Pajiba

GP. We talk about him A LOT!

I still don't own a cell phone; so there.

But I get what you're saying about the useless, time-consuming, irritating small talk people seem to feel obligated to waste my time with on the phone. Even in a professional setting, it's: "So, how are you?" I'm fucking busy, is how I am. What the fuck do you want? You went to the effort of dialing and interrupting my work flow--get the fuck on with it, willya?

I am clearly not the demographic for this diversion. Being merely a youngin, I use my phone pretty frequently. But hell, I'm still in high school so really, everything is bullshit. Saying it over the phone doesn't really make a whole lot of difference.

I'm just gonna bow my head in shame and step away from this one.

After dealing with the absolute bullshit of a $70 (plus tax) unlimited text and minutes deal, I'm currently using a simple, yet nice, Tracphone that costs me $30 every two months.

When I'm at work, I'm at work. I don't want people calling me anyway, and I'm signed into 3 different chat programs anyways. When I'm in school, I'm in school. Not to mention I get next to no service at either of these places.

It's glorious. If people want to get a hold of me, you can either text me or a quick five minute conversation will suffice in order to set something up. Every once in a blue moon I'm extremely tempted to get some fancy HTC phone or an Android or whatever, but I just can't justify the cost despite easily affording it; does your ability to check facebook from your smartphone really equate to spending that much money (except if you post funny stuff, then you're okay by me)?

Of course there are the professionals out there, but it cracks me up watching kids playing on fancy phones when you know they're making $10 an hour and paying rent on a piece of shit place and eating fast food every night. Prioritize, bitches!

STOP TALKING ABOUT ME!

but i hear you, , ,i hate talking on the phone also. unless it's work-related. small talk bores the hell out of me.

Breakdown of the Use of My Cellular Device
Calling someone with important information: 10%
Calling someone just to talk: 2% (I was taking a train ride alone. It was Valentine's Day.)
Texting: 5%
Checking the time: 83%

I wish I didn't have to use my phone so much. I have a blackberry, which I mostly use for e-mailing. I receive a million work related e-mails a day, and I work from home.
For most of my calls I use Skype because I call abroad a lot. Otherwise I text and use facebook... if somebody tried calling me at 8pm on a weekday evening, I will not pick up. I'm busy relaxing, so just leave me the heck alone ;).

I primarily just use text on my phone. I tend to use it for calls when somebody isn't answering their texts and the answer is becoming necessary.

My husband and I don't use our cell phones much either. It's usually to talk to relatives far away, call for information, or text each other. Neither of us is particularly good at smalltalk ("How was your day?" "Fine." "Oh. Good..." "Yeah..." "..." "See you later." "Bye."). I keep it more as an assurance that if my car breaks down, I can call a tow truck.

I'm with you. It took me years to acquiesce into getting a mobile phone, and still I only carry it for emergencies. And I have it turned off practically all the time anyway. If I'm out, I'm out; I don't want to be contactable unless I'm home. Reading that back, I sound a little crazy; which goes to show how far things have gone, because ten years ago I swear there were others like me.

I'm one of those crazy people who LOVES to talk on the phone. Seriously, I do. Why? Because it's a chance to share an experience with someone who couldn't be there (parents, grandparents, anyone elderly is really great for this). So yep, I yak yak yak all the time. A good phone call can cheer me up or a really shitty one can make me feel awful. I don't really like to text that much because I'm a Gemini so I have a ton to say. All the time.

Sorry you curmudgeons are missing out!

I hate the phone as well. I prefer contact by e-mail, especially for jobs, so I have a record of what my boss/client wants. Call me up to tell me the schedule for rehearsals at your own damn risk. If I have to leave early because you misspoke, that's your fault. Call me if the rehearsal is canceled or you need me to come in at the last minute; don't call me to tell me the next two months of rehearsals, production meetings, and performances. That's stupidity.

