Mobile phones-nessacary or pointless?

Time to have another crack-this time something that ain't gonna get people hurt at all-mobile phones...

I remember when I was 7 years of age-I never even knew much about them (or a regular phone for that matter-parents did that for me) and all i knew was in some tv shows they would come up occasionally...

Now adays I see kids around that age WITH mobile phones, the excuse-emergencies.

Well I never needed one until our family moved house (I was 20 by this time)-simply because I constantly drove over a freeway to get to work and the emergency phones were few and far between, besides my dad would fix whatever the trouble is anyway...

But my brother just got a phone and made me realise-do we need them as much as we think we do?

I'm on a contract that allows 100 free txt messages and $30 credit, but I almost never use the dam thing (car was a good runner never broke down even survived puntures and drove home and THEN deflate XD) and here is my brother going prepaid...he's 13 and he certainly don't need it!


But people I see around me make it look like an essential piece to have, my brother has to constantly rely on his school friends to call home and change school arrangments all because the teachers to share thiers-KIDS THIS AGE DON'T NEED THEM!


Unless your in a place where land lines can't go or constantly moving about I see no point in having one-think about before the concept of mobile phones did people back then worry?

No-ethier other phones (pay phone or at someone elses place) or simple (I thing I wish I had experienced) good planning and sticking to it (my mates would constantly ring each other all because they would drop out at the last minute-all the time).


So, what do you guys think-essential kit or are we just brainwashed to buy something that we might never need?

 

i think it's essential for everyone to have a mobile phone. nevermind those fancy iphone with tons of features, just a basic mobile phone to make calls or sms...but you know basic mobile phones are impossible to find nowadays...every phone now has pointless features you only use for a few times...

 

no they are not impossible. you buy a pre-paid phone service like those from virgin and the phone is either free with the purchase of a $20+ phone card or vice versa [buy the phone and get a free $20 air time minute]. btw, the cheapest for a virgin phone is about $20.

in today's world it is very essential. it seems that it's useless but when you have to meet with someone you can contact them to see if you've arrived or if you're trying to find a store you can call the store and ask for directions if you get lost or want more help. if you have a camera/video phone you can capture the people who maybe committing a crime or the likes. if suppose you lose your credit card, you can immediately call your card company and immediately cancel the card before the thief starts using it. if you're in an accident you can contact the police and other agency to obtain help and judicial assistance. it's very useful.

 

mobile phones for me is a bit of a want, not a need. mobile phones are not a necessity that without one, you will not survive and just crawl and die. But by having one, it makes your life a bit easier. Rather than going to a real telephone, you can just call anyone, anytime and anywhere which is for me is very convinient, always on the go and doing transactions all the time.

But giving a child a phone is a bit unnecessary specially in schools because it affects their grades and its a bit annoying to hear those damned ringtones at the middle of a lecture and exams. and it cant be said its for emergency purposes because their is the principal and guidance office's phones for that thing. and what kind of parent will call their children in the middle of a class using cellphones.
Also, cellphones can be used a cheating device by the students.

To answer the question if its a necessary or pointless: Its not necessarily needed for use everyday but its never pointless because somebody,somewhere needs to use it like on a highway, his car broke down, or some sort of emergency like that.

 

They're a convenience, not a necessity.

 

that can change. look what electricity did for us. sure electricity is a convenience when it was first introduced but it became a necessity after a while. cell phone may do the same thing. with more people carrying them around, it's possible that the telephone company may one day terminate your standard telephone service and cell phone service becomes the standard. who knows?!

 

well, it maybe possible, here in our country, our telephone companies offer wireless landline. the standard telephone can now be carried anywhere you go as long as there is a signal. but mostly its like a cellphone with a simcard and you need to charge it. and they offer a text messaging service to it too. its really like a cellphone except on the external part it looks like a regular telephone.

 

Mobile phones are necessary yes, but the new things they put in it like a high definition Camera, games, mp3 players, video streaming & what else...

Anyway, those other doo-dads maybe kewl, but they're absolutely worthless.

