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Could you manage without a cell phone?
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: RandyT on April 08, 2011, 03:55:39 pm ---If you were arguing against the evils of Twitter and the like, however, we'd probably be on the same page.
--- End quote ---
Actually, if you were paying closer attention, you'd notice that I haven't said once that I am against cell phones. I went out of my way to say I don't care who has them and likes them. They exist, most people love them, I'm fine with that.
What I am against is the attitude that I am obligated to have one. I am against the exact attitude you're presenting. You want it, you have it, go have fun. It doesn't bother me. Shoving the thing on people who don't want it and telling them they are irresponsible is the problem. Not once, in this entire thread, did I say anyone who likes their phone should get rid of it.
The whole "you might need to save someone's life" idea is a crock of crap. How exactly is having that phone supposed to help when most people would drive right past a car flipped in a ditch to begin with? Few people here are willing to be an hour late for work in order to help someone in trouble. That was true before cell phones and it's true now.
NightGod:
Short answer: no. It's way too critical for my work to be able to call customers from the road. I used to manage without one, but that was back in the days when you could actually find a payphone at almost every gas station and restaurant. These days it would be basically impossible for me to do my job efficiently without one. I actually ended up in a town where I had no cell coverage (a college town at that *sigh* if I drove 1/4 mile out of town in any direction, I was fine, but actually in the town borders-nada) and spent 20 minutes trying to find a payphone when I learned the customer I had to service was inside a locked dorm. Finally found one at a defunct gas station...that only accepted calling cards. In the end, I stopped at another gas station and one of the employees was awesome enough to let me use her phone.
My simple answer to avoiding the "OMG WHY AREN'T YOU TEXTING/CALLING ME BACK IN 30 SECONDS" is that I condition friends to expect occasional long delays from the start. Sometimes I reply in seconds, sometimes I reply a day or three later. Once people are used to it from you, you avoid all the annoyance.
I've also been stuck off the road in a ditch in the middle of nowhere a few times (once that ditch looked a LOT shallower for a turn around but ended up being full of snow and the other time a snow plow had literally plowed the road closed under an overpass and didn't bother to tell anyone, even the state police). Mile+ to the nearest house and dead of winter. You can be damn sure I was glad I had my phone to call my insurance company for a tow truck then.
Samstag:
--- Quote from: NightGod on April 11, 2011, 09:57:15 am ---My simple answer to avoiding the "OMG WHY AREN'T YOU TEXTING/CALLING ME BACK IN 30 SECONDS" is that I condition friends to expect occasional long delays from the start. Sometimes I reply in seconds, sometimes I reply a day or three later. Once people are used to it from you, you avoid all the annoyance.
--- End quote ---
This has worked well for me too. I turn my phone off or turn the ringer/vibration off when I'm busy or don't want to be bothered sometimes, so when I choose to ignore a call people who know me can choose to believe that I just wasn't aware of it.
Vigo:
--- Quote from: Samstag on April 11, 2011, 10:55:47 am ---
--- Quote from: NightGod on April 11, 2011, 09:57:15 am ---My simple answer to avoiding the "OMG WHY AREN'T YOU TEXTING/CALLING ME BACK IN 30 SECONDS" is that I condition friends to expect occasional long delays from the start. Sometimes I reply in seconds, sometimes I reply a day or three later. Once people are used to it from you, you avoid all the annoyance.
--- End quote ---
This has worked well for me too. I turn my phone off or turn the ringer/vibration off when I'm busy or don't want to be bothered sometimes, so when I choose to ignore a call people who know me can choose to believe that I just wasn't aware of it.
--- End quote ---
Does not work for me, and it is frustrating. I've had a cell phone for 7 years, and to this day my friends cannot understand why I don't pick up or reply to a text at any given moment. I think it is something that began in my generation, as people 3-5 years older than me usually don't seem to have this problem.
Samstag:
--- Quote from: Vigo on April 11, 2011, 12:38:25 pm ---Does not work for me, and it is frustrating. I've had a cell phone for 7 years, and to this day my friends cannot understand why I don't pick up or reply to a text at any given moment. I think it is something that began in my generation, as people 3-5 years older than me usually don't seem to have this problem.
--- End quote ---
It does take longer to teach younger people this lesson, but it can always be taught if you're persistent. If they have trouble getting it, give them a second number for emergency situations. Here in the US I give them 911.
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