Gentlemen,

An AT&T commercial - boasting about how thanks to them everyone can be constantly connected to the central office, their data stores, and the consciousness of the others in their group. No matter where you are, you can draw on the resources of the collective to help giude your decisions, actions, existence. You need no longer suffer independence of thought, no matter how remote your location.

Then in the general press one regularly reads commentary on how people no longer go anywhere without their cellphones, PDA's, or what have you - they feel naked without it. Going to the corner store for milk - don't forget your cell.

Perhaps there will be no need to be assimilated - sometimes it sounds like we're becoming the Borg ourselves.

 

You're right. I feel naked now without my cell. It does come in handy though, and I love catching up on scores and news on it when I'm bored at work.

 

I'm going to crush my cell phone, shut off my computer, shoot my television, and hide in the woods. Come find me if something really important happens.

 

i've got a tracfone. laugh if you will. you couldn't pay me to take an i-phone, i-pod, att internet card, on star, etc. nothing against the companies, but i hate to be tied to the contract type deal. i'll pay as i use it. i want 3 hrs of talk time i'll buy a card at radio shack. i never get that "overage" bill at the end of a month.

 

I rarely use my cell phone. Basically, it's my ride home if my vehicle craps out. Of course, I rarely use land lines either. I'm completely at a loss as to who everyone is yakking with all day long!

 

My neighbor and his buddies are constantly "Texting" each other on their cell phones. What's with that? It's certainly much quicker to call and verbally say "hi", "goodbye" or "KMA" .... yet away they go... typing like a little madman on that stupid tiny board. And to top it off...ya gotta hit some numbers three times just to get to the right letter!

Borg?

We'd be fortunate if we were as "collectively" intelligent as the Borg. I'm afraid we still have a long way to go. And the distance seems to be increasing!!! ROFL.

 

We also have those snazzy little bluetooth ear thingies that make people look really stupid while they seem to walk around talking to themselves.And, honestly, how important is a 10 year old that they need a cell phone? Heck , I've got two of those things (1 for work and my personal one) and I hate the things. I just haven't figured out the fascination with talking to someone on the phone for 15 hours a day.

Gene

 

i hate cellular phones!! just another waste of money, i thought beepers were pleanty good back in the day.. but i wouldnt own one of them either.. everyone just wants to think they are important enough to need one. dont know how we must have survived before then.. if people were so gawd damn last minute.. they wouldnt need to be called at the grocery store and told to pick up somthing they should get.. they should have a damn list before they go to prevent impulse shopping.. its sad to see america the way its going... its the "throw it away and buy a new one" life style... cell phones are just another thing to throw away and get a new one..

Ray

 

I have a cell phone that mostly collects dust. I keep it as a "backup" in case I break down, mostly. My house phone rarely gets much use either. The computer gets used pretty much daily, but if I had to, I suppose I could live without it. Same goes with the cell phone, too.

 

The world is changing ........

 

I only hope Captain Picard can come back through time to save us.

 

Come,now, gentlemen! I wonder how many of you don't have a microwave oven. Do you not have a VCR? Or (gasp) a DVD player? Is there any one of you without a regular telephone? Certainly you don't have an answering machine, right? What I know you DO have is a computer. And an internet connection. It won't be long before land lines are a thing of the past. You'll only have a cell phone. Or no phone at all. Deal with it. They have had to drag me kicking and screaming into the 20th century..you can do this. Just relax and it will all be over before you know it. Then the healing can begin.

 

At what point do these devices that help us stay "connected" lead to a total loss of privacy? Phones that let you track your friends, and OnStar for that matter, are like kryptonite for those of use who value our privacy! (Getting weaker! Must return to fortress of solitude... )

 

Yes, but it has never been changing at anythng near the current rate of change before. This is not just curmudegonly resistance speaking. Take something old like Paris, for example:

- 200 BC celtic tribes settle in Paris, the first permanent inhabitants known to us. It takes over 2,000 years, until ~1850, for the population to hit 1-million. Then just 150 years, today, to balloon to 10-million.

- in 200BC, people travelled by horse and wagon, communicated by the spoken word and written words on paper or tablet, evening light was from oil lamps or candles, winter warmth was from wood fires and stoves, society was basically agrarian. 2,000 years later in ~1850, every one of those were still true even in a big city like Paris. Oh, the wagons were a little more fancy. Steam trains and ships were the pinnacle of advancement. But we hadn't even invented radio or the electric light bulb yet. But just 150 years later, we drive cars that'll do 200mph, we've been to the moon, we fly around in jets. We communicate electronically, and by television, radio, internet, records, tapes, CDs, DVDs, Blue Ray. We take electric light for granted as if it were something that's been around forever - there are people alive today even here in the west who've known "home" without electricity because it's only so recently become widely available. And western societies are urban post-industrial, agrarian seems a distant memory even though it was still true in the youth of many people in retirement homes.

Because we're born into now, we take it for granted. It's only when you step back and look that you realize that the current pace of change is a highly unique and recent thing in the context of man's history. It's only been like this for a few generations now. There's not been time, yet, to really know if we're managing it well or not.

 

Maybe I'm cave man of sorts, I have no need for a 'cell'. A radio I can handle. My home phone has voice mail if nobody is home. I write letters. Is it because some people can't write, or don't know how to spell ? Maybe this Oregon Webfoot transplanted to the hills of East Tennessee has turned into a real hillbilly. We have seen deer and turkeys in the yard - and skunks visit us just after dark - bats fly above the barn each evening just after sundown. It's peaceful here and we like it that way. Some people NEED the "latest thing" to be cool. Personally, I don't need "The Bill".