Nope! I Don't Own a Cell Phone!

I couldn't agree with you more. I've never had a cell phone and have never found a single situation where I would need one. They are annoying and expensive. One guy I work with just bought one that has a mini-keyboard, 2 screens, a camera, plays videos, recieves e-mails, and so on. I found this ironic because we're both computer technicians, so unless your driving and want to wreck, or at the beach and want to be bothered, when would you really need all that when your around computers all day? Not to mention he payed some $240 for it, plus the plan. Not to mention everytime he receives an e-mail or is sent a video he has to pay extra to view it.

I admit, I feel pressured to get a cell phone occasionally, simply because everyone else has one and there's constant ad pressure. I think I might actually see more cell phone ads than vehicle ads. But then I think, well if I got one, when would I use it? How much money would I be wasting every month? How much of my freedom and solitude would be taken away? And the urge quickly vanishes.

More power to you! I'm a member of generation Y, and I hate the stupid things. I get the same responses too when they find out I don't have one. Makes me want to scream.

I think the previous poster should start charging interest. I think people who take a call in the middle of a face to face conversation should pay a fine to me. I think the vast majority of people talking on a call phone at this precise moment really have nothing to day. I think funny ringtones are fine if you are a load. Just turn them off in public because nobody wants to hear it. Especially in the office or other tight places. I think people on cell phones talk like people with headphones on. They talk but don't really listen. They only want to hear themselves talk. It is called self importance.

If you need me this weekend I will be out. Leave a message. Life is calling me.

I, too, hate cell phones and find them disruptive. I like looking at things when I ride the bus, or take a walk, or drive. I like paying full attention to the people around me, and having uninterrupted conversations. And you're so right about the plan aspect of it! I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and I think there's something weird about people not being able to just say "I'll meet you at X place at Y time," and then just doing that. I sound incredibly old, but back then, we knew who our real friends were; they were people who kept their word and showed up even though hours and even days had elapsed since the appointment was set. Poor kids these days, they must feel so unimportant and insecure. Ehhh...get off my lawn! But I digress. Okay, I admit I recently got one, but it's left at home 90% of the time, and it's got the cheapest plan: 10$/month/ 25 cents a minute. In other words, there's no incentive to use it. My husband and I got it only for travel. The thing that pushed us (finally) over the edge was trying to get to Manhattan from JFK, and having to run to the payphone to ask where the hell our town car was, then while on hold, our car kept getting snagged. Anyway, I would say it's also for emergencies, but, really? I lived four decades going on road trips, on overseas journeys, and walking down the not always safe streets of major American cities...with no cell phone! How ever did I survive? Common sense.

To my mind, cell phones are the quintessential example of our over-technologized society. I'm 34 years old, highly educated, and I have no intention of ever investing in a device that creates brain tumors and (as a previous poster said so eloquently) keeps me on a constant communication leash.

I enjoy technology as much if not more than the average person; however, devices such as cell phones, PDAs, blackberries, etc., establish an unhealthy human dependence on electronics.

Detractors like us will always be criticized, questioned, and even ridiculed for our hatred of cell phones. It’s a simple principle: many people refuse to follow trends and to succumb to peer-pressure simply for the sake of being absorbed into the collective crowd.

Jeez, I thought I was the only one on the planet that didn't own one. I live in Japan where probably 99 percent of people my age have one. All my friends think I'm strange for not having one. Some people think I'm joking, like I have one but I don't want to give my number out or something, Hillarious! One guy was always kind of suspicious,that I had one on the sly. When I had something come up and needed to make a call, he looked at me and my bag just to see if I'd pull it out, but I said, hey can I use your phone for a second, after that he believed it. When people ask why I always say "I don't like to be interupted when I'm daydreaming.!"

Argueably there are some valid concerns my parents have brought up, I'm sure we've all heard them.
What if there is an emergency, someone in the hospital etc?
and of course if your applying for jobs atleast here you need to put your cell phone on the resume. Otherwise
it would look weird and if they called you at home and you didn't answer they might not leave a message.
Oh the last, it reduces the abilty to network branch out with people. If you are meeting someone in a busy
place and they are late or you get lost from each other, then it's hard to find them. I'm always searching for
pay phone when this happens and I hate touching my face to those germ invested montrositys.

Sure there are reasons not to have them in my life outweigh the concerns I mentioned above.

