AT&T Tech Support 360September 18, 2007 4:00 AM PDT
Perspective: I have a cell now, and I might use it too
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Technically, I didn't buy it for myself. I bought it for a nanny who worked for us this past summer. I got it at a tent inside Costco, next to a cardboard crate of tube socks.
When our nanny returned to Europe, I figured that I might as well consume the remaining prepaid minutes on the phone. I haven't decided if I'll add more minutes when I'm out. (Technically speaking, I don't think I've actually used it to make a call, but I have carried it around.)
Unlike many people who consider themselves early adopters, I've often been a late adopter. I don't usually buy a technological gizmo until it becomes a social embarrassment not to own one. Still, even then, I held out on cell phones because:
- The shock value. I've loved watching people become slack-jawed and dazed when I told them I didn't have a cell number. It was like telling them I recently emigrated from the Little House on the Prairie. They couldn't believe it. In the next sentence I could tell them I had to start whittling toys for Christmas soon and they'd buy it.
- I'm cheap. It's all in priorities. I probably blow thousands in restaurants a year, but a new bathing suit? These surfing shorts from the early 1990s still work. I always looked at it this way: cell phone bills come to around $50 a month. That's $600 a year, in after tax income. Pre-tax, that comes to over $1,000. Is there something I'd rather spend money on than a device that lets me know of things I screwed up at work? There are a few.
- Few opportunities to call. I spend about 70 percent of my time in three places: work, home, or in meetings. I have regular phones and home and work and in meetings I turn all devices off to avoid interruptions. (CNET has a loaner I periodically use.) Thus, a cell phone provides no function there.
- In other words, it doesn't bring radically new functions to my life. It's the same with Blu-ray players. Blu-ray players might provide a crisper picture or more storage capacity on their discs than DVD players, but that doesn't make the plot of Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector any more intriguing. By contrast, digital cameras changed how people take pictures.
- You're tough to find. The other 30 percent of the time I'm commuting or goofing off. I don't really want people to be able to reach me. Without a phone, you don't have to lie about being tied up in traffic. No one can find you anyway.
- A lot of calls are meaningless. Watching other people use cell phones, and being the recipient of lots of cell calls, it has become pretty obvious that a substantial percentage of cell phone calls are just ways to inflict your boredom on someone else. "I'm waiting to get into the parking lot at Trader Joe's. What are you up to? There's a guy driving into the Lucky Penny the wrong way." Just owning one tempts you into it.
- Controls. Dear Samsung: The cancel button is by far and away the best thing you've ever made. Every time I get lost down the rathole of control menus, I just have to hit that button with the red phone on it a few times and I'm back. I tried an iPhone, but it's largely incompatible with my sweaty, tuber-like fingers. (You'll think twice about shaking my hands now, eh?)
The battery lasts forever. If there's any true wonder in a cell phone, it's the battery. I haven't charged this thing in a week and I assume it's still on.
- It has a clock. So much for guessing what time it is.
- Social interaction. If you lived in Italy, Greece, or South Korea and didn't have a cell phone, you would have to sever your arm. People get calls at 11 at night on a regular basis. That does seem sort of fun. Now I just have to get over the reluctance of giving my number out.
Biography
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas. He has worked as an attorney, travel writer and sidewalk hawker for a time share resort, among other occupations.
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There are other reasons to have a cellphone, do the research and report back....
Cart
especially like points 5 & 6. Why would I want to carry a device
that let's people find me when it is convenient for them? And
pay for the privilege? These people either are type A workaholics
or have never worked for one. Given the chance these people
will suck you dry 24-7.
And how true about the pointless conversation. How did people
make it through a grocery store before them? I cannot believe
the constant parade of idiots standing in the aisles phoning
home to see if they buy low fat or non-fat milk. And everyone
feels they need to be in constant contact with someone, like they
all miss their mommies. These things are turning us into a
collective hive mind with an IQ of 50.
necessary.
I conducted my own non-scientific research one day in the mall
whilst waiting for my wife to pick out clothes.
Everyone who was using a cell phone and walking around by
themselves stayed on the phone the entire time I could see
them.
With only one exception, everyone who who was with a group of
peers ended their call walking through the short stretch of mall
that I was observing.
My conclusion: when people are out by themselves, then can
use cell phones to let everyone else know that they have friends.
