I was knocked from my bike by two dogs breaking my femur, it was an empty road, I laid there for 30 minutes, unable to move, semi conscious. When I did come too I could not reach my phone, had I been able to, I would have been in the ambulance at least 15 minutes sooner. I think I will carry one.

I use my phone for business, checking on my wife, her checking in with me, we have no house phone, unless y'all use smoke signals or a can on a string, well, maybe rather than bicycles, horses.

People without mobile phones kind of piss me off. And people who have them but keep them turned off -- unless they want to make a call -- REALLY piss me off. These people tend to expect me to have my phone on and answer when they want to call me.

No! I don't talk on my phone while i ride.
Yes! I take it with me.
No! I don't talk on my phone while camping.
Yes! I take it with me.
No! I didn't invent fire!
Yes! I can make fire.

I really don't understand the whole "I can survive without technology" thing. I can too, but it is VERY helpful. I want my family to know if i die. I want them to know if it can be prevented! I like changing my own flats, but i like checking hockey scores while i do it. Why the ruckus?

Pay for it or don't. If you pay for it, i guess you are a slave to consumerism. If you don't pay for it, i suppose you are a free bird with a potentially shorter life span.

I really think it's a stupid argument for times that are 'a changin'.

edit; I honestly do respect anyone who can live without technology. I wish i could be that way, but we are all just so very different. That is what makes us great!

Who cares?

I find it hard to believe that some people don’t understand why there is a small backlash against these blasted contraptions. Every third driver is yakking on one when they should be concentrating on driving. People walking in public are oblivious to their surroundings as they focus on pressing tiny little buttons. Visitors coming to my house feel it necessary to call me three times to tell me “where they are now”. Guys in the supermarket can’t pick out a loaf of bread without phoning for assistance. Bike commuters are told they should have one “just in case”. Is it any wonder that some refuse to sign up for this madness?

I know, don’t blame the tool blame the user. But it sure looks to me like this recent convenience has negatively affected our quality of life in ways some fail to even realize. [/rant]

I didn't have a cell phone until fairly recently. I feel my reasons for not wanting one were and are pretty valid. It just got to the point with smart phones especially that the pros really started to outweigh the cons. I still reserve the right to be "offline" when I choose and I don't expect anyone else to be available for me to call 24/7 either. There are certain types of people who really need uninterrupted time to themselves each day. I'm one of them. I get cranky if I don't have that time. ;)

Cell phones haven't been around long enough for society to have established widely accepted norms for their use. We'll get there.


It's been a very interesting thread. The definition of "essential" is where I'm guessing part of the disagreement comes in. Another way to separate the important gear from the less important is to think about what you would turn around and go back for if you realized you forgot it.

What would you go back and get if you were 2 blocks from home? What would you go back and get if you were a mile from home?

There's some pretty important things I'd decide to do without. Even If I were only 2 blocks from home I'd probably leave my pump. I'd probably go back and get the battery for my light if I had to ride home in the dark, even if it meant turning back after a mile and showing up to work late.

My cell phone? I'd go back a block to get it, but probably not after a mile. To be honest, the only reason I'd go back and get it after a block is that it's so handy to have throughout the day. I don't really care much about it for my commute. Yeah it might be nice to call somebody if I had some sort of problem. But I could fix a flat faster than anyone could come rescue me. For that matter I can get to a bus or train quicker than what it would take for most other help to arrive.

My blackberry is essential for many things. my occupation requires me to be available 24-7 and it is also a courtesy for the people I love and the ones that love me. It is my music source, Internet, clock, phone, GPS, and it is also my backup modem for my systems when they go down. I think a great deal has to do with your lifestyle & the world does operate through technology and communication is the key to make things operate smoothly. For me the answer is very simple, Yes it is essential for me to have my Blackberry with me at all times because a great deal of people depend on me to make choices and decisions. If your lifestyle puts you in the role of leadership then you have no choice but to embrace technology and communication otherwise you will fail. I have let employees go for not keeping there phones that I pay for on at all times even when they are off the clock. In the world we live in today communication plays a vital role

Seems like the OP has an issue with mobile phones. If you don't like them then don't use them, it's as simple as that.

