Do you have a cell phone? - Page 3

[smeta]

I don't have a cell phone either.

FYI, even old, no-service cell phones still work to call 911.

I recently used a no-service cell phone to call 911. I keep it in my car (which is a 1990 with 253,000 miles!). I needed roadside assistance on the freeway, while I did not consider this a true "emergency", the 911 call center forwarded me to the state patrol and they were very friendly and even said to call back on 911 if I needed further help. I was so glad I had the phone with me b/c I was on a busy freeway, it took a half hour for the tow truck to come, and not a single car stopped to see if I needed help! I think now that most people have cell phones, you are less likely to get someone stopping to help b/c they think you are able to call for help!

[eqleslie]

My husband and I each have a cell phone. I really wanted one because my parents need them..... My parents are NEVER home and I talk to them a lot. So I got a phone on their network so we can talk for free. Then I decided that there was no way I could afford to have a land line and a cell phone so the next month I cancelled my land line. So I suppose that I need a cell because if I want to talk to my mom I have to call her cell and there wouldn't be enough minutes if we didn't have free mobilr to mobile

[chel]

we are a cell only home. I when dd was an infant my truck broke down in the middle of where 2 interstates meet. I couldn't walk anywhere without having to cross several lanes of traffic. I waited on the side of the road for over an hour with dd in her bucket carseat. Just my luck my old state had a highway patrol and I flagged them down as they were passing on the opposite interstate (I had to wait another 20 minutes for them to circle back)

I've only had a cell phone for 3 yrs but I would hate to live without.

[~Shanna~]

I have a cell phone that my employer requires me to wear, er, have. I dream about the day that I leave my job and throw that darn thing out the window......

I hate them, hate what it turns us into: People who are so paranoid about protecting our privacy, except for what we'll discuss in public on our cell phones. And when (not if, but when) I finally do get run over by an SUV driver on a cell phone, I am going to sue the pants off of them for negligence.

I'm usually quite even-tempered, except for when it comes to those beasts.....

[nikirj]

DH and I have cell phones and no land line. We'd go nuts without them because we like to know what is going on and DH is a pretty paranoid person, it just puts him at ease to know he can get me when he needs to.

You can have a cell phone and not answer it. I pretty frequently just don't answer if I'm doing something, in the store, whatever. I can't stand it when people CHAT in the store. I mean, I've called DH as I was walking into a store and asked what he wanted for dinner, but I didn't stand there for 5 minutes going over how our day went, you know?

I think a lot of people forget that you don't HAVE to answer the phone. I'm busy is a reasonable excuse for not answering, any time you're busy. Whether you are busy in the car, talking to your friend, drinking your coffee...you don't HAVE to answer a phone. Of course, my MIL will then call another phone, so my phone will ring as DH and I are chatting...and then his will ring...and then we both get lengthy and very similar non-urgent messages. Drives me batty.

I think my life is easier because we have them and don't let ourselves become obsessed with them.

[phathui5]

I keep one in the van. It doesn't come out.

[savithny]

For us, cell phones allow us...

to remain a one-car family.

with me working part-time and DH working full-time, with each of us responsible for certain aspects of child care, and a bus schedule in this town that is pretty good, but not the best -- each of us having a cell phone is one of the ways that we can handle being a one-car family. We're out and about a lot and it allows us to coordinate our schedules without making me have to wait around at home for DH to call for a ride or DH have to sit around at his lab waiting for me to get home and get his phone messages...

I figure that the cost of running the second car is way more than the cost of the cheapest family plan, per month.

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by Delight

Yeah, that's what I mean. Have we, as a society, become emergency phobic? What would I do if I broke down on the road with no cell phone? I guess I would wait until someone stopped.

That's why I got a cell phone about 8 years ago.

I was driving along and my car broke down on a California freeway. I was at a part of the freeway that was in what is shaped like a canyon, with no shoulder and at the very edge of the road, the ground goes very steeply up, up, up, to the neighborhood above. Just in front of me, perhaps a couple hundred yard, was a bridge with a street going over the freeway.

