Me: "Yes, from people I know. I didn't ask for yours however" Abuser: gets abusive. I do wish that social norms would be agreed upon soon however. Here is a small list of starter rules of thumb that I try to live by: 1) Do not shout. Microphones are very good these days. 2) Respect no-cell-phone signs and areas 3) Do not talk on the phone while you are checking out at a store. Very rude. 4) Use a hands-free set in the car 5) If you are talking more than a sentence or two in a restaurant, go outside. Like if you are going to smoke. Also, I have to say that one of the main reasons I love my phone is that I am never without something to read. I have a Treo Palm based phone, so I read ebooks on it, and I never have to worry about the long-line-with-nothing-to-do-syndrome. I prefer reading on the Treo to reading on paper, honestly. Heresy but true. The Treo even has a physical slider-switch to turn the ringer on-off. Highly convenient.
  • I don't like 'em, but really I just don't like having a communication tether on me wherever I go. When I leave the house, I'm out. Don't want to answer the phone. I don't have a problem with other people's phones, as long as they observe some kind of decorum -- i.e., understand that you're in public, don't shout, don't drag out your personal garbage, and for God's sake don't expect me to wait on you until you put that damn thing down.
  • But, Kimberly, it can't wait, apparently. I think it started with call-waiting. When that fad started, I began to feel that anytime I called anyone long distance there would be "Oh, I have another call.", click, on hold with the minutes ticking away. (Until I learned to just hang up. Though that always felt rude.) It always felt to me as though people were validating their own importance by having to be continuallly available to that next "realllly important" call, even it if it was AT&T asking you to switch to their long distance servce. "The Medium is the Message" kind of veered to "The Medium is tha Massage." The chatter in the grocery store is a minor annoyance to me since the reception isn't too bad there and they talk quietly, but I bet they forget to buy something vital for tomorrow's dinner and will have to to go back at the last minute to get it. And, those wireless-chatting folks on city streets. Do you ever wonder whether they could have taken the option to go shopping with a friend, where they could discuss the new Kate Spade handbag face to face, and maybe have some lunch or a cup of tea together? Maybe even discuss old times, or a play/movie/book, or tell funny stories about their kids? Those discussions, I think, go best when you're in the same space as your friend. The car cells are the scariest to me, as well. I've often wondered wondered if there were enough of us who don't run our lives from an automobile that, if we all pointed and laughed at the cell addicts, honked our horns, and made hand-to-ear (cell phone mocking) gestures at them, if they get the idea. I agree that cell phones have their uses, so don't put me down on the haters' list.
  • ilyadeux: My god, that's stupid (of the City of Toronto). And it breaks my heart. I should have known the minute I left things would fall apart. What about the TTC? Do they still have phones in every station and on the every platform? /T.O. filter
  • Hating something is not the same as (or advocating) the abuse of people who use it (even if they do so rudely). Abuse is always wrong, or have we lost the meaning of the word from overuse? And just for the record, doing anything for the pleasure of annoying others is a big tip-off to what kind of personality?
  • For all these people bemoaning being "always available" now that they have a cell, I have a tip for you: don't answer when it's inconvenient. I was taught growing up that you don't leave the dinner table to answer the phone, and I've extended the principle behind this rule to my cell phone. If it's important, they'll leave a voicemail which you can check at your convenience. Problem solved, as far as I'm concerned.
  • don't answer when it's inconvenient. Agreed. Maybe that's why the things don't bother as much as the security blanket, I'm-ready-for-my-GPS-microchip cell phone set. I use the phone when I'm trying to coordinate weekend activities or other things on the fly. I turn off the phone without even looking for signs when in restuarants, museums, and theatres. But man, those things are invaluable--especially when trying to get a film crew together at a weird location or, in a more severe situation, for Red Cross disaster services.
  • But what if it's someone I actually want to talk to? : ) Yes, it's a freakin mixed blessing; the day you check out movie times, make reservations at a restaurant, gather some friends and take care of family business, all the while taking a coffee after work, you're hooked. But still... I think my main gripe is the crappy quality of their service. How many times you see people scrambling to the street, trying to please the gods of geomancy with some contortions? How many times you answer to some static filled, digitized mumble that ends up suddenly?
  • I hate people who hate things instead of the stupid people that mishandle them.
  • I'm kidding of course. I should put clarifications in the same comment
  • Somewhere, there must be a research grant waiting to study the effects on our psyches induced by socially isolating devices. Cell phones and CD/MP3 players and their electronic cousins encourage users to focus attention on a small device that excludes the world around them. These things are like catnip to people with narcissistic personalities, as they reinforce one's tendencies towards self-importance. If you haven't guessed, I don't think much of cell phones. If it were legal in the states, I'd carry a jammer around all the time, just to cut the electronic leashes of people nearby. I hike and backpack, so often find myself out of cell range. Friends have expressed deep concern and fear for me that, if anything were to 'happen', I'd have no way to call for help. (not being within reach of help, and the self-sufficiency it encourages, is part of the appeal of the outdoors. One can disconnect from society, and reconnect differently on return. But I digress...) This fear of being out of touch astounds me- for a technology that's still in it's infancy, the dependancies some people have developed around it are deeply disturbing.
  • I for one, welcome our new technological overlords.
  • Being a true L.A. girl I luuuuurrve me some cell phone, for many, many of the reasons listed above. But what I can't fathom is why anyone would even think of using it in the car without the handsfree? BUH?!
  • Having a cell phone is much cheaper than having a landline, especially if you make a lot of long distance calls. brokevespa, you have to tell me what service provider you use. I've never come across a cell phone long distance call that came anywhere close to as cheap as a landline (ie home phone?) call, minute for minute. The best I can hope for usually is about 150% or 200%. Anyway, I have my cell phone on ALL the time. Even at night. I wake up at 2, 3, 4 AM, groggy and bleary-eyed, looking at who has just messaged me. Usually someone in another time-zone. (in Singapore, a cell phone is called a "handphone", I think cos in Chinese it's shou3 ti2 dian4 hua4, "hand-carried phone") My dad has a paranoia of some kind of not being able to reach me. Once beepers were available, I was carrying one. Then I started inheriting his cell phones when he upgraded to new ones. I change cell phones about once every four to five months. So yes, the cell phone is a security blanket, but as much for my dad as it is for me.
  • Half of my life I live in an area without cell coverage (you have to drive down the road a couple of miles to pick up a signal). Despite the inconvenience, this is a good thing. Encourages folks to leave the I-must-be-in-constant-contact-with-my-broker attitude behind when they head up my road. Also, I've never had to hear half of a bellowed cell conversation in the local coffee spot.
  • I don't mind cell phones, but I do mind the guy who's got an appointment with someone in the office across the way, who keeps going around, and around, and around our little walkway (therefore, in front of everyone else's doors), talking VERY LOUDLY to "someone important". asshat.
  • Shamelessly lifted from MeFi, the only compelling reason for me to get a cell phone. I. Want. This one.
  • I. Want. This one. Perfectly impractical. I'm getting me one.
  • Must have massive/impractical/ridiculous attachment for cell phone ::drool::
  • Sometimes technology comes full circle. That is HILARIOUS. I think it is worthy of a FPP. Thanks middleclasstool!