High Street at Cruelery.com - The Web's Bitter Afterbirth / Ball & Chain

choad · 2009-10-23 02:59:11

After 20 years, 85 percent of adult Americans have cellphones.

Not me. Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio seemed cool in 1963 when our only telephone was a party line of our nearest nosey neighbors but I'm damned if I understand why y'all endure perfectly pointless duplication and enslavement to minuscule screens, rotten keypads, and shitty audio.

Last edited by choad (2009-10-23 03:01:07)

phoQ · 2009-10-23 03:25:13

I capitulated this year. I bought a StarTac 130 from EBay for $10.

I pretend I’m against smug Bay Area liberals who own phones that support slavery, but really I’m just a cheap Luddite bastard. The only reason I have a cell phone is for online dating. It’s expected.

Taint · 2009-10-23 03:36:19

phoQ wrote:
I capitulated this year. I bought a StarTac 130 from EBay for $10.
http://i.imagehost.org/0303/st130.jpg
I pretend I’m against smug Bay Area liberals who own phones that support slavery, but really I’m just a cheap Luddite bastard. The only reason I have a cell phone is for online dating. It’s expected.

I feel bad about it. How's that?

phoQ · 2009-10-23 03:56:15

Taint wrote:
I feel bad about it. How's that?

I feel bad too, about $30 a month bad for the next 2 years. Why didn’t y’all tell me it was such a scam?

fnord · 2009-10-23 04:58:35

I’m still a holdout who doesn’t have a cell phone. Though I have to admit, I like the idea that minerals needed for cell phones and personal electronics are the cause of warfare and suffering in Africa.

GooberMcNutly · 2009-10-23 07:02:23

You gotta go with a prepaid plan. Not just for the perpetually broke teenager or college kid, I used to pay $80 a month for two phones on a family plan. I went and changed them to Pay As You Go phones and now pay $100 to charge each up, which lasts us for most of a year at $0.10 a minute. $200 a year is way better than $80 a month.

And my phone is at least 5 years old. It just won't die.

Fled · 2009-10-23 07:22:46

Unemployment freed me from my crackberry problem. Life is much better without it, not having to respond to a constant stream of bullshit from people I don't like. I still have a cell phone. It is little more than a toy, albeit a somewhat expensive one, as I have moved off the grid. DC is all about Job and projecting importance, something I no longer do.

phoQ · 2009-10-23 13:12:16

GooberMcNutly wrote:
You gotta go with a prepaid plan.

I tried some of those, but I needed an e911 compliant oversized SIM card so I can be tracked by Batman. Even if I now found one from a prepaid plan, AT&T would butt rape me for changing worse than any airline. Who was the marketing genius who came up with the 2-year plan that punishes you for leaving, and why did I fucking sign it?

kim · 2009-10-23 13:48:46

I think everytime my phone rings my blood pressure goes up 5 points. The BF doesnt own one and I don't even know why I do.

E-mail is what gets me. I basically work through emails.

Taint · 2009-10-23 13:53:14

I avoided getting a cellphone until a little over two years ago for many of the same reasons. I recently upgraded to a Blackberry so that I could keep track of email for stories I'm working on (none of the organizations or companies for whom I write are closer than about 1,000 miles from me) when I'm not home. When I don't want to deal with phone calls or other intrusions into my life, I turn off the ringer and ignore it until it suits me to answer it again.

It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be.

GooberMcNutly · 2009-10-23 16:34:44

I wouldn't have one either, but it's my second most useful weapon when out and about in society. Plus, I have started traveling for business again and have you ever tried to find a payphone these days?

AladdinSane · 2009-10-23 21:37:33

I have never owned one, either.

Johnny_Rotten · 2009-10-24 00:15:58

I was making calls on a client's satphone today that gets charged $6.80 a minute outbound and $3.00 on who's ever phone you call. Now that makes for a steep monthly bill. I love the pain you cause anyone you decide to dial. They have no way of knowing what it will cost them when they compulsively answer their cellphone.