The fall of the phone

[Edward]

In the end, it's really up to me to put away my phone, shut down Facebook, stop checking my email and so forth. So I'm very happy to have the opportunity to choose to do that - or not to do it.

And therein lies the rub. I've never understood the sheer levels of hostility expressed by so many towards mobile telephones: seems very much to me that the negative aspects they complain about are actually down to themselves. That little black box cannot possibly force you to answer it unless you choose to..... and so on.

Personally, I'm actually somewhat resentful at still having a landline, but financially and in terms of the available service speeds etc it is the only practical way as of yet for me to have broadband internet access at home. I very much look forward to the day when I can get rid of a landline entirely and go back to just a mobile. Actually, for the first several years I lived in my flat this is what I did, but the lack of home internet was a pain.

 

[Sefton]

I think that much (if not most) of the hostility towards the mobile/cell phone comes from the poor manners exhibited by many of its users. I have to use one for my job and also to keep in touch with my family, but I know when to turn it off. My hostility is reserved for those who don't know when to push the off switch.

 

[Feraud]

Unfortunately those cellphone users never realize they are being obnoxious boors. It is always someone else..

 

[seres]

.... My hostility is reserved for those who don't know when to push the off switch.

I agree completely. We have a cell for emergencies only, and it is turned OFF until we need it.

 

[John in Covina]

What?! Can you repeat that please?

I find that cells phones make people hard to understand in about half of all of the calls I receive. It cuts in and out, people sound like they are underwater, dropped calls. I spent better that 45 minutes on a call last night and 1/3rd of the time I was asking the young lady to repeat what she just said because I could not understand her. Also the mobility of cell phones makes it so people call when they are in high noise places and the extraneous noise makes the call unclear.

Land Line to Land Line calls are much clearer 99% of the time.

 

[Forgotten Man]

I find that cells phones make people hard to understand in about half of all of the calls I receive. It cuts in and out, people sound like they are underwater, dropped calls. I spent better that 45 minutes on a call last night and 1/3rd of the time I was asking the young lady to repeat what she just said because I could not understand her. Also the mobility of cell phones makes it so people call when they are in high noise places and the extraneous noise makes the call unclear.

Land Line to Land Line calls are much clearer 99% of the time.

It depends on their service mostly but, I get tired of dropped calls and poor transmissions... mostly when they're driving and have to use the speaker function... I'm not a fan of speaker phones... I do make special allowances though... but, nothing is clearer then a land line to land line connection!

 

[Lenah]

I have a friend who always says if he could access a time machine he would go back...but as I pointed out we are living in a wondrous time in which we get to pick the pleasures from the past and balance them with some of the practical tools of the day...its a matter of defining how we choose to use the tools to create richer beautiful lives rather than how the 'world' sells them to us.

Agree with your entire post, Miss Jeanavive, but this really sums it up.

I'm attached to my cell, but for all previously stated reasons, but I do wish that there was more styling put into them, like vintage compacts. Steampunkish... something more than slick hard plastic, or glass cases. I know, they're easier to wipe off, etc. But I would like a little more weight, a little more glitz and glam - without tacky, glued on rhinestones. I love my iPhone, but it's too sleek.

For some reason, it reminded me that as a child (early 1960s) I was prohibited from answering the phone or making an outgoing call without permission. So much different than how my daughters are raised, today. John

Same here, again! - But I was raised in the 70s - 90s... Guess my parents were old-fashioned then.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Send me back in time. I mean it.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Send me back in time. I mean it.

fftopic: The problem is, as Ward said to June when she said Wally was growing up too fast because he wanted to learn to drive: "Time marches on." (She replied that it doesn't have to go past her in a speeding car.) So we'd end up back here eventually. I always think of how maybe those great timeless things like courtesy and common sense (and great fashion and phones, etc.) can make a comeback.

Having said that, I spend too much time wishing I was back in time, too!

 

[Sefton]

Unfortunately those cellphone users never realize they are being obnoxious boors. It is always someone else..

Of course!
...

 

[MrBern]

I find that cells phones make people hard to understand in about half of all of the calls I receive. It cuts in and out, people sound like they are underwater, dropped calls. I spent better that 45 minutes on a call last night and 1/3rd of the time I was asking the young lady to repeat what she just said because I could not understand her. Also the mobility of cell phones makes it so people call when they are in high noise places and the extraneous noise makes the call unclear.

Land Line to Land Line calls are much clearer 99% of the time.

And thats the reason why so many kids are texting!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

And thats the reason why so many kids are texting!

RU Seriuz?