Hey, man. I hear ya. And I don't fucking know.
The only time I can be considered "talkative" is when I'm drunk, which hadn't been the case for a long-ass time, prior to last weekend (which includes my dumbass drunken antics, here, last week Friday, and again just a couple of days ago on Thursday... Hello. My name is *bleep*, and I am a Complete Dumbass... and no, Courtney, I really wasn't calling you fat, that post was just a messed-up drunken ramble... not that I'd consider it a negative if you were, just sayin'...)
But anyway... I'm not very much younger than you, Mr. Comma, Sir, and I am very much surprised I haven't yet exploded an aneurysm from ROARING in Green Ferrigno-like Anger at the dangerously pre-occupied drivers chatting the fuck away on their fucking phones while their vehicles were in full, and often, precariously discombobulated motion. What the mother-fucking FUCK are THESE PEOPLE THINKING??!

NOTHING!!!!!!

HANG YOUR MOTHER FUCKING PHONES THE MOTHER FUCKING UP WHILE YOU ARE IN MOTION IN A MOTHER FUCKING BLOCK OF STEEL, YOU DUMBASS MOTHER FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT!!!

I'm 12 and i do have a phone but since my parents are divorced it's mainly to call my mom on weekends to come pick me up. Other than that I don't use it for anything.

I don't have a landline, just a cell phone. I've moved twice in the past year, so I see no reason to get a landline. I had one when I was in Germany strictly for overseas calls to my parents. I prefer face to face conversations but since everyone I know lives in a different state, I don't really have that option. Still, my best friend and I are more likely to text to see what's going on and then occasionally call each other. I also have to be accessible 24/7 due to work. Less so over the past six months since I was at a school, but when I'm actually doing my regular job rather than receiving schooling for work, I need it. I'm also an only child so my mom has a tendency to call about every other day. Basically, I can't see not having a cell phone for me. I didn't have one when I was in Iraq two years ago but that was because everyone I needed to talk to workwise was right by me, and we had walkie-talkies. I called my parents once a week from the MWR, and usually spent at least half an hour on the phone with them, although I couldn't tell you what we talked about. Probably things I wanted in my next care package.

Since my workday is pretty much spent chained to my fucking desk by virtue of being on an ACD, when I'm at home about the only calls I want to (read HAVE to) make are for things like the plumber I have coming in Monday.

Even growing up I wasn't one for calling my friends all the time. (I saved that for after I joined the Navy and was introduced to the great American passtime of "drunk dialing".

When I was young I played the whole "you hang up first" bit with whatever girl I was infatuated with at the time.

Now...I don't carry a cell phone w/ me as I don't want to be in touch 24/7. I carry one when I go out for emergencies but that's about it.

Talk? Dude nobody talks on their cell phone anymore. I use mine to play “Pixelated,” I finished that shit in fourteen moves once.

meaux what do you do?

We dumped the landline about eight years ago and now use only mobiles and mostly for practical things, i.e. "Please pick up fresh milk" or "I'll have a large Hawaiian pizza, please". I also tend to travel a fair amount and have particularly concerned relatives (many a goodbye at the airport consists of "Call me when you land, sweet pea"). But honestly, besides the practical purposes and the occasional friendly text, the phone is primarily for checking the time and faking conversations as to deter the creepy homeless guys on the bus from speaking to me. I don't understand my peers' addiction to the device and I'm always struck with the irrational impulse to smash the damn thing when a friend is supposed to be having a face to face conversation with /me/ while having an entirely unrelated text-fest with someone else.

@ Blank: "Cell phones are rude little distractionary devices"

Word. Except reading Tater's introduction, I couldn't help but feel guilty, because I've done the grocery-shopping-while-talking-on-a-cellphone thing more than once, and it never ends well.

I don't text AND I'm still not on Facebook, so I can commiserate. But I'm pushing 40 so I have that "future crankly old man" thing as a defense to my rampant technophobia.