It's very funny how some people will use a computer and internet... but they hate cell phones and refuse to use one. A cell phone is just a tool, and it's a personal choice to carry one or not. I've got my first cell phone only about 4 years ago, and I am glad I did.

I have a pre-paid one from T-mobile. Only costs $10 a year to keep it active after I initially paid $100 several years ago. I've used it several times to phone in other people's emergencies and weird things like a horse in the road. I occasionally use it to call my wife if I will be late so she won't worry. I have twice used it to call the police when motorists were harassing me. This did have the effect of getting the motorists to back off. I think you should carry one just in case you are seriously injured and still conscious so you can dial 911 for an ambulance. I also think it is a good idea as a harassment deterrent.

I've used my pump on the road probably 10 or 12 times. I've never used my phone on the road. If I did use it, it wouldn't be to call for a bail-out unless I had an appointment I was going to miss, it'd just be to leave a message that I was walking the rest of the way home and I'd be an hour late.

Just about every conversation about cell phone necessity or desirability includes the word "emergencies." So not *every* person, but quite possibly the majority.
I'm a union guy, and from my perspective, taking on the expense of a cell phone and giving up the right to an understanding boss when a flat tire occurs is unwise. More responsibility for the peons, less for the mgt.Correction, I look at cell phones and see heart plugs.This is what I *don't* want to happen here.
:p how come U didn't pick up yesterday?fear! fear!Yes. I don't really like them very much. And I'm discussing this. Maybe I don't like knobby tires too. I might discuss that as well, especially if everyone started acting like I was supposed to be using knobby tires.

Huh? Maybe you should reevaluate the people in your life if they are pressuring you to do trivial things you don't want to do. Or it could be that you are hyper-sensitive and want to show as all what a 'free spirit' or 'rebel' you are.

Either way, it's quite simple; don't like them, don't use them.


P.S. When has anyone given a rats ass about which tires you use?

+1 from me too.

You can survive without, but since a *most* people have one these days it seems foolish not to take such a useful tool with you. It can save your bacon in so many different ways.

If you don't want to be interrupted by it - turn it off.

I work in a water sports club and we ask people in certain boat types to take a phone in a dry-bag with them. That one in a million chance you need to be rescued is so much easier if you can phone for help (ie small boats that don't carry flares, VHF marine radio etc). Phones are cheap and reliable with dry-bags a bargain compared to the cost of the boats/kit that people buy (actually, we had a boat owner of a multi-million dollar Cat 1 offshore racing yacht complain about a new safety regulation requiring a new $1000 comms system! 20 people can die on your boat, a-hole, so just buy the new radio!)

I have been in upper management for years and the term peons is extremely offensive. Not 1 of my employees is any less important or more important than I am myself or the people I answer too. It takes a collective effort to do anything in this world. My job is to lead & manage, it is just my job & my skill, that doesn't make me more important it is just my role. Do you think that if you are delayed you don't have a responsibility to your team or boss to let him know so that that adjustments can be made to compensate for your delay. Do you think that because you consider yourself a peon that the roll you play on your team doesn't have an effect on others. What about deadlines and appointments that are delayed because you held up your team & you didn't give your boss the courtesy to make adjustments. You can create fines for late and missed appointments or the loss of current and future contracts. There is no such thing as a peon or unnecessary employee. Nobody hired you because your not needed. I'm sorry but that attitude toward your employer and your coworkers and your customers is just selfish. Do you really think there is no problem showing up late without informing your team is acceptable???

There is a big difference between a good worker and a good employee. Good workers are a dime a dozen, a good employee is truly valuable

WTH? You tell me I can't talk about cell phones. My point is that they're no less trivial than tires or whatever. Sorry you couldn't follow the logic. I'm evaluating the comments of people in the "essential gear" threads and on this one. Not my family, thank you very much. Good grief What's with the sarcastic personal insults? Relax.

