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No More Cell Phones
I am seriously considering cancelling my cell phone service. There has been sort of a “perfect storm” of circumstances lately which have lead me to this consideration. I guess it started when I moved into a basement bedroom in my new apartment and began suffering through an irritating and persistent string of dropped calls. Sometimes this would happen as many as four times during the same conversation.
I called Verizon about it (who I believe sucks exactly as much as the other cell phone companies), and they basically informed me there was nothing they could do, until my number of dropped calls topped 2% of my overall usage. I tried to point out that I didn’t like waiting for it to drop my calls when both I and the person I was talking to could no longer hear one another. More hilarious than all that though was when Verizon very pleasantly informed me that they don’t guarantee cell phone reception inside buildings.
Oh really?
They don’t?
Inside buildings? Where most of us spend most of our time? Think about it folks. I know this technology is still being perfected, but this is what we are pinning our hopes for the future on: on companies who provide us with services which they can’t even guarantee will work inside buildings - where we live, where we work. Welcome to the capitalist technocracy where as long as we continue to be able to squeeze fifty+ bucks out of you, it doesn’t matter what else happens.
Now that I am no longer talking to the one person I spent 98% of my cell phone time with, I’m also realizing that I don’t like cell phones. When I first got one, it seemed novel and exciting. Now it seems like a drain, a hassle. An electronic leash around my neck, forcing me to have innumerable small increasingly meaningless micro-conversations:
“Hey, where are you?”
“The bar, I’ll call you back in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes pass…
“Hey, what’s up.”
“We’re at the bar. You wanna come down.”
“Okay.”
There was a point when these kinds of conversations were unnecessary. Where we could just meet up at places and get where we were going just fine. I remember it. It happened during my life time. I am starting to think I would like to go back there.
Then the other day my roomates and I watched the “hit indie flick”, Thank You For Smoking. I can’t say I especially enjoyed the movie but it ended on a particularly chilling note when the morally bereft tobacco company lobbyist and spokesperson loses his job defending “cancer sticks” only to move onto a far more lucrative opportunity: training cell phone company executives to deny that their products cause brain cancer.
BAM! Credits roll. You’re left with a sick feeling in your stomach. Think I’ll go use my cell phone now and have a smoke… Because, you’re supposed to think, I can’t live without my cell phone now. Even if it does give me cancer in ten or twenty years, there’s nothing I can do to stop it. That’s just the way the world’s going. And besides they’ll probably come up with a cure by then. If that is, you think about the conclusion of this movie even a little bit. I’m sure most people didn’t even go that far with it.
It’s funny too, cause debating with myself whether or not I’m going to go through with cancelling my cell phone account has caused all kinds of strange mental/emotional paroxysms for me. How will I keep in touch with friends and family? How will people get me when they need me? A million and one scared thoughts flash through my head about isolation and social alienation. They would have me by the balls if I didn’t already know it was all smoke and mirrors. I’ve had my cell phone off entirely most of this past week - and what have I missed? Nothing.
So maybe it’s time I make that leap, one which most of the world will laugh at as hopelessly anachronistic. One which may complicate certain aspects of my life, but which in others will likely simplify things a great deal. But what can I say? I am scared. Their propaganda runs deep. Their hooks are buried far below the surface and play into feelings of insecurity and loneliness I didn’t even know I had.
December 1st, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Haha. After writing this I saw:
http://news.com.com/FBI+taps+cell+phon...ropping+tool/2100-1029_3-6140191.html
Fuck all this bullshit. I don’t need any of it. Cell phones haven’t made my life any easier.
December 3rd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Hey Tim
Your writing has inspired me to seek in ways that never occured to me before. Thank you.
Throw away that cell phone … it only robs you in so many ways. And really, if something is very important for you to know of, you will know of it by other means.
December 3rd, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Wow , that roving bug thing is spooky. Like Freud said, ” Just because your paranoid, and think they are out to get you, doesnt mean they aren`t.
