cell phones...can u live without them?

[acezz4e_tish]

i wouldnt take mine in one, if it got near one it would be cause it was in my purse, but it would be shut off, conserv battery time. i think its rude too.

[scottish girl]

I can't live without mine, I use it all the time. In fact I know that I spend too much money on it.

[cercis]

I take mine with me everywhere because we have lots of elderly relatives. I want my family to be able to get ahold of me to let me know if one gets sick or dies (it's especially important now that I'm a days' drive away).

Also, if I leave my kids with a sitter (once in a blue moon), I want the sitter to be able to get ahold of me immediately, not when I get done with dinner.

But if you don't answer the phone, generally you dont' get charged. It depends upon your provider.

[debtfreeme]

my cell is the pnly phonei have. i do not have a land line so it is worth it to me.

[elcheapo]

I loathe cell phones really so no I do not have one.

[akaivyleaf]

I have one which replaced my landline. I use it any and everywhere. The only place I turn it off is on an Airplane.

[On Track]

I pay $50 a month for mine and could not live without it. I use it all the time for making calls to friends and family even making appointments, etc because everything is long distance for me to call from my land line. My cell actually ends up saving me money.

[Ima saver]

I guess I don't have anyone I need to talk to, I just don't like them.

[abowers]

My boyfriend and I are using our cell phones as our primary phones. We moved to Princeton from Rochester NY, and kept our cell phones so that we could talk to friends and family without paying long distance. Not to mention, we will probably be changing apartments every year or so for the next 5 years of my boyfriend's PhD program, so it's easier to keep the same cell number than to change land line numbers every year.

Also, in college I did lots of driving by myself (for work, and to visit boyfriend at his college) and so it was good security thing for me to have.

Having an older car while in college meant a couple break downs where I needed AAA, plus a flat tire on the expressway. I was very glad to have the cell phone.

Once we settle down in one spot, I think we'll swap in the $70/month 2 cell phones for pay as you go phones just to keep on hand for emergencies, and get a land line.

[funnyvalentine]

I can't live without mine. I own a catering business, and very often, if something minor is wrong of forgotten, I can fix it in minutes. If no one can get in touch with me, that opportunity is lost. Chatting is secondary. That I can live without.

[Haku]

Yes, I most certainly can go without my cellphone. In fact, I would find it a welcoming change for work to not be able to contact me. Ah, but they wouldn't like that, and I'm not paying for my cellphone anyways.

[markio26]

a month ago, we switched to at&t, due to my spouses company discount and it really works well in our homes... anyway, we have had 2 emergency calls from my family within the past two days... my sisternlaw has a growth on her neck, tumor in fact, surgery will be tomorrow...it was found by of all people her allergy doctor.... my brother hit another deer with his new honda last nite, tore up the front of his grill, (he hit one last yr. and it ran into his drivers door, tore it all up).. this was at different locations.....odds of that happening (huh!). anyway, i was instant messaged, notified by my son from messages on his cell phone they left, and most importantly messages, voice, direct connect, email, and im messages, they put on my cell phone....just to remind everyone, of my past posts, ICE, is very important to have beside your family members names in a numerical order.... my spouse is ICE1, son is Ice2, son is ICe3, add their name by the nummber and so on.... makes alot of sense to me now to do this....thanks for the post and the comments... NOOOOOOOOOO, i could not live without my cell phone... i surf the web, and check my emails now too......it is one expense i am willing to pay for.

[leggzz66]

I think they are a good idea, for a couple reasons. One i was in walmart other day, I didnt realize, that they change pools there every year. I have last years model, and needed stuff for it, but for the life of me, i couldnt remember what i needed to know. So i called home, and asked my dad, who was babysitting for me at the time. I could use a or c filters, and that specification meant i could buy the 2 pack for 9.95 vs the singles for 6.94.

Reason two, If you break down, you have immediate means to call someone. I broke down in toledo. I had my 3 kids still at home, 2 siamese cats, and had to walk about 5 miles down i 75. So im glad that now i have a cell phone. It was so hot and miserable, My cats were half dead by the time, i got a tow. My serpentine and pully blew out. So picture walking 3 kids, youngest 3 down i 75, then its no contest. If you buy a throw away, u run out of minutes, you can still call *55. I know cause i got one next trip, and the darn same thing happened to me, only this time in ft. wayne. down i 69. It was a 98 windstar, and i had to do that whole serpentine business, 3 times! so if you have one, watch the long distance travel, eh? lol.