First of all, the traffic was extremely heavy and I barely got off the lane at all. I had to drive my little VW Cabriolet with its last coughing breaths (well, until it got fixed) up a sharp curb then there was no room for me to open my door so I crawled across and got out the passenger door. There was no where for me to stand except on the slippery slope. It had rained earlier and everything was slippery and muddy and dangerous. There was no foothold so it took me over an hour to make it those 200 yards to the bridge then up through scratchy foliage, falling the entire way and being terrified that I was going to slip down into the extremely busy 4 lanes each way traffic.

Wait until someone stops, you say? Well, in the time I walked, 3 different men slowed down to get me to hop in and I had HUGE alarms going off in my head for each one. For each one, the traffic came screeching to a halt behind them and they waved me over, come here, come here, come here, ignoring the traffic and I tell you, I swore I would have died or been raped or something if I had gotten in any of those cars. And I definitely wasn't a scared little girl at the time and was very trusting of people in general, so I truly think my intuition was telling me something true.

Regardless, I finally got up the hill, scraped, scratched, muddy and with my heart pounding to find myself in a VERY BAD neighborhood. Oh s*%*, I said. I did find a convenience store half a block away (I could see it) but I guess the neighborhood was so bad that there was not actually a door to go in, just cages and bullet-proof glass that you could order stuff through. I was so incredibly relieved when my DP (my now DH) got there to pick me up.

I immediately got a cell phone and I simply won't live without one now.

I totally understand all the anti-cell phone sentiments but yup, I am ingrained with a sense of emergency fear now, sad to say.

[hellyaellen]

i do own one b/c my stepmom gave me her old one when the company upgraded her or whatever but i have not gotten a plan or even any pre-paid minutes.

i am considering getting a family plan for my mom, sister and i to share. strictly for on the road use. (have you called out from a hotel phone lately?: ) we have several relations that we visit fairly often both as a group and seperately that are all an hour or more away from where the three of us live and we are always running late so it would be good to be able to call and say how far away we are too.

it sort of depends on wether my mom will chip in b/c i think my sis would and i would for sure. I think (i haven't priced it yet)

[Teensy]

I love that cell phones make it so much cheaper to call long-distance. I am not too worried about emergencies, but being able to call my parents, grandparents, brother and good friends who live long-distance is a pleasure. Unless the phone companies have drastically changed long-distance rates, I don't know how much I would talk to these people if I didn't have a cell phone.

[Jennie143]

I have a prepaid one for emergencies only. I would have been perfectly content with some sort of paging device though. It is just so hard to find a payphone these days though.

[AuntLavender]

No

I don't have a cell phone and my husband doesn't either (never have).

The other day my DH was at the auto parts store and he needed to call home and ask me to look up a part he needed. The clerk gave him a cell phone to use!?! My Dh had to ask how to use it! Bwa ha ha ha!

I think most people want a cell phone but don't need a cell phone.

I think the answering machine is the best invention of my lifetime!

Sincerely,
Debra

[AuntLavender]

My fourth is non-verbal

Originally Posted by mmace

"...my son has an autism-spectrum disorder), and I want to be available at all times if I'm needed..."

and he has a shoe tag with our home number plus DH's work number. If he ever got lost I'd have to check my home phone answering machine or call my DH at work. Of course he's only almost 3 now and never goes anywhere alone but I wonder if I may decide to get one in the future.

[AmberC]

I'm sadly addicted to my cell phone. I feel naked if I leave the house without it. I got halfway to the store (about 5 blocks) the other day and realized I left it at home. I almost went back to get it. I actually kinda wish I did, because while I was gone my co worker called and DD answered the phone before DH could stop her, and she said "Hello? Oh Mommy went to the store to get some chicken. Ok. Bye!" and hung up. Ah well, she's got grandkids my DD's age!
I have my phone with me all the time though. It lays on the nighstand at night when I'm sleeping, and is within arm's reach all the time. I don't know why I'm so attached to it. But it is my only connection to my hubby during the week (he's a trucker, home on weekends) and I always worry that something has happened to him on the road.