A mobile phone was intended as a communications device, something you use especially in emergency situations.

But no! These mobile phone companies want their devices to be ultra hip & in with the crowds. Now people laugh at me when I still had my monochrome screened, monotone Nokia 3350 phone, so what the heck, I threw the phone into the horizon & happily watched as it plummeted into the pavement smashing into many tantalizing bits.

It was then & there I swore I will never get in with this multiple media mobile phone craze that everyone's hooked on. So when people ask me for my mobile number I proudly say, "Sorry, I only go by landline".

 

u should tell em you have phones all over the country...pay phones!

true to a certain extent, if it was 10 years ago i would say they're a convinience...but things change, and mobile phone has somewhat became a necessity...not everyone has the patience to wait for someone else to finish using a payphone. anyway mobile phones are becoming cheaper, so why not get one? i can still remember those brick-type phone my dad had about 10 or so years ago...those cost a lot of money back then!

 

well i dont need a cell phone at 1st, my mom get one for me so she "know where i am all the time", but now i need a phone since my job require it

 

If mobile bills were the same as standard phone I would have been for it, and prepaid services...

But what sucks is you put you money in, and after awhile if you don't use it it's wasted...

And then contracts...unless you WASTE your allowed credit, your gonna end up paying huge...

When I first heard about phones I thought they would have the same set up as normal phones, just portable...how wrong I was...

And yes while the new gadgets can be useful-it's irritating!

Case in point-punks on busses with thier phones blaring while screaming to thier mates-and if a phone call comes then some dumb ring tone of a VL turbo (it's noisy, just a powerful car making noise) going off and then them screaming into it as they seem to have lound speaker going...with them screaming in reply...

Then there is people on phones while driving (nearly killed several times by them-no one is responsible enough to say yor an idiot for doing so)!

God and what's worse, getting back to the features of a phone-is the quality of the product itself goes down with each extra device installed-almost all phones have crap camera, almost all have crap radio reception, and ALL HAVE CRAP MUSIC QUALITY!

Case in point-my phone, nokia 6500 s-steel case distorts the sound coming out and makes heavy metal akin to a cat screetching!


Some good points in here too though-a convience-not a nessecity, but if we look at it from a company point of view everyone wants these un-nessacary features, everyone wants to pay these high bills, and everyone sooner or later will get a complicated model phone!

And sometimes again, these features suck-3g networks in australia were having trouble at some point-I remember a story where a person died because his reception wouldn't connect correctly and he was in a remote area-for some reason only the 3g would be able to connect and it was bad-I can't remember the exact details but it ended up being the companies fault anyways...

Note-just for the record-only good mobile game was tetris-all others belong to the ds and the device I almost mistaken for a mobile-the psp XD and mobile gaming should be left to the big players...

I wish I can go back to landline usage...but all my crazy mates go only by mobiles-yeap some don't have land lines in thier newly built houses and that cost a bit to ring all the time


As for jobs that require it...it's a shame they can't pay for it, should be part of the contract, or at least reimburse company calls...

I think that's it for my reply...for now.

 

my company pay my phone bills

 

As for me, in the beginning in primary schools, a few of them have mobile phones but as for me, at that time, i just get their home numbers since well, mobile phone were pretty expensive and pointless.

Then came secondary school or high school for those who live in the states. When i was secondary one, i didn't need a mobile phone, it was useless until i enroll into my co-curricular activity or cca for short. This was because due to poor management, we often have to do stuff at the last min, it could be literally last min or just on that day itself and since cca is directly after school, we didn't have any time to prepare.

For example, previously, we were told we do not have any meeting on this day, and on the day itself, we were told we have to come. This was a minor inconviences, however after a while, things like first aid course and other important event start kicking in and i told myself, screw this, i am gona save for a mobile phone.

and like loony, i will not change my phone unnecessary especially since all i need my phone was to be in contact and also a phone is a phone, its not a mp3 player, its not a gba, it just a phone which was what my old phone is, just a simple phone which lasted for quite a while till, the battery is dead.