I also have never owned a cell phone. As a 27-year old computer geek, people look at me funny when I tell them. I'm honest though, I just say I don't want people bothering me 24/7. If you need to contact me, leave a message on my home answering machine or write me an email.
It troubles me that the availability of public phones has dwindled rapidly with the rise of the cell phone. It used to cost less than a dollar to make an emergency come-get-me call, now it's a 2-year contract for a cell phone. Too bad there's no phone booths left, they'd make great places to hold a cell phone call.

I hate cell phones, I grew up without one and I do not need one now. I think it funny how people say I can’t live without my cell I wonder how they think life was like before the cell phone. It is so sad to see people answer their phone in the middle of an entrance of a store blocking everyone’s way and not even caring. Cell phone are bad because it gives people a delusion of self importance.

Oh, and when my Mom told me to get a cell, I just said "Did you have one when you were a kid?" her: "No." Me:"You're still alive." her: pwned.

I'm sick of sharing the streets, sidewalks, restaurants, elevators (and parks, too!) with jabbering cell phone users. Must these people be plugged in 24/7? Why? To what end? They choke the aisles of my grocery store ("Hello, babe. Hey, what brand of dental floss do we use?"), they delay me at the checkout because they simply can't SHUT UP even as the poor cashier is waiting to be paid, they transform my every bus and train commute into an interminable chatterfest. Oh, and if there are any fellow movie-lovers out there, please answer me this: Is there anything more annoying than to be seated four or five rows behind someone who just can't resist checking their phone and filling the theater with their POISONOUS BLUE GLARE every five minutes???

I got rid of it last year. The only times that it is a bother to not have one is when someone says, "Geez, I wish you had a cell phone. How will I know when you're on your way over?" Um, because I'll be there when I said I will be there? I get annoyed at how connected everyone has to be but I guess it shouldn't matter too much. I want no part of it myself, though. I like to read a book on the bus, play with my son at a park, enjoy dinner with my wife, et cetera, without a beep or vibration or lousy-sounding Country song interrupting us.

"We" are getting harder and harder to come by. It seems that some cell phone users think "we" are arrogant, out of touch or self-righteous. I don't think I'm better than everyone else but I value time to myself and un-interrupted time with others and I won't give those things up. I'm quite computer-savvy and know all about Blackberry's and whatnot. People assume I'm a Luddite. Nope. I just like quality time, beit by myself or with others. (And I like saving money, too.)

Thanks for this post.

Hear, hear! I agree wholeheartedly and have thought the same on (almost) all counts. It is refreshing to still occasionally hear the voice of reason!

I just wish this were printed on the front page of the NY Times (or similar) where even more may see it. Rest assured, I'll be excerpting and forwarding and referring others to this article in the future.

However, though true and all valid concerns, my biggest problem with the whole cell phone phenomenon is not so much the various annoyances, lack of privacy, freedom, behavioral changes or other issues mentioned by Brian or subsequent commenters, it is the fact that it is quickly becoming not a matter of personal choice whether one has a cell phone. (Just notice the posts here from all those that "hate cell phones", "don't like cell phones", "don't want a cell phones" but have a cell phone.) In those few rare emergencies that I need a telephone when away from home or work, I'd be perfectly happy to use a payphone ..if there were one available.

My car recently broke down, not on a dark, desolate country road but in the parking lot of a large suburban shopping center. I walked to several retail stores, a theater, a few restaurants, etc. looking for a pay phone in the obvious places (in the lobby, near the restrooms, etc) but found none. Asking staff for the location of the payphone, I only received odd looks and strange reactions.

Often there were bystanders willing —actually anxious— to offer the use of their cell phone but, as much as I appreciated their help and kindness, in addition to making me feel hypocritical and cheap using their cell phone because I don't have my own, to me, it further demonstrated the problem, the backwardness and collapse of infrastructure. To build an infrastructure is progress. To systematically disassemble an already existing, functional infrastructure is not.

Obviously, it must be far more expensive for all involved to remove already installed, up-to-date, functioning pay phones than to do nothing at all. The only motivation and reason must be to force people to have to have cell phones, pay more expensive rates to make already huge companies even richer.

How was this allowed to happen? Perhaps, the same way so many cities paid millions to disassemble and remove perfectly functioning streetcar systems in order to sell more gas, oil, rubber, and automobiles.

Should there not be some sort of government intervention?

I'm sure it's not too late to do something about this. Is this not a Monopoly/Antitrust issue?