Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
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Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#2A common factor of these famous people who do not use a cell phone: they have at least one assistant/secretary.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#3This works great if you're in a job where they can afford to not get back to someone immediately. For people in a situation where they're really playing for the breaks (which is most young people trying to get established, and especially entrepreneurs), you can't afford to take more than a few hours to get back to people.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#4I stopped carrying my cell phone to theaters because I kept forgetting to put in on vibrate.
I stopped carrying my cell phone to business meetings because I didn't want to be distracted by the vibrating.
I stopped carrying my cell phone to restaurants because I wanted the people I was with to think that no one was more important than them while we were together.
I stopped carrying my cell phone to my mother's because she outranks anyone who could possibly call.
Except for travel, I stopped carrying my cell phone altogether.
I'm not sure I would go the the extreme of no cellphone like some of OP's examples, but I'm getting closer.
Now, the only reason I have a cell phone instead of a land line is for travel and emergencies.
[Aside: I love the idea of a voice mail greeting that asks the caller to email me instead. But I won't do it. It just seems like a rude way to treat someone who bothered to call. I'll keep checking voice mail (sigh).]
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#5I still remember the days before cellular phones. My dad even had one of those early car phones, it had an awesome speaker phone, but used it infrequently. As soon as he got a work cell phone the interruptions came.
I'm no luddite, but that doesn't mean I like cellular phones.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#6Absolutely. I managed to successfully evade cell phone ownership for years and it was dramatically empowering. It also made me develop a pretty strong distaste for our cultural addiction to instant communication.
In fact, it's become at least a small part of my definition of success. I am not a concierge. I do not await phone calls with the longing of a teenager on Friday night. My peace and leisure cannot be disturbed at random. And most importantly, my interactions with the people in my present can not rudely be put on pause for just any reason.
I have never had a call in my life that could not wait a few minutes. If you have many of those, I'd suggest that someone (not necessarily you) needs to revisit some aspect of their infrastructure design.
Sadly I was finally lured into the mobile masses by the prospect of smartphone application development. Though I am at least able to rationalize it with the thought that it's not so much a phone as it is a tiny personal computer that I can distract myself with whenever I want.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#7I moved to a new country one week ago and I thought that I would have needed a new sim card for my cellphone. To my surprise, after a week I still see no reason for having a cellphone with ne. I feel more free now and I'm not sure I'm going to use a cellphone anytime soon.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#8This works great if you're in a job where they can afford to not get back to someone immediately. For people in a situation where they're really playing for the breaks (which is most young people trying to get established, and especially entrepreneurs), you can't afford to take more than a few hours to get back to people.
Unless you are saving lives (a doctor) or protecting the country (in defense), or maybe a few other edge cases, the perception that you need to get back to a person in a few hours is probably more on your end than on the recipient's.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#9A common factor of these famous people who do not use a cell phone: they have at least one assistant/secretary.
Not at all. In almost all cases, it's a self-maintained illusion that the people that call you cannot wait for a few minutes or hours to hear back from you.
Sure, it might be annoying to someone that they didn't get to talk to you, but rarely does it actually make a difference.
Re: Not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time
#10It's less about having/not having 'foo' and more about letting or not letting 'foo' dominate your life. In the case of cell phones 'foo' is the cellphone as well as all the people trying to contact you through it.
I never answer a call I don't recognize, I check the vmail afterwards. If they don't leave one, oh well guess they didn't need to talk to me that bad.
I often don't anser the phone when someone I know does call, I check the vmaili afterwards. If they don't leave one, oh well guess they didn't need to talk to me that bad. OTHOH if they call again right away I assume it's important and answer. There's a parable "Boy who cried Wolf" applicable to those who abuse this.
(smart)phone is external memory, camera, notebook, calendar, email, gps, some other stuff and a mostly outbound telephone.
It's massively useful, it has an off switch.