The cell phone is destroying direct human contact.

[Cyrano]

Sorry, but I'm not a Luddite trying to turn back the clock.

But the cell phone is a plague. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with anyone who possessed a cell phone?

What if Einstein had been on the verge of clarifying his theory of relativity and a cell phone rang?

What if Michaelangelo had been working on Adam's finger on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and a cell phone demanded his attention?

What if Da Vinci had been evaluating some girl to be his Mona Lisa and a cell phone distracted him from HER and he moved on?

I, for one, am sick of the fucking things. I keep mine turned off most of the time.

And yes. There is an emergency aspect to justify the use of cell phones. But "What color dress should I wear tonight?" is not an emergency.

And just to add to my credentials as a male chauvinist pig, let me say that women use cell phones for trivia, far more than do men. (Sorry, no links or scientific evidence to back this up. Just personal observations.)

A constitutional amendment barring cell phones would be a bit on the radical -- if not wingnut side. But how about if we all agree to shun cell phone users who are not dealing with emergency calls?

[Squatch]

1. How else can I tell my wife to pick up a case of beer

while she's at the store?

[Cyrano]

2. What would you have done before the cell phone?

[Squatch]

3. I wuld have waited until she got back home and then asked her why

she didn't think of me when she was out shopping. Then, I would proceed to tell her that our marriage is in dire straits unless she changes her selfish ways.

So, you see, the cell phone is keeping my marriage together.

(lol)

[jobycom]

17. You have successfully refuted the OP's position. Congo-rats!

:bounce:

[Cyrano]

21. May your cell phone ring at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 am every morning for

the rest of your life. (This of course assumes that the OFF button has been disabled, and your battery is jammed in so tightly that Hercules couldn't remove it.)


(edited for fat typing fingers)

[jobycom]

23. You're assuming I have a cell phone.

And I do! It's a really cool one, too!

(Although it's a recent addition to my life. With aging parents in another state, kids in another house, and no land phone, I finally decided I had a use for one.)

[madinmaryland]

11. Umm, That QUALIFIES as an EMERGENCY!!!!

[eyesroll]

4. My cell phone is my only phone.

Why should I pay for a landline if I need the cell phone anyway? (Getting stranded with a dead fuel pump on the end of a highway off ramp and relying on the mercy of a stranger convinced me of the need for a cell phone.)

I don't answer mine when I'm busy (my standard: would I interrupt this to answer a landline at home?), and I keep the ringer on vibrate 99% of the time so it won't disturb others.

What's the problem?

[Radical Activist]

5. People said the same thing about regular phones.

They said it would destroy the social customs of people actually coming to your house and spending time with you for conversation, and replace it with quick, impersonal phone calls. Parents also didn't like how it changed dating and courtship since parents couldn't monitor their daughters conversation with boys as easily.

[LeftyMom]

6. I use mine for the same things I'd use a land line for

Most of my calls orignate from home. It's just more economical for me to use a cell phone exclusively than to maintain both.

I have certainly never called anybody to find out what I ought to wear, I learned how to dress myself as a small child and as an adult I'm still up to the task. :)

[Cyrano]

7. Okay, I am a Luddite and proud of it. As for everyone else, enjoy

your ability to transmit the most trivial thought to anyone simply by pushing a button.

I, for one, would love to see a study correlating cell phone addicts with those who read books -- or newspapers -- or magazines -- or anything other than the instruction booklet that came with the most recent phone.

[The2ndWheel]

8. But don't you go BACK to your house after work? nt

[WCGreen]

9. You know what... You are absolutly.... Hold on, I gotta take this...

[kay1864]

15. ...

:spray:


:rofl:




Good one!

[kwassa]

10. My modest proposal

Since we will never stop people from using them, and I use one, too.

And since we will never stop people using them while they drive, a more dangerous proposition;

I hereby propose two things
1) Anyone using a phone in a car must move over to the far right lane of traffic. Drivers on phones tend to be more oblivious of road conditions, and drive more vaguely and slowly.