While I'm at work I have it set to "no ring" but anyone with an assigned ringtone will ring anyways. So I assigned ringtones to only my Hubby and my boss, since those are the only people who would have a good reason to be calling me at work (if MIL needs me, she has to call hubby and have him call me, because her number is restricted). The main reason I keep the phone on at work is because many retail stores don't have clocks which makes it hard to do my job and keep track of time, and a watch would drive me insane. So I have my cell phone for a clock, and I set the alarm to go off when it's time to clean up, or I'll end up staying longer than I should!

I don't have a problem with turning it off if I am having dinner or something, and if someone calls while I'm talking, I just silence it and continue on with what I was doing. Sometimes it starts to feel like a chain, but for the most part I like it.

We also don't have a landline but are considering getting Vonage.

[AmberC]

Originally Posted by Teensy

I love that cell phones make it so much cheaper to call long-distance. I am not too worried about emergencies, but being able to call my parents, grandparents, brother and good friends who live long-distance is a pleasure. Unless the phone companies have drastically changed long-distance rates, I don't know how much I would talk to these people if I didn't have a cell phone.

Some phone companies are offering flat fee long distance, where you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited long distance. When we had Sprint for our cell phone carrier, they told us we could get unlimited long distance for $15 a month if we changed our landline carrier to Sprint. But thier poor bookkeeping caused our payments to be put on the wrong account and they refused to fix it, so we dumped them. And they still put it on our credit report :-(

Call some phone companies and find out what they offer. But the reason we don't have a home phone anymore is that our local company charged $35 a month for JUST local service. So we dumped it and went with just the cell phone. Nights are free after 9pm and weekends are free.

Amber

[corwinegall]

Originally Posted by savithny

to remain a one-car family.

with me working part-time and DH working full-time, with each of us responsible for certain aspects of child care, and a bus schedule in this town that is pretty good, but not the best -- each of us having a cell phone is one of the ways that we can handle being a one-car family. We're out and about a lot and it allows us to coordinate our schedules without making me have to wait around at home for DH to call for a ride or DH have to sit around at his lab waiting for me to get home and get his phone messages...

I figure that the cost of running the second car is way more than the cost of the cheapest family plan, per month.

We're a one car family by choice too. We do have to coordinate schedules often-I didn't think about how much our cell phones help us.

One thing I am very conscious of is that the phone is for MY convenience. I answer it if I can, but otherwise they can leave a message and I can get back to them. Such as: I don't stop pushing dd on the swing to answer the phone unless its 'daddy' (or if I've got a job on the press and a printer calls )

[Daisie125]

We don't have one. We will probably get a prepaid one when DS is old enough to leave with one of the grandmas for us to go out to dinner or something, but other than that, we get by just fine without it.

[EFmom]

I don't have one. I did have one for two years for emergencies only. I think I might have used it a total of twice. The company changed the plan to make it much more expensive, so I dropped it.

I'm thinking of doing a research project on cell phone usage. I work in a public place where it is pretty easy to eavesdrop on cell phone calls. In fact, it can be hard to avoid it.

My preliminary research shows that about 90% of all calls are
1. People talking about food--what to buy or what they've eaten
2. People providing an insane amount of positional detail. "I'm on the third floor of building ABC right now. I'm turning the corner to enter the stairwell..."
3. Women gossiping about what other women are wearing.
4. Sports

I don't need to spend $40 month to do any of the above.

[mom2tig99Nroo03]

Originally Posted by MomBirthmomStepmom

I have a cell phone and no landline...lol

ditto.

[corwinegall]

This thread has me thinking. Just for the sake of argument (not that I want to argue with anyone over this ), why, unless you had a large family or were trying to keep down on expenses, why would you allow a landline to tie you down? If you're waiting for a phone call you have to sit and wait, while with a cell phone you can go for a walk and enjoy the outdoors. You don't have to let it intrude on your life, turn it off when you want (easier to do than to unplug the landline). Part of the reason the Amish don't have phones is because they intrude on the home. There are quite a few Amish who are starting to get cell phones because they absolutely need to communicate to keep their businesses going and sell to the outside world.