Hung up on cellular phones

By Colleen Snyder

Since cell phones became oh-so-popular several years ago, they have been linked to causing numerous car accidents, annoying people profusely in public places, and even causing brain tumors. They were blamed for further complicating Americans' lives and many people refused to buy into the whole thing. These same people it seems, a few years later, have now joined the ranks of the cell phone sub-culture they once loathed. I feel as if I am one of the last people left annoyed.

I guess everyone else figured if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Last quarter, four of my five housemates had their very own cell phones. Sure, this cleared up the regular old house phone for me to use more often; but my other cell phone-free housemate and I couldn't help but get annoyed at the different ring tones (one that even dares to sound like a schoolyard taunt - you know, "nanananana"), the constant talk of charging batteries and the, at times unbearable, mixed chatter of five girls talking in five different conversations at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I love my housemates - sometimes I just wish they didn't come with built-in cell phones.

Even my parents, who for 10 years refused to buy a microwave oven and still don't have Internet access, both have cell phones. Granted, they still haven't figured out how to access their voicemail and they don't talk nearly as much as my friends do, but it's the idea of it that really bothers me.

Why would anyone want to be accessible 24 hours a day? I just don't get it. I enjoy having time alone, time to think or even time to spend with my friends. This is probably the most obnoxious thing about these god-awful contraptions: they don't allow people to just be with another person for any period of time. This is sad.

When I'm with someone at dinner and their cell phone rings and they answer it, that tells me something about how important I am to them. My ex-boyfriend carried his phone with him everywhere, and believe me - there's a reason he's my ex. (My new and improved boyfriend, by the way, has no cell phone.)

Okay, so not everyone is as rude as my ex, but even when I'm just casually hanging out with a friend and he or she interrupts our time together to take a call, I can't help but feel insulted. This is the real deep-seeded reason why I hate cell phones. Yes, they're definitely annoying when they ring in movie theaters. And who is annoying enough to still leave theirs on when in class? It's hard to believe, but a girl at Disneyland the other week even insisted on doing some cellular chatting while sitting behind me on the Pirates of the Caribbean.

These annoying interruptions are definitely rude and unnecessary, but what really bothers me is the distance that these phones put between people. My friends and I couldn't enjoy a simple car ride together the other week because at any time throughout the ride, one or the other was chatting with someone or in the process of calling or receiving calls from someone. The much anticipated six hour ride with my two best friends had turned into a seemingly much longer ride with my two best friends and all their friends and family.

Now, I can see thought bubbles forming over their heads as I write this. She's just jealous because she doesn't have a cell phone and a slew of friends and family that want to talk to her multiple times a day about not-so-pressing issues. Maybe it's true - maybe if I had the luxury of my own brand new cellular phone, I'd be just as inconsiderate and gabby as everyone else. I hope I never find out.