Anyway back to topic, phone necessary or pointless? The current me would say yes, they are necessary especially unlike long ago where kids stay at home and play games, these kids have a life, they go out with friends, calling them at home is no longer an option especially if let's say i forgotten something important and need to contact them like say i lost my files containing important stuff and if i know one of my friends would be there, i could called him/her easily.

But the me 10 years ago? pointless is what i be saying since i am just a kid, what use do i have of a mobile phone anyway? a house number would suffice and i have enuf paper to write those down.

 

...should have done research on the company paying phones XD

The fine should be brought up I reckon (when driving) in aus it's a couple of points and $500, if they bumped that to $2000 at least maybe they would stop doing that, I am fearful for these mother's on phones with kids in the back, they forget to indicate, speed etc because they ain't paying attention...

Back in my dad's day, before mobiles were hyped, they used home phones and planned well, if someone didn't rock up they continured since most of the group would rock up...

And these days people don't rock up and don't call anyways, some common excuses are

1.I lost my phone (any notice the sizes of phones shirinking, it's much easier to lose)

2.No credit (no one knows how to conserve credit)

3.Don't know how to ring yet (....)

4.Battery died (too dumb to ring while charging I guess)

5. Family comes first (but then txt'ing mates about a slight change can't hurt can it?)


I wish they had that kind of prepaid here, almost everyone I know whould say it expires after 3 months, so I chose a cheap as contract that gave me a free phone...


AND I wished phones lasted longer...if it broke why fix it...because it's disposable....


But if so, why not hurry up with the paper one (apparently they were thinking of making a truy disposable mobile, just to ring and prehaps store a few numbers, cheap to get and had like $10 credit that never ran out...once it ran out you recycle it, that is what I would have got if it did come out) but I hear nothing about it these days...

Shame really...much cheaper option and would have justified the whole "for emergencies" reason...

 

Mobile phones are a waste of money. It's true that i wanted to have that old Motorola Chatbox at highschool, but my parents bought me a different one instead. You know i was pissed at the time, but i realized pretty quickly, that i was just wasting money. All of my allowance went into the phone

So i sold it. After a few years my mom got a free mobile from some company or something, so she forced it on me. So i just removed the battery and threw it under the bed.

I also found out that it's a great toy for my cat

 

i am also curious about the problem with the plan/prepaid of mobile phones in other countries. Why is it cheaper if you call the person rather than texting them? here in our country, we are more inclining to text messages because it is cheaper than calling, both prepaid and plan holders.

and why is the mobile companies in other countries dont have any promo's like unlimited txt or unlimited call for a day for a fraction charge. here, you can send unlimited txt for just like 50cents american. so for like a month, you can just have like 15 bucks a month. but i heard about bills like 3000 dollars or something which i think is a bit impossible.

Can anybody enlighten me about that?

 

...but most prepaid (well in australia at least) are of limited use, for example my brother just got credit for his phone, 10 bucks, not bad and good for emergencies only right?

WRONG-it only last a month before it expires...
And from what I have heard, the most they last for is 3 months here-that's why I went contract...

But the good thing (for companies obviosly) is that most young people would abuse thier phones at first and may become "addicted" to use, some go on contract and blow up thier crazy limit (say 80 a month, which gives 320 worth of credit as a deal, soon that is gone before the month and yet they continue) or forget it's prepaid and, well drain it...

We are a social race-that's why mobile companies continue doing business this way-hell now that I think about it even I woulld work like this-easy money from suckers...

A shame they don't make it LAW to just have infinute pre-paid credit-I wouldn't even spend 50 in a year!


Also note that while plans with free txt (100 a month for me) or other free things (internet or calls) it's just a loyalty program-they will get cash from you in the end...

The rush of a phone bill is easy to explain as well (well to me) because of the services provided...

-internet
-calls to bf/gf/family
-downloadable content such as games
-or those dumb activities they charge for like "txt now to find out your future babies name"!

1000 is the highest I have heard from a mate-lack of money management skills and to stop chatting so long-if he says goodbye the person on the other side keeps going forcing him to continue just to "not be rude"!