2) Certain public areas be designated as phone-free. Amtrak has train cars where no cellphones are allowed, and they are in demand. The upcoming problem will soon be cell-phones on planes.

Think of a no smoking zone, only a no cell phone zone.

[Cyrano]

13. One of my pet peeves is people who use them at the super market deli line.

You're trying to get a some cold cuts at the supermarket and some asshole standing next to you is relating the latest of a string of misfortunes that has befallen him or her. Do you really want to hear this? Do you really care?

Hostile stares from others at the same counter are useless. The cell phone user is either oblivious to them, or doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Whichever explanation applies, the cell phone user is a self-centered, oblivious, stupid asshole.

Please try to remember this if you fit this description.

Right now, one of the biggest problems concerning violence is road rage. I may be nuts, but isn't it possible that a similar affliction might hit those forced to listen to other people's blatherings?

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. Cell phones are essential these days, but too many people abuse them.

I, for one, do NOT want to go back to the days of being stuck on the side of the road with a broken-down car and no way to contact anyone. (Thank goodness I haven't had car trouble in many years, but it's always possible.) I also want to tell my husband that I am stuck in traffic and will not be able to make it home in time to go to a particular movie. However, I despise it when inconsiderate clods yack on the phone in line at the grocery store, etc., and hold up the line to hold an inane personal conversation. It's rude as hell! :grr: Also, I DO NOT want to hear someone else's inane conversation while they are using the bathroom in a public restroom (while they heed nature's call! :puke: ). I used to get calls from students at my last job, and many of them were trying to listen to music and/or the tv and eat or drink while they asked me an "important" financial aid question. BULLSHIT!!!! :grr: If it's important enough to call about, it's important enough to give it your full attention.

[Virginia Dare]

14. I had a surreal experience this weekend...

went to a concert, and at the end, instead of holding up lighters, half the audience was holding up their cell phones. I felt like the only one there who wasn't either taking pictures and/or on the stupid-ass cell phone during the concert. Dude! Guess where I am!

It got annoying after a while.

Yes, I guess I am a Luddite as well. I use mine only very rarely.

[azmouse]

16. I definitely understand your complaint

about the overuse of cell phones.
But I bet everyone who owns one can relate at least one story of a time they helped in an emergency.

Mine was just a few weeks ago when my husband was in a car accident on the other side of town. The Phoenix area is huge and without our cell phones I would have a very hard time locating my husband.

[maxsolomon]

18. i'm not popular enough to justify one

but i have it anyway, hoping it rings during meetings so i can take the call & show my clients what its like.

[jobycom]

19. This wins the award for the most hillarious, ironic post ever on

the INTERNET!!

"Let's see, E equals M... M... M... Damn, a few minutes of mindless posting on DU won't hurt."

You know the difference between people like Einstein and Michaelangelo, and losers like me? They could tune out distractions! :rofl:

[Cyrano]

25. Thank you . But please don't think of yourself as a loser.

You're no more of a loser than I am trying to make some sense out of this planet we're all stuck on.

And, oh yeah, taking the theory of Occam's Razor into account, it's very likely that your posting is one of the most outrageous distortions ever entered on DU. But perhaps that's an overstatement.

[Cyrano]

20. Okay, let me cut to the chase here.

I have a friend girl (as opposed to a girl friend). It's virtually impossible to have a conversation with her as she knows many people and there is never more than a two or three minute interval before her cell phone goes off.

Yesterday, I told her to turn her phone off whenever she's around me, or to just stay away from me altogether. In some ways, I really don't care what her decision is as I refuse to have anyone in the world interrupting us in mid sentence every few minutes.

If she can live with that, fine. Then she's not someone I want to be around. She's a good friend, but at some point, you've got to draw a line. She can have a conversation with me or with her phone. But not both. I'm fed up with, "Never mind. I'll tell you the rest of that story later."

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. It's the only phone I use.

I never saw the point of paying for that and a landline.

[SofaKingLiberal]

24. That's okay. I was never big on the direct human contact thing anyway.

:D