I don`t have a cell phone , and don`t desire one. I spend enough time doing technical stuff as is. That roving bug thing just gave me another reason not to do it. Every once in a while I look at the track phone thing in a store and think Mmmm. Is it worth it.?
I like the term you used Tim , Capitalist Technocracy. You are right on the money.
Exactly right.
Back many years ago, something affectionately called , Ma Bell covered the entire U.S. with phone service. It did not cost much at all , virtually nothing. They even gave you a heavy duty phone that could survive almost anything. It was a corded one of course.
Bell Labs was a premier scientific research organization that was subsidized by the U.S. Government . It attracted lots and lots of serious research scientists who came up with all kinds of cool things in the electronics dept. , a lot of 20th century technology came out of Bell Labs. It was a monopoly , cheap , subsidized, creative etc.
Then it was broken up by a giant multitude of Capitalistic money grubbers , and the American people were shafted again. Privatization they called it , and it ruined the cheap phone service permanently after that.
The old Bell system Tim might make a very interesting post with what it was and how it worked for the people .
December 3rd, 2006 at 8:34 pm
A few months ago I went through a similar frustration.. well actually I was more annoyed at my dependence on technology for a lot of things I use to be responsible for.. I wrote out all the numbers which are important and spent an hour or so each day for about a week memorizing them. Imagine a situation where your shitty cell phone breaks (because it’s designed to break so you eventually buy another) and you have to call someone whom you call every day of your life and yet you don’t know the number. Because that’s what happened to me…
oh yeah.. and brain cancer sucks too.
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Heh, I was going to post that story about the FBI.
But anyway, I’ve never liked cell phones. Haven’t ever owned one either, and I haven’t had any sort of problems with that. People call my home phone, leave a message if I’m not there. Nobody even asks me about it - I can’t remember a single time where someone asked me “Where’s your cell phone?” or “What, you don’t have a cell phone?!?”
Wait, no, a friend’s sister did call us crazy for driving long distances (I drove from Delaware to Minnesota to pick him up, then we went down to Texas) without one. But she’s the paranoid sort. I reminded her that she actually drove up to Delaware with me from Texas 7 years ago without one and things were fine. She just looked at me. Guess people have short memories these days. (Though, I *do* have a CB radio in my car, and did back then too.)
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:02 pm
i have a cell phone and will probably never have a land line again. i use it to stay in immediate touch with many people throughout the day without having to be fixed in one place. it has made my life much easier as i travel quite bit locally with my work.
the bit about lost calls is a problem but i find that the good far outweighs the bad for my uses. i lived in a basement for three months and rarely got signal………..but i learned to go upstairs to recieve calls. now i live on the seventh floor and i get great signal strength. for my $50 i get 1000 minutes and nights and week-ends free and 100 minutes long distance.
i love the flexibility.
i will be getting a blackberry for my business in the next 60 days and then i will be blogging, e-mailing and phoning on the go.
heaven.
and regarding bell. they were slow to provide cell phone service, but now they are trying to compete…………
they will probably try to push legislation as a tactic eventually.
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Hm, yeah thats a good point. That was originally one of the big selling points when cell phones first came out. People would have them in their glove boxes, but turned off generally and only used “in case of emergency”
I just set up Skype on my computer and that seems pretty rad. You have to pay to hook it into a phone number, but so far its only about $60 a year which is just about what i pay PER MONTH for my fucking cell phone which i almost never use more than a few hours a week
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Its not heaven to me. I already do this shit all the time. I dont need or want to be any more hooked in than I already am. I need time away, time to be alive, time to be an organic human.
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:30 pm
an organic human being…………………………?
that seems to be a temporary situation.
i`m not advocating mind you, just indicating a trend.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:58 am
All the more reason to make the most of it!
December 4th, 2006 at 1:13 am
When I first moved to Seattle from Denver about 7 years ago, I purchased a cellphone before the move for the express purpose of keeping in touch with the family. Reason why was, back then that was when the companies were first rolling out their no-roaming, no long distance charge plans. It was perfect for me. I’ve had the same account ever since.
