Cell phones: Is a day of reckoning coming?

I don't know. $2.50 beers with a crab omelet at 9 a.m. with college football on the TV was a pretty awesome life experience.

 

Why have a cellphone at all if it isn't either with you or on?

My mom has a very old cellphone. It doesn't always ring, and she doesn't always get voicemail promptly. When my grandmother was being taken to the ER a couple of years ago, I'm the one who got the caregiver's call because my mom couldn't be reached. I finally found her -- a panicked hour or so later -- by e-mailing the smartphone-owning friend with whom she was at dinner.

I'm still fighting the accessibility addiction, particularly with the company phone. I hope I'm still present while with other people... but it quickly became a struggle. On my next vacation, I'm throwing the darn thing out the window. Or at least deleting the work e-mail account.

 

If I am waiting in line for something, I normally will start tapping on my phone. If my daughter and I are waiting in a line that is more than five minutes at an amusement park, which we go to a lot, I will hand her the phone and she will watch Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse on Youtube.

Most times it will be put away if I am with someone. If I am at dinner I will give it a glance about once every half hour to see if I missed a text or a call because I keep it on silent when I am at home or doing something.

I also hate voice mails because I feel the need to listen to it. I tell my wife to never leave a message that is an emergency, like daughter in hospital. Text it. I can look at a text in two seconds, but there are meetings where I cannot pull up a voice mail.

And for traffic, weather, directions, shopping and photo taking, a smartphone is very valuable.

 

That's what I've always said.

But if something interesting is happening, instead of soaking it in, dozens of people will be taking out their phones and shooting video of it . . . so they can "experience" a shitty view of it later.

That happens and is a fine point. But as has been pointed out earlier . . . so what? YOU were the one who was panicked --- your mom was enjoying her dinner. Nothing affected your grandmother's care . . . only whether your mom heard the news at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. --- and that really doesn't make any difference. It really doesn't. Accepting that, or not, is where the bridge seems to be.

 

I'm with Az in the Az-Sonner debate. (Shocking, I know, although I think that it's admirable that Sonner is at least taking the unpopular stance and being unapologetic about it.)

Even though I probably act like Sonner more often than I like to, when it comes to this. (Shocking, also, I know.)

Yeah, I think the Nats score can wait. Or the White Sox score, for me, as it were. I love when my wife and I watch a movie on a Friday or Saturday night, then I wake up in the morning and the entire newspaper is news to me.

"Hey, R.A. Dickey won his 18th!"

"Hey, Clinton killed!"

"Hey, big night for Tony Romo!"

This thread is truly inspiring me to make an effort to be more present, as someone put it earlier, at all times. I think the current news and social cycle just kind of snuck up on us, and now it's time to push back.

And, to be sure, I'm not lecturing from some lofty place. When I lost my phone, I did the same thing IJAG did - raced to Best Buy within five minutes. I was like crack fiend.

 

If my daughter is hurt, and I don't know ASAP, my rage at either myself or others will be massive. In this day and age, you are expected to be connected to others.

 

I take my phone everywhere, too. But it rarely gets used. Fine by me.

 

Who says I'm taking the unpopular stance? Maybe unpopular to you. Or Az. Or a few others on this thread. But like I said, I rarely, if ever, run into this issue when I'm out and about, especially at dinner. Hardly ever. I can't remember the last time someone got irritated that I took 20 seconds to check a text or email or score.

I think a lot of people here are either A. Not realizing that there's a big difference between a quick check and being buried in your phone at all times or B. Very easily irritated old people.

 

I certainly get annoyed when people can't be reached - and it's usually either my mother or mother-in-law.

The emergency thing is actually a really good reason to carry a cell phone, and check it. As I acknowledged earlier, having children means I'll never leave home without it.

On the other hand, this has a tendency to become the Columbine Excuse for cell phone overuse. It should be capitalized it's used so much by, in this case, high schoolers who battle tooth and nail to be able to carry their distracting little devices at school. And they almost invariably invoke Columbine: "What if Columbine happened here? It's a safety necessity!"

 

Christ almighty, that's what I meant. Yes.

Must you always be so argumentative about EVERY. LITTLE. THING?

 

Nope. You're confusing me with about 985847467464 other people around these parts.

 

The difference is I can reasonably anticipate which portions of a post might trigger other people.

You always surprise me.