Remember when nobody had cellphones, then people got em if they needed em, then because they were cool? Now you can hardly do business without one, not to mention being treated like a social pariah if you switch off for a day. At least you have the luxury of withdrawing form Web 2.0. Web 3.0 will be compulsory.
well they can all call me a social pariah, b/c i don't own a cell phone and don't ever intend to. I have at 2 times previously, but like web 2.0, the cost (time and/or money) is too high for the little benefit they provide, IMHO. I don't like being contacted everywhere.
I work and live with my gf, and needless to say when I'm away.. i don't need her getting in touch with me. My family can also be quite over bearing and i don't need them to be able to reach me whereever and i live near my job so even if i'm not on-call, if they had my cell number, they'd just call me to go reboot something, or fix something "since i'm nearby". Screw that. Being disconnected sometimes is healthy.
Not to mention that cellphones have brought the worst out in people, or at least given them a platform to show just how annoying they really are. Texting while driving, blaring Toby Keith or T-Pain as their ring tone, doing that stupid Nextel 2-way radio crap in a crowded bar so every ten seconds you gotta have that annoying beep in your ear, not turning the damn thing off in a theater, or in line at the grocery store. Society's behavior with cellphones is enough in itself for me to despise them.
I understand there are USEFUL and responsible ways to use a cellphone. But from where i'm sitting, the masses don't do that. I love how 10,000 teens, tweens, and loser-adults who won't grow up have also had some kind of apparent meeting and decided they all needed camera / mp3 player/ touch screen phones with full internet access too. They can barely provide for themselves ,but damn they look cool. Cellphones are the new spinning rims.
But beyond that, even looking at older generations you see a group of old guys on a golf course and there's always one who takes 15 minutes to hit a fucking ball b/c his work is calling, his wife is calling, someone is always calling. I can't count the times i've also been deep in conversation with someone and they're passively saying "ya, uh huh, ya" to you while in some deep texting convo with someone else. Or the people that need to look super important at work by checking their blackberry everytime some crappy distro list chucks them an email, like it can't wait a whopping 2-3 minutes. I'd like to take all these people's phones, toss them on the ground, and jump up and down on them like a 5 year old throwing a tantrum. I really would.
I also find cellphones to be a complete ripoff. The sheer amount of physical wire and equipment needed to maintain the land line system is phenominal. You're talking a 100 of years of work, constant repairs. While the cell system is much more advanced, it takes a lot less maintenance and manpower. So explain why the hell the average cellphone bill is anywhere from 2 - 5 times the average land line bill. Internet on mobile devices sucks for the most part, even "web versions " of most websites are slow and lacking in functionality. Texting costs are phenomenally high. the cameras built into phones are usually awful quality. I don't get it. I never will.