The sad thing is unless you are using DSL for internet service a Cellphone would likely be cheaper. ;) Regulated land line has nearly $25 on average in taxes and terrifs collected by the guberment. many of these are not on cell bills and Long distance in the US is included. I know in Detroit where there is places it is literally long distance charges to call 10 miles away that cell phones don't pay. If you have cable TV and Cable internet available you might look into going with phone with them or a Voice of IP provider through the cable.

I have no home phone and I can get home phone fore free. All I got was telemarketing calls on it mostly from the phone company (that I work for LOL) trying to get me to buy their Long distance that I didn't need. They were told to quit calling or we will disconnect. They kept calling and we disconnected.

You really care about what others find to be essential and find it to be pressurizing to you when you don't agree with them? Where's the logic in that?

BTW, where did I ever say anything about telling you you can't talk about mobile phones? Feel paranoid much?

The iPhone has done more to improve the quality of life for more people than anything since the invention of the safety bicycle.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

I understand where you're coming from. In the business world, cell phones have become necessary. Business does what it needs to to maximize profit. That's how it works. This is why I do not work in that field. I'm a teacher. I do not buy into the current vogue of treating a school like a business. I work in a 100% free lunch 90% minority high school in a generally failing school system in a corrupt and decaying medium sized post industrial city. I put up with truckloads of crap every minute of every day. I'm very often treated as a peon. With a master's and a sixth year degree. I'm not too keen on all the "there is no I in team" stuff. I am keen on people working hard together and respecting each other. Paying AT&T hundreds of dollars a year is not a prerequisite of showing my team support and respect.

If you'd like to make any assumptions about my selfishness or perhaps about my teaching ability, I can't stop you. You've got little idea what it's like to do what I do every day, which runs from cleaning the mouse poop and mold out of my leaky ceilinged asbestos tiled 58-degrees-in-the-winter classroom to taking knives off of kids to being told to rescind or re think any punishment given out to any kid who complains to administration about that particular consequence, for instance marking them late. Hey, I taught in NYC for 5 years and had no idea school systems could be this bad off. The kids are placed ahead of my "team" as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, if I'm so important and a cell phone is so important, then they can provide me with one.

But I still don't think I need one on a bike ride. ;)

You deny there is social pressure to carry a cell? You're conflating what's going on in society with what's going on in this thread. They are two different things, and I have been referring to both at different times. And aside from your name calling... it's been a nice thread. :)
- hyper sensitive paranoid boy

OMG! what HAVE i been missing???!!!??? ;)

Who pressurizes you to carry a mobile? Why would you care if others carry one?

What's the point of this thread again?

EDIT: Ten years ago I didn't have a landline, let alone a mobile, and I sure as hell never felt any pressure to get one. Now I have both, but far prefer the mobile as I can see who is calling and choose not to pick it up, or even better use the far less intrusive SMS.

Cell phone is a necessity for me due to a medical condition that causes vertigo. It flares up without warning. When it does, my ride is over. I suppose I could wait it out or rely on the kindness of people on the road, but I'd rather just call my wife to come and get me.

If you associate heart plugs with Dune you don't know Dune. Anyone who knows Dune pukes when they see that movie. If that is how deep your understanding of cell phones goes, and it appears that it is, then your cell phone attitudes are based on an immense lack of knowledge too.

I use my phone when and as it suits me. My boss will be deeply disappointed if he ever tries to demand that I stay connected 24/7. In fact my employer recently demanded the right to control my phone and lock me out of it if I wanted to continue to keep it connected to company servers. Now I was doing that a lot of the time simply as a courtesy to my employer but when they wanted to go all Big Brother on me, I ripped all those connections out of my phone in an instant. It's my phone and I'll do as I want to, do as I want to....