 

[Edward]

RU Seriuz?

lol

For the most part, reception I've never had a problem with... if anything, at home my mobile gives a generally much better service than the landline. I do hate the hpone I'm using on the landline at present, though.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

In the local news about FairPoint, our only phone company option:

"According to FairPoint's schedule, between Jan. 23 and Feb. 9, the company will not be able to process orders for new telephone service, transfer service to a new location or add new options to existing service."

So much for reliable land lines! I feel bad for people moving into a new home need a phone!

 

[MrNewportCustom]

. . . why the sky is blue . . .

Because if it was green, we wouldn't know when to stop mowing.

I'm slowly embracing the technology that's available these days. I went years evading cell phone ownership for the very reasons many of you here have, too. But I got one about six months ago and replaced my landline. I do like not having to stay home while waiting for the mechanic to call and tell me my car is ready. I had a photo shoot at a neighbors' house, today, and knew that I wouldn't miss the call. With my cell phone, I can do whatever I want, and I've lost nothing if they don't call.

I no longer view the cell phone as an anchor tied around my neck, enslaving me to my home whenever someone deems it necessary to call me, or missing a call that I'd been waiting for because I wasn't there to anwser it. To me, it's freedom. Freedom to carry on with my life and not miss out on my friends or obligations. And freedom to turn it off if I don't want to be bothered.

Slightly off-topic: I recently bought a GPS, and am amazed at how much stress it saves me because I no longer need to stop to read a map or look at it while at a light, only to realize I've missed my turn. I drive for a living, and the safety it brings me helps my day go a lot more smoothly.


Lee

Oh, and, uh . . . PS: Regarding folks talking on the phone in theaters and restaraunts, remember this quote: "Have you ever noticed that those who have the least to say will always say it the loudest?"

 

[PrettySquareGal]

And then there's the possibility of bankruptcy of some landline services:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/01/23/ap5956517.html

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

I'm attached to my cell, but for all previously stated reasons, but I do wish that there was more styling put into them, like vintage compacts. Steampunkish... something more than slick hard plastic, or glass cases. I know, they're easier to wipe off, etc. But I would like a little more weight, a little more glitz and glam - without tacky, glued on rhinestones. I love my iPhone, but it's too sleek.

I like very sleek, modern-looking phones, but something fancier would also be nice. Something like a thin rectangular compact case, engraved or enameled with elegant designs.

You could probably get it custom-done, come to think of it - but you'd pay an arm and a leg.

 

[Leading Edge]

Sociological Shift/Cultural Change

My interest in the telephone stems from my father's first "real" (as in could support his growing family's needs) job with the then Bell Telephone Company. In those days, hiring a "Black" man for anything, but the most menial of jobs was rare even for Northern United States. The promise of opportunity kept my father enthusiastic for a long time until he accepted the unavoidable realization that society would have to change drastically before his talents would be rewarded. In that time, however, he brought home and shared with me his enthusiasm as well as fascination and love of the telephone.

Having said all that, I have often considered the telephone as well as it current mobile innovations in light of its role as an initiator of sociological shifts as well as an artifact of cultural change. Surely other FLers have been as bemused and amused as I to notice how a society that at one point in time had to be trained to recall seven-digits by the use of key word names tied to some salient aspect of the local location of those numbers and later trained to remember ten digit numbers signifying the state location has come full circle to unable to remember a number because "it's in my phone's memory."

Even more interesting is how a this invention has grown from keeping families and business in communication to creating like-minded networks of people who share common interests. That that also often means useless chatter about trivia is indicative of how much humans crave what I would call safe companionship.

Once, large issues such as wars, policies, and the human condition gave rise to movements. Now, it seems to me the gadgets with telephone in the lead are creating the same type of cultural change. Case in point: changes in language. I teach English in an urban high school and have done so long enough to have witnessed the on-going evolution of linguistic expression. This is the first I have seen written communication not only change, but change quickly. Who among us is not familiar with OMG, BFF, or IIRC? (Not being even an affiliate member of the texting generation means I have to keep a tab to the AcronymFinder available even to understand some of the posts here!)

I am curious to know other FL thoughts on the impact of the changes in the telephone on society and culture.

 

[Schofields]

i hardly use my cell phone; my fiancee just wants me to have one "for emergencies". luckily mine has a really vintage ring tone on it, so its a bit tolerable...

 

[yobbos1]

I was actually the first person I knew to have a cell phone and also the last to still own a rotary dial phone. Sadly the rotary dial is gone now and the cell...well I still own one but it is almost never turned on. Hell, if I wanna talk to someone I'll call THEM. I agree about cell phone manners, I'm a phone-rage incident waiting to happen. If I have one more meal or movie spoiled by some idiot hollering on his stupid phone...:rage: