FOR PEOPLE 30 and OVER: Are you better off and/or happier carrying a cell phone?

Question

People 30 and over remember a time when cell phones were not a common device that people carried around with them. We actually functioned quite well without being able to be communicated with 24/7. My question is, having experienced both sides of the issue, which made (or makes) you happier or better off: cell phones or no cell phones?

Answer 1

I actually had one of the first cell phones and they were huge!  I stopped carrying and using a cell phone because I just didn't like people having access to me everywhere I went at all hours of the day and night.  I don't miss it at all, but haven't yet found myself in an emergency situation where it would probably be  a life saver.

Answer 2

No cell phone.  I got rid of mine two years ago, and I don't miss it one bit. It's ridiculous to see all these people yakking on cell phones all over the place, especially in cars and in restaurants.  Even in churches sometimes!  

Truth be told...MOST people, despite their rationale, don't really have a need to be "plugged in" or "on call" like that...they just have the phones, beepers, blackberries, etc, just so they can feel "important."

Example?

I was watching 20/20 a few years ago where they interviewed a woman with a gift wrapping business who keeps her cell phone on 24/7 to be "accesible."  Well, this woman had been kicked out of her local post office, two starbucks and uninvited to a wedding...all because she refused to turn her cell phone off!  When the reporter asked her, "don't you think you're being rude?" the woman replied..."well, if you were one of my customers, you wouldn't think I was rude."   If you ask me, that woman needed to get some perspective...it's not like she's a diplomat or a leader of a head of state. She's not trying to solve some pressing national security issue like ending the war or stopping global warming. She only has a run-of-the-mill gift-wrapping business.

Answer 3

Honestly - I forget I have it half the time. I don't really use it all that often. I swear I spend more time charging it than I do talking on it.