As I still do now, back then I would go outside to field or make any calls I would make when in a public establishment. Incredibly, cellphones were still a semi-rare sight back then and I always felt incredibly stupid when talking on one. Think of those people you used to see 7-10 years ago strolling around or even *gasp* sitting at a table in a restaurant and yakking on their cell. Remember how stupid and arrogant it used to look? Anyhow, I used to get heckled on the street for going outside to use my phone so I wouldn’t be the cellphone schmuck in the bar. This again was 7 years ago. Now everybody has them and we don’t even notice it really anymore. I think it is weird how much the cellphone as entirely, comprehensively changed the way the modern human goes about his/her life now.
Also, anybody remember that scene at the beginning of Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts when that convertible car drives by in Beverley Hills and the dad and the kid were both on their cellphones? It was meant of course, to be a humorous segue into the lives of the filthy rich place that lovable Richard Gere the knight in shining armor comes from. “Oh those silly and arrogant rich California people”. But look at it now. Every freakin’ high school kid and I am sure a shit ton of elementary school kids now have them. “Keeps the kids safe” they say.
Another story, 7 or 8 years ago I was a waiter in this restaurant where these two people were having a lunch meeting. Whoa! Stop the presses. Anyways, they both had their cellphones out on the table and I told them that instead of talking to one another naturally they should sit there and call each other and talk over their lunch that way. I thought it was funny and they didn’t. In fact they didn’t even get what I was talking about. And I guess that’s the key. Nobody sees these objects that encroach on our old freedoms because they promise a litany of “new freedoms”.
Alright, one more thing, pertaining to the blackberry that Alistair mentioned above. Does anybody remember wanting some sort of a palm pilot just for the gadget-novelty of it but wondering what the hell they would need such a thing for? I remember talking to even tech-head friends who thought the same thing. What the fuck would I even do with a palm pilot if I had one? Now there are “reasons” everywhere for why you wouldn’t want a PDA. I really don’t get how it all happened, other than that it did. . .
December 4th, 2006 at 2:22 am
I also know personally that when it comes to buying things, that I tend to have a want first and foremost and then around that I go about fashioning rationally-based “needs” that will allow me to satisfy my want while also assuaging the Saturnian nature of my reasoning self. I tend to think this is a rather unhealthy process and that most people do it but without being remotely aware of it.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:04 am
I actually bought the sidekick because of this metafilter post way back when. I was so intrigued about being able to blog-on-the-go back then that I couldn’t see straight. And so it goes.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:24 am
Moblogging mo problems…
December 4th, 2006 at 7:33 am
I was at a conference last week. In the interval, a fair slice of the delegates would go outside to make mobile phone calls. And it occurred to me: it’s exactly the same behaviour we used to see of smokers say twenty (or more) years ago: in every intermission, a fair slice of the delegates would run outside for a quick smoke…
December 4th, 2006 at 7:46 am
With regards to the brain cancer thing, my father got a cancer on the auditory nerve on the side he used to use his phone. They managed to chop it out but he’s deaf in that ear now.
While thats just a random anecdote the surgeon who did the chopping said the incidence of this type of cancer used to be very rare but his treating of it increased 10 fold over the past decade…
All in all its probably best not to use them for hours each day…
December 4th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
What is the difference between a cell phone and a computer, or the internet? A website like this is very informative, but nobody read blogs ten years ago.
I know everyone has their own ideas about what the difference is, about what they need in life and what they don’t. Getting rid of a cell phone is a personal choice, and it requires some deep thought.
I’d ask though, if anyone has ever considered that the “get rid or your phone” idea is not also supported by propoganda. Propoganda from people with ideas similar to to the ones presented here. New agers and environmentalists and spiritualists or truth seekers, whatever you call them, are sometimes cripplingly adamant about their beliefs and why they are 100% right.
Today I saw a bumper sticker that said “WAL MART: Ruining Towns” and it just stuck in my mind. I mean, is it really that simple? Ruining towns, there’s no question about it? Those are the only 4 words that need to be entered into the debate? How silly it is to encapsulate a complex argument onto a witty little bumper sticker.
