Mobile phones, what is your opinion?

[hamster]

...

GOOD thing about mobiles is in rural poorer countries for people to keep in genuine contact. Have also been used to organise uprisings/rebellions

If you tell people you don't have a mobile they look at you as if you are a loony!

That's true, actually, I'd forgotten that. In Africa, loads of people had mobiles (and all thought I was mad for not having brought mine) because the phone system was so unreliable.

[The Prehistorian]

I have one but, like others, a PAYG for emergencies.

On the few occasions that I switch it on I keep finding things like invites to parties that happened three months ago and so on....

Problem with them these days is that they are leading to many phone boxes being removed - I think something like 14000 in the next culling.

[grumpy jock]

The make me grumpy... people yakking on bus/train/in restaurant etc. Height of bad manners... and people interrupting conversations once too often with them won't get onto my freinds list.
They are here to stay now... I just hope I can adapt and not get narky anymore, I'm probably just old fashioned. However I actually got an mp3 player specifically to use on public transport to drown out everyone elses' phones and ipods: At least this way I get to choose what I hear, but it's a poor substitute for considerate behaviour...

And those custom ring tones...
remember that famous one- Bipolar Frog or whatever it was called.... jings, crivvens, help ma boab!

Grumpy Jock

[dragonsue]

I have to admit to loving my pay-as-you-go phone.
It is my alarm clock, so no extra batteries to buy, and no wasted electric on something I use just once a day.
It is my diary, which tells me when I have important appointments coming up, without my having to search through pages of paper that will at the end of the year need to be disposed of.
It has been my life-line when I was attacked by a gang of teenagers on my lonely allotment one evening, it has called the ambulance when I witnessed a motorbike accident, and it called the police when a man walked down the street holding a gun, and it even took his picture so the police could pick him up easier .
Do I have the phone attached to my ear twenty-four hours a day? No.
Do I even have it switched on twenty-hours a day? No, but be without it? NO WAY!
What I do hate though, are the people who mis-use this technology, and run themselves in to debt, and are so wrapped up in their own private world they don't bother to look where they are walking or driving!

[Turf cutter man]

I have to admit to loving my pay-as-you-go phone.
It is my alarm clock, so no extra batteries to buy, and no wasted electric on something I use just once a day.
It is my diary, which tells me when I have important appointments coming up, without my having to search through pages of paper that will at the end of the year need to be disposed of.
It has been my life-line when I was attacked by a gang of teenagers on my lonely allotment one evening, it has called the ambulance when I witnessed a motorbike accident, and it called the police when a man walked down the street holding a gun, and it even took his picture so the police could pick him up easier .
Do I have the phone attached to my ear twenty-four hours a day? No.
Do I even have it switched on twenty-hours a day? No, but be without it? NO WAY!
What I do hate though, are the people who mis-use this technology, and run themselves in to debt, and are so wrapped up in their own private world they don't bother to look where they are walking or driving!

If only more people used their phone in a sensible way like you. This post also reminds me how useful they can be. Attacked on your allotment how awful. Hope you still feel safe there.

[yugogypsy]

Today a mobile phone was the conveyor of news my ex DIDN'T want to hear. His girlfriend is leaving him and taking their 16 month old twin girls.
Her parents are getting her a "nice" place to live-what a slap in the face to my ex, after he'd just paid the damage deposit and half a months rent for them somewhere else. He has since talked to the landlord and he can't get any of it back, so it looks like I may have a caravan in my back yard again if he gets desperate.
But SHE wouldn't let him see the girls here because she is jealous of me. He'd have to arrange a neutral meeting ground

I am upset too, because this is the ex I still care about and I'll do everything I can to help him.

Tonight I am cursing mobile phones for being bearers of bad news, I'm just glad my ex was okay to drive home from where we were having coffee.

And cursing my own mobile still because I didn't want it, and still don't want it.

Lois

[dragonsue]

Thanks Turf Cutter Man, I got away with shock and a few bruises, but no, I don't feel safe there anymore so arrange to be there when I know others are going to be there too. It doesn't help that the council are dragging their feet over repairing the fence that they got in through either!

Lois, I'm so sorry for your situation, human emotions always make everything so messy. I hope it all works out well for you and your ex.

Sue

[AXJ]

Mobile phones... no fan but I use one, and make sure the children all know the number by heart so I can always be found if required.

On a lighter note, this 15min programme takes a look at mobiles in a most humourous way

The Problem with Adam Bloom
Mobiles: The comedian helps us to deal with more everyday annoyances, with help from Rob Rouse, Emma Kennedy and Stephano Paolini.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/t ... s/2315.ram

It will be on listen again for the day or so, if you don't like mobiles you'll enjoy this programme, starts at about 3mins.

[contadina]

When I had a contract many moons ago and decided I wanted out I wrote to my carrier telling them I was unhappy with their service for several reasons (can't remember them now) and was also unhappy with changes in their services. They insisted I was under contract for a couple of months but soon stopped - it's maybe worth pointing out that I'd canceled my direct debit to them and paid my last bill by cheque. If you want out it's maybe worth googling your options.

When I arrived in Italy we needed a mobile phone as there are no phone lines to our our house. We now have internet via an antenna on the roof so we haven't topped up our pay as you go for over a year but can still receive calls and texts on it. I make all my calls and texts via skype and also have a UK skypeIn number so people can call and leave messages via it.

P.S., We've walkie talkies in case of limb lopping accidents!

[Urban Ayisha]

i do have concerns about health risks... i think it will be a while before we truly know what effect having that thing in our pocket all day really has! and also i can vouch that it has changed the way my generation communicates for the worser... its very easy to hide behind the facade of a text message where apologies are due, or your going to be late, or you're cancelling on someone, or you want to tell someone your annoyed with them... do people know what i mean?
however, it has so many positives as were listed earlier, it is one of those technological advances that really have made life easier in many ways!

[yugogypsy]

I've come to terms with having mine, I've even taken some pretty good pictures with the camera in it.

But I really could do without the extra bill per month.

Lois

[Clara]

Well I have one because I don´t have a landline, but here´s an interesting tale (I´ll make it short as can be)...

Jan 2 this year, OH and his best mate are coming down from the high sierra (3500m) when they get caught in a BAD storm (90kmph winds and -23 with wind chill, pelting ice-snow, visibility 6 inches ). They manage to dig a snow hole and arrange tent inside. A couple of hours later they get a window of reception and manage to send me a text message to ask me to alert SOS.......hooray for technology. Several calls to the guardia etc, who after being convinced that it is not a hoax promise to send up a search party at day break. OH having experience of the "emegency" services here, decides in the meantime that they´d better get themselves out of this fix. Next day they manage to walk out of it, still the same weather conditions, but this time OH has the compass. A couple of days later OH goes to collect his car (where they walked to was not where they had started from), he knows the warden there and got chatting. Turns outs that because they only made 1 text, the guardia had assumed them dead and were not planning on making a search anytime soon.....

[AXJ]

Jesus christo ... sounds just like the Guardia Civil, lazy bunch of fascist bstds. Round this way if someone gets lost on the mountains there is a hue and cry and the local mountaineering clubs get moving. You'd think that the Guardia Civil would enjoy an excuse to get their helicopter out... the mind boggles it really does. Glad that they made it okay, clearly their survival skills are top notch.