Cell Phones

[Irongrinder]

Good thing: emergencies, minor forgotten things and I also use it as an alarmclock now and then. Ofcourse also the connection with others, the easy way of contacting.

Bad things: Got a lazy mind, now I don't remember a single phone number because I only look them up in the attached phonebook and select them right away
I hate being called while standing in a shop or being very busy and the person on the other line is a little to eager to ask questions. I also have a friend who when he calls me says so many times "uh uh" that his whole call of 10 minutes could have been done in 30 seconds.

I myself use it for work as the mobile phones is the network we use to make appointments and deal with working times for in the nightclub, but I could ofcourse do without one. Oh well, luxuery

[johnny]

One thing that's really annoying are those people who have a really loud ringtone, or with a stupid melody that wakes up an entire neighbourhood. I have 4 (don't ask) cellphones, but i only use two of them. You can also shut down the ringtone, and activate the buzzer, that way the phone only vibrates and nobody will hear it.

[Link]

I never activate a ringtone, always keep to the buzzing. I really hate sitting in the train and you hear hundreds of ringtones.. AARGH!!!

[Irongrinder]

Originally posted by johnny: One thing that's really annoying are those people who have a really loud ringtone, or with a stupid melody that wakes up an entire neighbourhood. I have 4 (don't ask) cellphones, but i only use two of them. You can also shut down the ringtone, and activate the buzzer, that way the phone only vibrates and nobody will hear it.

I never use a ringtone mainly because of the reason you just gave as well. I always have it on buzzer, prefer it. Otherwise it always atracts so much attention when it rings.

One time I had a really good laugh, somewhere at the start of the cellphones and guy thought he wanted to look good, so he stood on the middle of a little shopping center talking through the phone, atleast everyone thought, untill his phone rang for reall. Suddenly he looked awefully a lot like a tomato when he turned red

[Epona]

Practically everyone here has one.
I have a phone line at home, but I use it for the internet and stay connected most of the day, so my mobile is my main method of phone communication.

Personally I love it. I am contactable whenever I want to be, and when I don't want to be contacted the solution is simple - it has an off button

The only bad thing about it, is that mobile phones have damaged people's punctuality. If you're meeting someone you can ring even up to the last minute to say you're going to be late, and it's just not good enough! Punctuality is important!

I don't know how I managed without one, and feel lost without it now. I've had it for 6 years.

[Jorath Calar]

I have one and kind of hate it... I always keep it on silent because I go to classes at a university and nothing is more annoying than gettin a phonecall in class...

[Vaskez]

I don't see how a mobile phone can be bad in any way... I mean if you don't wanna take a call, you press cancel and it goes to your voice mail or you simply turn your phone off when you don't want to be disturbed. Otherwise you just leave it on and take/make calls and send/receive texts. Very useful and I seriously don't see any downside to having one. If you're like me and just like to have one to mainly receive texts and calls then you can go on a pay as you talk package which has no service charge and then you end up paying text to nothing for your service. Total thumbs up

[Sir Krustin]

I've used a cellphone for years, I don't even have a landline anymore. (My internet is cable). I'm never home anyways, and I don't have to wait at home if I'm expecting a call. If I don't want to be disturbed (at the tellers in a bank or something) I either just don't answer it or turn the ringer off. (Incidentally, I keep the ringer at a discreet level and use an unusual ringtone - no buzzer on this particular model.

A couple of thoughts, get digital not analog (analogs pretty much on the way out, but it's still possible to get). Digital is the only way to get call display and text messaging, it's usually much cheaper as well. It's also usually billable by-the-second, as opposed to by-the-minute. You'd be surpised how far 100 minutes can go when you only get billed 5 seconds for a call instead of a full minute.

If you don't plan on using it much, but do intend to use it at all (other than emergencies, that is) get a plan and sign a contract for a particular range of minutes you expect to use it. You get the best rates, and usually a discount on the purchase of the phone when you sign a contract. (You typically have 60 days to decide whether or not you want a contract).

Prepay is a good way to go if you can't control your gabbing (impossible to go over budget) but the rates are usually double that of a contract, so monthly plans are defnitely cheaper. You also usually get perks like text messaging, call display, and message center included with a plan.

Hope this helps.

[harleyquinn]

If you only want the phone for emergencies, you can purchase rather cheaply phones with prepaid minutes or service from one of the major providers for something like $10/month where you only get 5 or 15 minutes/month, but it's designed for people to use for emergencies. Trust me, when you have a breakdown in the middle of a country road, where there's no payphones, and it's the middle of the day so no one's in there house to let you borrow their phone, you'll be glad you have it.

[Lanesra]

Most people I know own a mobile, they've become the must have personal item over here, I'd certainly miss mine if I didn't have it. I can also contact sue on hers if she's late , which stops me worrying. As for the annoyance of other people using them in public, I think most of us are annoyed that we can't hear the other side of the conversation. if it was two people talking we wouldn't give a monkeys.