The above exception was an interesting case. It was a rather
large and very loud boy who was hanging out with a group of
friends. I think in that case the cell phone was a popularity
enhancer. He wasn't showing off for the general public. He was
showing his peers he was popular because he had friends
besides them he wanted to talk to.
Totally unscientific, as I said. Also potentially insulting to the
bazillion or so cell phone users out there. But see if your own
experience doesn't verify the conclusion.
They also now need to purchase a thousand dollars of computer gear - and a few hundred more in software - to print them at home - or have the computer, fast internet connection, online photo firm to upload and have mailed to them to get their print - or go manually to a kiosk to get them printed etc.
Nothing has really changed other than the ability to lose all your photos when your hard drive crashes. 90% never back up their photos. Would not be a problem if they immediately burn their images right to CD after putting them into their PC. I know many people who have taken thousands of images - and not a single backup on CD of any of them.
Course with digital they do take thousands - using statistical averages that they have to get at least 1 good one out of them all.
I went to a Civil War Re-enactment and I used film, my friend used digital. I had taken 28 pictures after 1/2 hour and he had taken 160 in the same time. He asked me why I had not taken more and I repied - I did not need to. The ones I took were right the first time. I work the same way with my digital camera - you don't waste time with quanity of photos - you go for the quality in each frame you take.
Tom Philo
http://www.taphilo.com/
recently did get an inexpensive phone to keep inside my car's glove
compartment for emergencies. AT&T's pay-as-you-go service has
no monthly recurring charge.
"It has a clock. So much for guessing what time it is."
Ever hear of a watch?
Otherwise, for long distance phone calls at home, I use the $30.00 per year Skype-out service. That's cheap enough to call anywhere in the US and Canada, without paying long-distance fees.
I'm also cheap, but I love using the money that I'm saving, on other things that are more important to me.
I don't give my number out to many people and those that I do... gasp... I um don't really want to talk to. Certainly not in the car or on the pot.
And, what the hell is it with people getting their three years a cell phone? I mean really is it really so cool to call another 3 year to talk about diaper rash. Frankly, there parents... well I would just just slap their lips off.
Don't even get me started with twits on the phone while driving. Most of these people haven't mastered driving with both hands and a full attention span let alone one hand and one of their two brain cells being occupied about how cool the new Starbucks down the street is.
Cells phones do one thing really well. It makes unimportant, uninteresting people feel important and interesting. I wonder how many of the calls people take are actually wrong numbers. Really who want to talk with aunt Milly about the corns on her feet?
Robert
After retiring, as everyone started getting cell phones, I realized that the real status symbol is to be free of the rat race. I dumped it and haven't looked back.
--mark d.
but it's not really the same as having a regular cell phone like these annoying SUV-driving, "burger-eating while talking on the cell and driving" jerks yakking about "i don't know, what do YOU want for dinner tonight". i'd like to strangle them all, but that's a different issue i won't get into now.
i bought a prepaid-minutes tracfone. after startup deals and bonus minutes and such i got 80 minutes (units) and the phone for $20. i still have 64 left. i calculated that my estimated annual cost of having this phone will be about $12/month.
and the only time it's on is when i'm not home or at work, which is not often. and only 2 people have the number so far. it's almost like still not having a cell phone, except that in a pinch, i can make a quick call. "my car broke down on main street, come get me, thanks bye." or "the movie ran late i'll be home at 11 o'clock. 'k bye."
best of both worlds.
#5 was the number one reason (also #2 and I now enjoy #1 as
an unintended side effect)
Last year, somebody actually had to *GIVE* me a second hand
StarTAC (built 1996 circa) so that he could reach me, so I can
still plausably claim that I don't own one... I took the trouble to
locate and buy new batteries, as well as a pre-paid card (credit
card size of course).
But guess what ? It's almost always off. Of course, I did not tell
any of my colleagues that I have a cellphone, either (#5 again).
BTW, extracting a neolihtic phone that actually works (well, when
its on...) from your pocket in front of hyper-fashion-conscious,
technology-savvy twentysome milanese can also be fun to
watch...
- Clock
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by sargear
September 19, 2007 3:55 PM PDT
- yes, I agree completely, the clock IS the most useful function in a phone. I've even stopped wearing a watch.
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