smooth wombat's Journal: See, we're not luddites!

First, let me say that /. is becoming more and more annoying as it tries to be on the cutting edge of shit for its web design. I had to turn on javascript to write this as not having it turned on wouldn't let me type anything.

With that little bit out of the way, nearly everyone I told the following piece about me seems shocked, especially when it is revealed that I am employed in the IT field. What is so shocking that people's mouths fall to ground in surprise? What is so unbelievable that they have to call their friends to spread the news?

I don't own a cell phone. Just as some on here will say they don't have cable, I don't own a cell phone. My job doesn't require it, nor do I want or need one. I don't want people to be able to contact me at a moment's notice. I most certainly don't people to be able to track me down.

And I'm not the only one. As the following article relates, many people, of both high and low stature, don't have cell phones. And it's not because they're luddites. They don't have one because they don't need one. Which is something I have said all along. The number of people who truly need a cell phone is insignificant compared to those who own one (or more) phones. Besides, as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of La Verne says in the article, "He says he has never overheard a cell conversation that wasn't banal."

So when you find out someone doesn't own a cell phone, don't think they're living in a backwards mentality. Think of them as being on the cutting edge of being a power broker.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38646066/ns/business-bloomberg_businessweek/

Yep

[Captain Splendid]

Only got my first cell phone a couple of years ago, and not by choice.

And I used to sell the damn things back in he nineties, too.