I'm with grace b - I love to talk on the phone! It's probably a combination of loving to talk in general and being a military kid before we had that damn fancy internet/email deal... if you wanted to talk to the friends you left behind every few years, you phoned them.

One of my favourite things to do when cleaning the house is to plug the headset into my land line, clip it to my pants and then phone my best friend. We laugh and giggle and generally bullshit about nothing while I clean. It makes the cleaning so much more enjoyable.

I do have a cell phone which I use quite a bit to text my husband but other than that I don't use it much. And I never cell phone and drive, besides the fact that it's illegal here and you can get a whopping fine for it, I've never understood how people can believe they're actually paying attention to their driving when they're yakking away. Pisses me off really.

wow, I thought I was the last person on earth without a cell phone. I hate talking to people. I have no answering machine and would much rather everyone learned to respond to their emails in a timely fashion.
(timely being within 5 minutes of my having sent it as I am very impatient)

I rarely ever use my phone as a phone. I'm not much for phone-talking. Never have been, never will be. There's a teeny tiny handful of people I'll freely talk to on the phone. That group is so small, it literally consists of about five friends and three family members (and I live with two of those family members, so those conversations are brief and rare--we mostly text). But even with that being said, I still don't do it much.

I use my phone mostly for information-gathering, note-taking (I have a great notes app I use a lot), work and personal email, sometimes shopping, I read books on it and I text. And facebook. And when very bored, I have a couple of games I play, but I really don't do that often.

Oh and sometimes I listen to the music on it through my car stereo. I do enjoy that aspect of my phone very much. And take pics and video with it.

Dang, I do pretty much everything BUT talk on it.

It seems like the only people I talk to on the phone these days are PAJIBANS. I really prefer it that way.
I dumped my landline years ago. When I was getting divorced I used to talk for HOURS on the phone, trying to figure it all out. I remember one bad month I racked up 900+ min long distance on my land line. Now, I have more than that in rollover minutes on my cell.
I live on chat online though. Looooots of chattin'. Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo.... Chat chat chat.

I'm not a small talk person either. When I call someone I usually try to keep it below 1 or 2 minutes. I've told you what I wanted to tell you and now I'm going to hang up, you'll have time to tell me all those things when we meet. You know, face to face. Okay? I do the same thing with my parents and my brother. (Although when I'm away I talk with them twice a day, not because I WANT that but because THEY WANT that. Where it for me I'd never call them)
However twice a week I get a phone call from a friend (she's not even a good one) and she yaps for >20 min. And basically it's the same shit, just a different order. But I kinda enjoy these stupid calls, although all I get to say is: "Uhum", "Yes", "No", "oooh/aaah" and I laugh (even if it's not something funny). She once kept me for an hour talking on the phone just to tell me something about some people I've never met in my life, nor heard of.
The longest conversation ever: almost two hours, but I was helping someone cheat on an exam (it was a tough one).
My phone's primarily functions(in this order): mp3 player, texting and talking.

I know a hot club_______Mixed friends.c o m_______ which is a hot community for whites and blacks to find their interracial love. there has been thousands of single members online and many black and white single girls or guys waitting for you maybe you will like it.

I have a Tracfone which I can never remember to turn on, or charge if I have turned it on and then let run down. I got a new one a few months ago which can take pictures and text (I know, crazy technology!) which was exciting for about five minutes.

The BF is a landlord and on the phone constantly (especially at this time of year when leases change over). He also loves to talk, so he is wedded to the damn thing. On the other hand, if he has a bit of information to convey and doesn't want to talk, texting has been a revelation. I would text him more (since a pure information call lasts way too long), but I'm afraid if he gets it while driving, he will not only read it, but respond. Yep. He is kind of a dumbass.