[PrincessPerky]

Yes I could live without it, Really I could live without any phone of any sort....

but I don't want to.

it is the difference between a need and a want, I need a way to communicate (neighbors phone, internet, snail mail....talking in person) I want a way to do it anywhere anytime....

[Aleta]

I keep mine in my purse for emergency use and occassionally use it for personal calls which generally save my time and gas by not having to go back home for something forgotten. Sometimes I forget that I have it. I have a pay-as-you-go phone and that works well for me. It's also a plus when there's a birthday for someone far away and you don't want to wait until 9:00 PM to call them from a spouses cell phone.

I'm just concerned about people not being able to live without the constant phone being attached to them. What did we do years ago? Granted there are people because of family illness, true emergencies, and business that a cell phone is important in todays market. I just don't one owning me.

[DebbieL]

I've never needed, wanted or had a cell phone. Not my thing. I don't really like even answering the phone at home, let alone do I want to be reachable everywhere. I would probably get one if I were driving alone a lot in the middle of nowhere or something.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by howmuch

I'm paying about 60 a month on cell phones for me and my wife. I was thinking about cutting out my cell phone and just have one in the family but my wife thinks that's totally impractical. Didn't our parents get along fine without cell phones?

I haven't read all the responses, but here's my 2-cents.

For the vast majority of people, a cell phone is a luxury item, pure and simple. Unless you have a job that requires you to be instantly accessible 24/7, you don't NEED a cell phone. They are a great convenience to be sure, but they aren't a necessity.

I'm a physician. I got my first cell phone when I was a resident and was on-call outside of the hospital. After one time when I got beeped and had to find a pay phone when I happened to be driving through a lousy neighborhood, I realized that wasn't a safe option.

Other than that, cell phones are great for emergencies, car breakdowns, schedule changes, etc. But we all lived perfectly fine without them for many, many years. We've all come to depend on them, but no, they are not a necessity and if the budget is really tight, they should be high on the list of things to eliminate.

[Aleta]

Steve: I think that you summed up my thoughts about cell phones. Don't mind saying how annoying it is to hear someone talking as if no one is around. Restaurants are the worst. Why don't they go outside of the area and take care of their business and not ot mention how loud some seem to talk in public while on the phone.

[janeysaurus]

My SO and I can live without them. The only reason we have them is for work. My SO works in IT Support for a law firm, so he was given a Blackberry (he's also on-call every 2 weeks). He hates it, though. It really ties him to work.

My employer got me one because he wanted to be able to get a hold of me when I'm not at the office (and I'm extremely difficult to get a hold of outside of email). He initially planned to get me a phone under his family's Verizon plan, but got me a pay-as-you-go one instead. It's very basic and cheap, which is good as I use it so little I'm racking up rollover minutes like crazy. However, his plan did backfire a bit as the only time I ever really answer is when I'm in Downtown doing hearings, and only if I'm sitting in the waiting room waiting for my hearing to be called. If I'm working at home, he still needs to email me anyway as I usually don't have the cell on me. And if I see that he called me at some point during the day, I just walk over to the office to talk to him (I literally live catacorner to the lot the office is on).

My cell has come in useful for work, for those times I have a question about a property and need his input.

Ironically enough, though I thought it would come in handy for car emergencies, I've not used my cell for that yet. I drive a 15-year-old car, and anything that has come up in the past two years has been minor and something I could fix myself. And despite the fact I was driving Pittsburgh to Gettyburg and back several times a week for two months through the middle of nowhere for a class, those minor problems cropped up when the car was driving locally. Figures.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Aleta

Don't mind saying how annoying it is to hear someone talking as if no one is around. Restaurants are the worst.

No, what is the worst is when I'm in the middle of examining a patient and his cell phone rings and he answers it! Talk about rude! I have signs up in all the rooms saying please turn off your cell phone but nobody pays any attention to them.