It is nice to have a phone in an emergency. I've used mine twice to help other people with their emergencies but of course the one time I might have used mine to help myself I was unconscious. I might not have a phone at all if that were the only reason to have one though and back when phones were only phones I rarely carried mine and seldom had it on when I did. The vast utility of smart phones lies in the mundane uses they are so adept at. A modern smart phone is a veritable intellectual and communications Swiss Army Knife. I only leave home without one by mistake. Since it has an off button I can easily make sure it serves me and no one else when I don't want to be bothered. It is not essential but it is just so darned handy to have along for so very many reasons that the difference between a cell phone and an essential is hardly worth worrying over. There are a lot of things in life that cost me more per month than my cell phone, few of them are as valuable to me as the phone.

Ken

I don't think any human being can live without technology. Our pre- and near- human ancestors were inventing and using essential technologies long before we came on the scene. No modern human being (and by that I mean the type of primate that appeared about 250k years ago, our species) has ever lived without technology. That is what makes a refusal to embrace new technologies such an odd behavior for a human being. Technology is embedded deep within us, it is what makes us us. My dogs can do any non-technological tasks better than I can.

Ken

there's that emergency word again, Ken.

my own brain is a veritable intellectual and communications device, too... :)

I've read Dune several times. I'm a long time sci-fi fan. Even the old school stuff-- just finished Asimov's Foundation and Empire the other night.

I also love the David Lynch movie and think that it does no dishonor to the book. Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune did bore me, though.

So why is my cell phone opinion based on an "immense lack of knowledge?"

There are ways in which technologies have come to use US rather than the other way around. I don't care if it's the triangle shirtwaist factory or devotion to the automobile or obsessive/addictive texting.... we should remain aware of where that line is and retain our power over technology.

...edit 2: your dogs can compose poetry or kiss your significant other better than you can, for instance?

This is one of the reasons I included option #3.

I'm sorry you have that to deal with--- it's really great you haven't let that keep you from being active and cycling.

My Buddy has an On call job, so he got one, prepaid type service , his on call job ..
is part of a 2 person team, picking up clients for the Funeral Service in the county,
in the deceased homes and after highway collisions.

Picking up.... on a bike?

The big thing that kept me from getting a cell phone until recently was being required to carry a pager in job I had 20 years ago. I worked in the part of the telephone company that supported 911 call centers. I understood that while not likely, there was a remote chance that not returning a page could cost someone their life. Getting calls at any time of day or night was extremely intrusive into my personal life however. It was the nature of my job so I dealt with it, but I've resisted making myself THAT available in any job I've taken since. I don't care if the technology is paid for by the company, it's still MY time.

I'm in management. I know there are people in our company who will call an employee at home or wherever expecting them to drop whatever it is they're doing to address the caller's wishes. I also know that often times it could wait or could have been avoided with better planning. I do think that is one downside to our people being so "connected". The line between work and personal life gets way too blurred in some cases and it affects peoples relationships and messes up their priorities. I doubt that many people on their deathbeds will regret not having spent more time working.

A cell phone is extremely tricky to deal when it comes to work. I will not take a work supplied phone. They will not pay for personal calls and I don't want my personal contacts and whatnot on a company phone anyway. I especially don't want to have to carry two phones. But how does a company deal with securing personal phones? It's a dicey issue.

I'd encourage anybody to spend a week now and them with a few other folks in a remote cabin, camping, or retreat where there is no cell reception and no Internet access. It can be very... refreshing.

Well not really, I give people $40 bucks a month toward their phone bill and supply a phone of their choice and it belongs to them forever but even if I wanted the phone back all that information is on the symcard. The phone is in the employees name and it is there account. I am paying $40 a month toward their phone bill regardless of what they want for service. If they do not want to do that then don't work for me. It is a job requirement and part of the deal you make with me on hire. Most people all ready have cell phones so it is usually a bonus for people. I think it is a pretty fair deal but if I call you it is for a reason so you better answer the phone. The people that I require to have Blackberry or smart phone accounts Get almost another $100 a month and again it is their smart phone.