My husband and I have had cell phones for as long as I can remember. I've owned so many unreliable cars that I won't get into my car without my phone. We gave our daughter one last year because she went to a hockey tourney with another family (long story), I had three numbers to contact them with and was still unable to reach them. She got her own cell phone, problem solved. Now the damn thing would have to be surgically removed from her hands, her texting habits are comparable to Che's daughter's. Luckily, she has unlimited texting. For three phones with generous plans we pay a little under $120 Cdn/month. If I never made a single call and neither did she, it's worth it for the peace of mind.

I just bought a Droid X. I love it because I don't HAVE to talk on it. It's tied into email and every IM program available not to mention text. I've had it a week and talked on it 3 times but sent about a million texts and IM messages already. Works for me.

What the FUCK do you have to talk about so much?
1) making appointments;
2) cancelling appointments;
3) ringing people to tell them I'm going to be late for an appointment, very sorry, yadder, yadder;
4) my mother's garden;
5) my single friends' love lives;
6) work.
... now that I think of it, I never talk to my boyfriend on the phone. We either talk at home or email.

I loathe talking on the phone. Loathe it. Talking on the phone requires small talk or me feigning like I give a shit about the other person. My mom gets the most talking out of me and that's once a month while I drive (HAHAHAH) to Target for my groceries. It's a 7 minute drive. Some times, if she's lucky or there is some super juicy gossip she *has* to tell me, I'll push the cart while talking on the phone.

Now. Before you people tear me apart - I can steer a cart with one hand just as well as two. There is no hitting of people with said cart or anything. It's not a difficult task.

Talking while driving - I don't talk to my mom if there is traffic - which there isn't, since it's Sunday morning at 9am when everyone is in church. My windows are down so I can hear a motorcycle in the lane next to me. If it's unfamilar road, I won't talk on the phone either. Yeah.

Back to talking on the phone. I've even moved to texting a woman to setup a date. I hate talking on the phone that much. My job requires me to talk all day long and sell ice to Eskimos. One of the last things I want to do is talk on the phone after leaving the office.

Texting. I. Fucking. Love. Texting. They are to the point. Can send them whenever I want and not worry about waking some one up (the majority of my friends silence their phones at night because we are used to waking up, sending a text with a question about a movie/tv show, going back to sleep). It's also easier for me to walk to my car, answer 4 different texts and not have to call each person, listen about their day I don't care about, then tell them I need to call someone else.

Che I also have a teen daughter, so you have my sympathy/empathy. We text room to room, too. It's just easier, faster, and I KNOW she'll see it. Her phone vibrates and she's looking at it.

Which brings me to another point. I think people need to remember a ringing phone is a request, not a demand. Ditto for a text, though it's super easy to at least see it and determine if it needs to be answered/needs to be answered right now.

You have to make the tool work for you, not become a slave to it, which is why I'm having growing pains with the whole work email on my phone issue, but I'm getting on top of it.

ANYway. Daughter and her friends seem to use texting as their primary form of communication when not around each other.

i have a crackberry.
i'm in my early twenties.
i'm planning a wedding in a location where i do not live.

the end.

I don't mind talking on the phone. What bugs me is that the cell phone makes me so accessible. I hate that guilty feeling I sometimes get for ignoring a call, and then I have to remind myself that I grew up in an era before cell phones. I didn't get one until after I graduated from college. We didn't even have an answering machine or caller ID until I think high school.
Every now and then I have to remind myself that it's ok to be unavailable.
On the flip side, although I like texting, it has its limits. My cousin will have these loooooooong text conversations and then screen you if you dare call her. That's annoying.
I HATE HATE HATE people who talk on their hand-helds or text while driving. While I've been guilty of both in the past, I do my very best to avoid doing either anymore. Bluetooth or speaker while in the car...and no texting. It's so dangerous. My city has already passed laws against using your hand-held or texting while driving, and the rest of the state is following as of 1/1/11.

I concur with Zerath.

And Deathbringer (it needs to come back), I saw that iPhone at lunch. I getcha.

Agreed, very well written and can't wait for the second half.