Giving up your phone

Never. And I lived for a spell in the I.E., where the Santa Anas are pretty fierce. My cable Internet would go out occasionally, but never the satellite TV.

 

@Bodie, I don't see how a single person could forgo a cel, would hate to be dating with no phone service.

 

Rhetorical question: Do you think your opinion will change when your kids start driving?

 

Back when I was in journalism, there's no way I would have gone anywhere without my cell phone. All of the area coaches had that number to reach me at, since I was frequently out covering games. They would call that number first and my office number second.

Now that I'm out of journalism, I still don't think I could go without my phone. It's my lifeline. I use it to sync all of my calendar stuff (which, right now is sadly very empty, as I don't have a job). Plus, as someone who lives in Tornado Alley, the ability to get instantaneous weather is extremely important. I have the Weather Channel text message me alerts, I have the emergency alert feature set up and I have the Weather Channel and Weather Underground apps. I have had an experience in the past where I was in a tornado warning and had no power to my apartment complex, so I was having to monitor the radar from the Weather Channel app. Had that happened 10 years ago, I have no idea what I would have done except cower in my bathroom and wait until the sirens stopped.

 

If you're too cool for the smartphone crowd you can still stay connected without the bells and whistles with a Trac phone. It's pay as you go. I can't imagine anyone whose relatively normal being cut off completely.

 

That's a good question ... again, I understand the reasons to have a cell phone in an emergency situation. I'm sure by then my daughter will have one.

And someone mentioned a Trac phone; that's what my wife and 14 year old have. It's pre-pay instead of an unlimited plan, and while you can text with it, there's no internet. Much easier to monitor internet use for kids when they have to use the home computer, which is in our family room.

 

I've had DirecTV reception through a hurricane (until the wind blew the dish off its mountings).

And twice in the past week it lost a signal during a simple rain. Froze up last week just as LeBron had the ball on the final play of Heat-Pacers Game 1.

 

Didn't have a cell phone for years after everyone else got one. Had an old car phone, which was handy if things went haywire while on the road.

Wouldn't miss it much if it weren't for the fact that it loads music (though I didn't get one with enough MBs for my collection). Not sure I want to do without for serious emergencies ...

 

Traffic apps can save you a lot of time as well. I forgot that one.

 

As many nuisance calls as I get, I wish I could. I'm not sure if that's possible, unless I was in an office with a phone 16 hours per day. But all the sales calls get annoying.

 

I have a dumbphone. I'm unemployed. My phone is four years old. I have a $5 a month plan for unlimited minutes and texts because my wife works for TMobile. I never use the thing.

My wife got an iPhone two years ago, and I haven't had a conversation longer than two minutes since.

 

What I hate the most about myself is the checking of the phone when you have stepped away for the smallest about of time. I am literally guilty of taking 60-90 seconds to walk to the mailbox or get something off the back porch or get something I left in my truck, and the first thing I do when I get back inside is check my phone to see if I have missed a call or text.