It is not easy to sift through the layers of ideas that lead to making a decision, but I think an important thing to remember is that there is not necessarily a right choice in some cases. The only right choice is the one you make absent of propoganda and external ideas from either side, and that is almost downright impossible. We are nothing if not permenantly a part, in some way, of the ideas of our peers. If anyone gets rid of a cellphone, i don’t think it should be as a reaction against the status quo simply for the sake of being different. But often it’s really hard to find out what our own motives are.
I don’t have a land line, it seems impractical to me. Maybe because I didn’t move out of my parents house until the era of cell phones was in full swing. I don’t use my cell phone very often but if i have to call somebody or get some information it’s usually somewhere close to me, and I don’t have a problem with that.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Well good for you! I’m glad you found something that works. As you said, it is a personal decision and my intention was not to serve up “propaganda” but to detail my own struggles to make a personal decision that certainly runs a lot deeper, but which cell phones probably just represent the surface dimension of.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I believe it’s a mis-use of technology. I’ve carried a cell for a little over a year now (as a 23 yr old I’ve gotten plenty of weird looks in the past for it).
Yes, cell phones not working in buildings is expected…where is the best place to put your antenna for the TV set? In the house or outside? The answer is outside as the signal is then able to freely propagate to the electrical system. Houses and large buildings tend to block signals and the earth does a really, really good job of neutralizing electrical signals which is why when you’re in a basement or underground that cells rarely work.
Anyway, the flexibility of the cell is nice. We have used it to schedule and reschedule events on the fly as people wait to the last minute to make cancelations (last minute for various reasons). Plus, I’ve used it several times to get directions from friends after I’ve gotten lost. New parts of the city do that from time to time to me.
Anyway, my suggestion is to get people behave better with their cells as the system is actually very useful and capable.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
That phenomenon is only a recent invention and it occurs *because* people all have cell phones and you *can* cancel on people at the last minute. Besides, that doesn’t count as a benefit anyway.
It’s called maps, a sense of direction and asking people for directions. All very easy to do and none require a cell phone.
So far no one has given me a single usable reason why I should keep my cell phone.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:15 am
And no one is going to.
Cell phones are just good because, like, they just are, ok? Like, everyone has one, and everyone can’t be wrong now can they? Participate! Participate!
We are slaves to the illusion of convenience. I’d like you to burn your phone and post a picture. You might start something…
December 5th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I haven’t had one mainly because I am cheap and not interested in being available all of the time. My friends however are constantly scolding me and asking why I don’t have a cell. It genuinely inconveniences them that I can’t call or they can’t call to say we are late or can we get together or whatever. I’ve actually gotten sneers because I have not offered them the convenience of me getting a cell phone. Well nuts to that!
December 5th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
the cell phone shrinks space. we are able to recreate the village proximity via technology. the blackberry is another way to do this. marshall mcluhan had a lot to say about this re-tribalisation of culture.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Haha. One time I convinced my friend (while drinking) to hand over to me the cell phone our company had given him, so that I could destroy it. I promptly took it into the bar’s bathroom and he nervously followed me. I headed into a stall, dropped it into the toilet and unzipped.
“Couldn’t we just take it out back and smash it instead?” He said. His better judgement was starting to take hold.
Fortunately mine was not.
“I’m already pissing on it sorry.”
Flush.
Only it wasn’t an easy flush. It went down a little ways and got stuck in the S-curve of the bowl. A few days later I had to pay the bar over $200 to repair the toilet. Well, I didn’t *have* to but it was the right thing to do.
By this time the bar owner who we were all more or less friendly with, knew the whole story from my friend. When I gave him the money, he said, “Now that prank or lesson or whatever you played on him wasn’t worth all that money, was it?”
I shook my head no contritely. But it was. It sure was.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
That’s a very funny way of putting it. I like the idea of “giving others the inconvenience” of having to deal with me.
