Mobile Phones

[plachon]

Just curious to know, how many other folks in LOS out there don't feel the need to own a mobile? And if so, why? Cost? Hassle? always losing things and don't want to add your phone to the list? don't want to support Shincorp? No friends? Other reason?

This is primarily to those in Thailand without a mobile phone, but perhaps others who'd previously held out against the mobile invasion wave, but then succumbed, can relate how their life has changed as a result, for the better or worse.....

[raybkk]

Well, I've got one! Not that I realy like it but for work it is handy. However there are pros and contra's.

The negative thing about having a mobile is that if you are in no mood to answer the phone the other site blames you for not answering and demands an answer. But not returning the phonecall it gets even worse.

SMS the same thing. Not replying becomes an insult for some.

It seems that if you wish not being disturbed at some times you better throw the thing away and let them all know that they can leave a message on the answer phone at home.

Thats my opinion by the way.

Pro's: If the car brakes down or having an accident you have easier acces to insurrance and Car World Club.

[the scouser]

for work it is handy.

Was this an intentional cross-lingual pun, "handy" being the German for mobile phone?

Scouse.

[pipchatel]

Hello all mobile phone users. Maybe here another dimension on mobile phones. I was made deaf around 1944, the V 2 Rockets in London. Although not profoundly deaf, a slow creaping deafness, that has had a profound result.

Slowly I learned, (quite naturally) to lip read, it just happed slowly over many years. I have had an extra ordanary life, did things I shouldnt have, went up higher than possible, with a disabilty like that. So to the point. Mobile Phones!! I love them, I hate them?

I love them, for I wish, I so wish, I could use one. It would trasform my life, but its not to be. My hearing loss, the fequencies in my ears are all wrong!(yes Ive been to every major hearing hospitol for long times)

I Hate them, because people are so obseesed by them, e mails are my life line, but are declining because of the mobile phones. people are just finding it too hard to e mail. I hate them because people are never "With You" always tinkering with the thing, sqinting at small text messages. I hate them for the Bad driving they cause, really bad. Now, as if things not bad enough in Thailand, Girls riding a honda, 3+ Raining, trying to key in a Mobile Phone! I never get cheaper insurance as a Non Mobile phone user, I must always keep to the road, I cant talk to any one whilst driving(Lip Reader) I must, and do have 100% concentration on the road.

Its a nightmare to see a BMW or A Merc driving down to Bangkok at 140kmh,and the guy/Girl miles away on the Mobile!

So all this is just a lite moan, but mostly a wonderfull thing (I was all my work Life in Electronics), Trully amazing. Good luck to all you Mobile users, but do not forget !

Personal contact, good old fashioned letter writing, e mails,

Best regards

Pip

[axl]

I could live without a mobile phone (prepaid) if the TOT would have installed a telephone line - which they promised 6 month ago...

[taxexile]

once you have had one for a while it becomes very difficult to live without one.

its almost a psychological dependance , i am trying to give mine up, but it was easier to stop smoking.

people demand that you have one , and get annoyed if you should turn it off and become unreachable.

i want one that cannot receive calls,texts,bleeps and farts,.... but can make calls.

[billd766]

I could live without a mobile phone (prepaid) if the TOT would have installed a telephone line - which they promised 6 month ago...

Axl

I live up country and I have been waiting over a year for my landline.

All we get is "when 27 people apply we will run the cable and you will get one".

27 people never apply because they wait so long it is easier to buy a mobile.

I have actually been working in the mobile phone business putting in systems all over the world but all I use my mobile for is calling people and now GPRS so I can get my emails and go on line to the internet.

Mind you we only hae 3 Thai TV channels and Thai newspapers and I don't really miss UBC at all.

[jackr]

Good idea to have one in a foreign country really, shit happens! and with the advent of cheap calls to the west, via the net, makes sense. People who piss about texting in the presence of a friend is <deleted> annoying, though. Can't stand wearing watches et al, so the phone doubles as the time piece.

[Gazza]

I keep a mobile with me for should I have problems with the bike when out on the road somewhere.

It's useful as an alarm clock for when I need to get out on the road early. Can't rely on staff at cheap hotels to be up a 6am.

I keep it on silent all the time cos I feel compelled to pull over to the side of the road far to quickly if I hear it ringing.

Had a few wires snipped so it doesn't flash when a g/f calls otherwise the wife might see it if I'm showering or occupied with something.

You can let good looking girls use it instead of them waiting to use a public phone. Some are very very grateful.

It can also save unnecessary travel if someone phones to cancel an appointment when you've just left the house.

I'm in favour of 'em.

[RamdomChances]

I have'nt got a mobile, althought the wife has. I have had them before but always end up leaving them in the house, which sort of defeats the point, you have to surgicaly remove my wifes from her, so its easier to give anyone who wants to get in touch with me her number, then as long as she has'nt swaped sim cards around, and remembers to tell me someone has called people do have a slight chance of conntacting me.

