Small story: I was once asked to look up a few phone numbers of people who were absent at a group meeting. Upon returning, I got asked, "Why didn't you call them?" After explaining the situation, I got asked, "You don't have a cellphone? What's wrong with you?"
Now, I recently inherited a cellphone. I've never owned one up to this point, and never saw the point. I dislike the idea that people can talk to me all the time - I like my privacy, and I don't like getting phonecalls.
-That's why I shut mine off sometimes. I use the excuse of "The battery was getting low so I was trying to save some battery life" when people ask why I didn't answer. Cell phones are so much better than land line. They aren't posted in the phone book nor on whitepages.com so sales people can't call you up out of the blue. No one calls you on them if you don't give them your number (unless it's a wrong number call). You can shut them off or put your ring tone on silent so it can't disturb you. You can put voice mail on it so people can leave you messages, even when it's shut off. Like you said, they are handy in emergencies. I like being able to text people instead of calling them sometimes because sometimes, I need to remember something they said like a phone number or address. When they text it to me, I can save it and go back to it anytime I need to without having to have them give me the info slowly and carefully while I attempt to jot it down on paper. When someone calls you, you have their number in your "recieved" folder or if you miss the call it goes in the "missed" folder and can save it (as long as they haven't blocked their number from showing up). They are just super handy things. I just wish the cell phone companies would put up more towers so there would be fewer "dead spots". The only thing I hate about cell phones is getting cut off because I or the other person has moved out of range or has run into too much interference. Besides, I'm a gadget junkie who grew up watching sci fi shows like Star Trek and dreamed of having hand-held communicators like that. Back when I was a kid, the closest thing there was to a cell phone was those huge back-pack like things the military had in the Vietnam Conflict. There were no little, inexpensive ones for civilians to use yet. The first cell phone I had was one of those Motorola bag phones that was so big, I just left it in the car all the time. I also had to hook it up to an external antenna that stuck on the roof just to get a signal since we lived in a small town that was a long way away from the nearest cell tower. You young whippersnappers don't know how good you've got it. Yeah, I'm That old.
