Mobile phone rant!

[Flo]

Mobile phones are not essential to daily living. As I have found out over the last four years. Yes there is one in the cupboard for emergencies - like the electricity going off which stops the other phone as it's cordless. Used once in the past year. I carry a decent point and shoot digital camera in the handbag instead.

I used to carry one for work many moons ago as it was a secure line to the boss when discussing financial matters. Can't see the appeal of the things myself.

[Daveswife]

I don't have a mobile phone. Not that this is a matter of principle, just that I do not anticipate the need for one.

They cost money, there is a carbon-footprint implication in their manufacture and disposal, and like many perceived necessities, a moble phone isn't one as far as I am concerned at the moment.

But whether you have one or not, isn't it annoying in a pub when someone is on their phone and everyone can hear what they are saying. Or on the train. And this morning there is a meeting in the conference room and one guy came out to take a call and sat in our kitchen/photocopying room for about half an hour and frowned at anyone who came in and made a noise - coffee cup clunking, for example. Very rude.

I have countered your rant with one of my own!

Apparently there are millions of pounds wasted because folk have the wrong mobile contract for their requirements and are paying for something they don't need. Better still, save all that money and manage without one.

But before you think, she's a silly sausage, we don't have a washing machine or a computer at home either and still use a video recorder. Dinosaurs, eh?!

[Shirleymouse]

On the subject of technology I don't have, I don't have a DVD player (laptop is fine for that!) or a microwave (no space) although it occurred to me yesterday when I was reheating leftovers in 2 saucepans on the hob that a microwave would prob use a lot less power so I'm looking into it..!

Anyway, what annoys me most with mobiles is when you are in the pub with a friend who keeps texting during your conversation - how rude!! A good use for a mobile however, it when alone in the pub (e.g. if friend has gone to the loo - I don't generally go the pubs alone!) at least you can use it to look busy instead of looking like you've been stood up!

[citizentwiglet]

I've got a mobile - it was given to me from a friend who couldn't believe I didn't have a mobile. It's a Motorola Pebl, which is a clam shell type. I think I've put about £20.00 on it in the past year.....I use it mostly as an alarm clock. Actually, I take it with me to the community garden, as I'm a basic First Aider, and there's no phone on site. I'm also aware that I have a medical condition that means I could collapse at pretty much any time, so the phone is there for 'them' to be able to contact my OH if they need to......

I completely agree about the wastage. A lot of the phones get shipped over to the Third World, where you get really small children working on rubbish tips burning the phones (and 'trashed' computers) to get to the bits of copper and other fragments of 'precious' materials that can net them enough money a day to buy a bottle of water.

WTF do you need a mobile phone to do, exactly? As long as mine can take and receive calls, it's doing it's job, as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't need to direct me to the chippy, tell me the news, give me my horoscope or take my photo. It's a bloody PHONE.

What do you need all these fancy bells and whistles for? It's one area of consumer technology I will never understand, to be honest.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like that CT! My problem is that if you collapsed in front of me, I wouldn't have a clue how to use your mobile phone to contact anybody.......I can barely remember how mine works.

[Thomzo]

Hi my name is Zoe and I LIKE my mobile phone. It's a clam shell, about 4 years old and I will be replacing it as soon as I can be bothered and yes, I would like an iPhone. There I've said it, now I'm going to run and hide before I get beaten up by the rest of you technophobes.

Zoe

[Odsox]

Hooray someone on here that actually LIKES a mobile phone .. thanks Zoe.
I also like my mobile but I don't particularly lust after an iPhone as it's too big for my pocket ... but I do have an iPod.
Of course it is my ONLY phone (no landline) so that might make a difference, but I still think it's one of the best things invented.

It is also a comfort to know that whatever happens to me, help is in my pocket. My fairly young single lady farmer neighbour had a bleeding duodenal ulcer and collapsed in one of her fields. She told me that after lying there for some time she realised that if she didn't get up she was going to die there, and had to CRAWL across three fields to get to her house to use the phone to summon help.
It took her two years to totally recover, but I'm pretty sure she still doesn't have a mobile phone.

[fifi folle]

Extreme example Tony but it does illustrate that at times having a mobile is useful. There was a bloke on a TV programme recently that had fallen half way down a cliff and was hanging on to a tree to stop himself falling further and he got himself rescued by calling the emergency services from his mobile. What would have happened if he hadn't had a mobile?
I got my first one in 1997 when I passed my driving test and was a young, single female driver, it lived in my handbag but was never used. Over the years I have replaced the phone when I've managed to drown them, smash them, lose them etc but still only use it occasionally. When I most recently had to replace the handset I'd managed to crack the screen of, the guy in the shop could hardly believe I spend less than £5 per month on it. It does annoy me though when you're with someone in a pub/cafe though and they are continually checking their phone or texting, it's just rude!

[oldfella]

Whats a mobile phone? mine just sits in the corner and never moves except of course when I pick up, but as for being mobile, I've never seen it move on its own

[Odsox]

Yeah, you're right, they're not mobile at all on their own, are they ?
We ought to call them SELL phones (to get back onto topic)

[Millymollymandy]

They might be mobile when they vibrate.

[Thomzo]

They might be mobile when they vibrate.

Mine sure is. If it starts vibrating it'll jump right off the table if I don't catch it quick.

By the way, ladies, the mechanism that makes them vibrate is exactly the same one used in a certain adult toy!!!!

Think I need to start a 101 uses for a mobile phone thread

Zoe

[kit-e-kate]

My Brother used to have a useless old mobile phone (he's now got a posh shiny one- first time he's ever been a handset's first owner!) and he used to joke that the only way he could use it to get someone attention was to throw it at them!

[Shirleymouse]

I am not totally anti-mobiles, I use mine quite a bit. What I object to is the constant need to replace them with the latest model and chuck away the old one as it is so wasteful. Anyway, reading this has made me realise I am not alone in keeping my mobile long after everyone around me has upgraded to something snazzier and more (too!) complicated!
Incidentally, the only time I have ever needed one to call an ambulance I couldn't get a signal!

[Treelover]

i have a really early nokia; i think it's 1990's but i've been quite happy with it and i too get in a strop with salespeople trying to give me a new one; and when cameras first came in that was what they were pushing. i was quite happy to have my [omits boring technical detail because that's another rant] ordinary film camera. [i HAVE gone digital since because it's more environmentally friendly and cheaper] and besides, my Nokia allows youto program the ring tone note by note so you have a TOTALLY DIFFERENT RING to anyone else so you can't be confused. [Lord of the Rings main title if anyone actually cares] and i use pay as you go having bought a new sim card very recently - about three years ago.

new rant; is it any wonder kids grow up disfunctional when their mums are talking to - and often swearing at - some geek on the end of their mobile instead of talking to the babe in the tripper? or listening to blackberries or strawberries or whatever the things are called.