First of all, if I wanted to live in a medieval village, I would. Second of all, it tries to replace those feelings. It doesn’t re-create them. Hanging out with someone in person is literally NOTHING like talking to them on the phone. That anything has been “re-created” is a totally erroneous conclusion. Third, why do I want to “shrink space”? Maybe I don’t want the girl I am dating to have the ability to call or text me every place I go.
When I lived in Baltimore before I got a cell phone (back when I was flushing other people’s cell phones), if you wanted to meet up with somebody, you simply went to where you knew they were going to be - usually a bar or their house. It was very simple. No phones or plans were necessary. Simply show up. It was much more gratifying than interaction through cell phones ever is.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
:) Totally worth it!
Yeah, remember adventure? The joy of finding things for yourself? Surprises?
Hey, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!
What is this supposed virtue called “convenience”? Is it an appeal to laziness, impatience, or control? Probably all 3. One thing’s for sure, convenience kills adventure.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
YES! Convenience? What does that mean? Think about “convenience stores” - they give you high priced low quality products which you pay more for because its “convenient”. Ever hear of “convenience charges” on concert tickets? Same shit. It’s an excuse to charge you more for a service you probably don’t need or else should be already getting to begin with.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
I’m also reminded of this:
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/09/05/dream-dictionaries-life/
December 5th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
You know, I rarely even speak on the land-line telephone anymore … I just have it for the computer. I don’t even have an answering machine anymore. The landline is here “in case” - I’ve been in earthquakes, riots, mayhem - and the landline phones ALWAYS works.
As to the mobile - it’s convenient and cheap for long distance - and it’s handy for business calls - I don’t want folks knowing my home #. And yeh, when I’m hiking out in the back of the beyond - I like having the mobile in case “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
But - mobile or not - telephones - I went from an inveterate telephone quacker to just not liking the things in general. They’re convenient - but I’d rather just talk to someone in person. Or write to them.
Don’t get me started on paying for premium television … ergh
Oh - on the “emergency note” - I was heading in NYC a few weeks ago and some poor sod was broken down right by the Lincoln Tunnel - he was on his mobile - obviously getting a tow or a lift or help of some sort. Imagine being broken down there before the days of mobiles. So, yeh, they have their uses - if just for that.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:58 am
Yeah, you just flagged somebody down. It was no big deal. I remember it.
That makes no sense. You don’t want people knowing your home phone number, so you’d rather they have a number for a phone that it as constantly on your person? Giving them your home phone would actually be less bothersome.
December 6th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
@ Tim - sometimes you cant’ just “flag someone down” - it can be a big deal - try being out in the desert for example - nasty business or up in the mountains, etc etc and so forth. If only for that - mobile’s are great.
Having the mobile instead of the home - yes it does make sense - my cave is my castle and only real friends get that # - I have blessed silence at home. The mobile - ’tis easy to screen and ignore. If it’s someone calling about a new job - great - the mobile - I don’t want to talk to those gits at home - and I’d want the immediacy of THAT - great - I just got a new gig at 3:00 - rather than having to phone into my home - using my mobile - how redundant - and how traceable on someone else’s business line. Ergo - the mobile’s a great little biz machine.
I’m not a phone quacker - 2 minutes set up an appt. goodbye click
December 6th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Yeah, God forbid. Quick, get me back to the suburbs as quickly as possible! I can’t stand all this random, unmediated experience!
December 6th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I know, I mean seriously. If you’re out in the middle of the desert, you’re pretty much fucked either way. So what if you have a cell phone. And seriously, how often am I out in the middle of a desert?
And the point about being out in the mountains, well when was the last time you tried to use your cell phone in the mountains? Shit doesn’t work out there. And frankly, I thank god that there are still regions like that
December 6th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Hahaha. Looks like I’m riding the trends more than I realized:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2006/12/study_cellphone.html
December 12th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
[…] I warned you all I was gonna do it. And this afternoon, I finally did it. I smashed my cell phone. I seriously brutalized it. […]
May 4th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
[…] I warned you all I was gonna do it. And this afternoon, I finally did it. I smashed my cell phone. I seriously brutalized it. […]