Axl

I live up country and I have been waiting over a year for my landline.

All we get is "when 27 people apply we will run the cable and you will get one".

27 people never apply because they wait so long it is easier to buy a mobile.

I have actually been working in the mobile phone business putting in systems all over the world but all I use my mobile for is calling people and now GPRS so I can get my emails and go on line to the internet.

Mind you we only hae 3 Thai TV channels and Thai newspapers and I don't really miss UBC at all

Try getting a 470 mhz radio phone, the calls cost the same as a normal land line, but you cant use it for internet (fax ok I think). You will be waiting for ever for the land line (unless you are very lucky)

Cheers RC

[stumonster]

small tip for those with new phones running symbian OS, YOu can run a software program on them to act as an answering machine if you desire.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I'd be naked without my phone.

But I would have more money.

[350torana]

I don't think I could live without my phone. Although most of the time it is in my wife's hands gossiping to her friends . Oh well,I used to be one of those guys who said" I am never gonna own a <deleted> phone" But technology and conveninence overides morality Oh well, this I will say....... Don't see the point in spending a large amount on a phone because it can take pictures or watch tv.I have a dinosaur of a phone , it is not flash , but does the job with calls, which is what a phone is for right? Or maybe I don't get the status symbol thing

[RDN]

Both me and my g/f have mobiles. It's quite useful if we get separated in Tesco/Lotus, Big C or Central Festival.

Or is it exactly the opposite?

[daveh]

In the States, I was a late adopter of cell phones. Then I got a job in which I had to carry one. When I first started carrying it, I hardly ever used it to make calls. But then I figured my company was paying for a certain number of minutes each month that weren't being used, so I started to use it. The rest is history.

During my first week in Thailand, I bought a mobile. It is very useful to have especially if you don't have a land line or you travel around a lot. Now, every time a friend visits Thailand, I recommend they buy a second hand phone. The benefits far outweigh the costs.

[plachon]

Seems like I'm really in a small minority, still to resist the mobile invasion, judging by the responses so far. Still, good to see that Random has also not got one, though your good wife can't do without hers. Neither myself, nor my wife possess one of these "indispensable gadgets" or "fashion accessories", depending which way you want to look at 'em. They're worn like watches or jewellry and people seem to get a big thrill out of comparing their models - at least the folk i witness each day on the streets. They're also bloody annoying to non-users, especially when they start playing some inane tune at full volume in a restuarant, or even worse the cinema, but unlike smoking, they haven't been banned in public places like they should be!

I think Taxexile has it about right, when he equates them with a drug, using the term "psychological dependency". Personally, I'd rather not get dependent and can't really see that the benefits of instant communication, outweigh the costs, unless they're essential for ones work. Put simply, I can live quite contentedly without one and just don't feel the need to join the herd (yet).

But then again, I support the concept of "slow food" over "fast food" and have not been in a McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Kack for 3 years either, so not having a mobile is not great loss to my lifestyle a.f.a.i.c. There's also another factor involved - I don't want my brain fried or nuts nuked by the microwaves, so it's also a health choice.

[stroll]

I am one of those who resisted mobiles for a long time, and basically dislike them.

Overhearing what people (mobile users seem to be a special breed who don't care that about 20 others are forced to listen to their private conversations, a bit like junkies shooting up in the street) talk about with the thing plugged into their ears, I often wondered whether mobiles are the cause or the result of the decline of civilisation.

I needed to have one in connection with a job some time ago, and have one now, but rarely use it. It is useful for emergencies, coordinating meetings while out etc.

I share the resentment at being expected to be 'online' all the time, particularly annoying when people call you on the mobile, and when you don't answer, 3 seconds later the houseline will be ringing for the next 10 minutes.

Ps. Like Random's, my partner uses the mobile extensively, but it is mine, so I can monitor the costs and hide it (turned off) when I get fed up with it. Of course she could use her own, but I suggested she financed it with her money. Now mom and daughter got a mobile as well, so a total of 4 phones in the household. And they do call me on the houseline extension in my studio on the second floor from downstairs.

You will read more about it in my suicide note.

PPs. Sorry I added the last paragraph later, I had to take a phonecall.

Edited October 17, 2004 by stroll

[Boon Mee]

I don't have a cell phone although the old lady's got hers. Basically they're like a "ball & chain" once people have your number - can't get away from 'em! If I needed one for business...a different story.

[plachon]

I don't have a cell phone although the old lady's got hers. Basically they're like a "ball & chain" once people have your number - can't get away from 'em! If I needed one for business...a different story.

Talking about your Mum, wife or a mobile phone being like a "ball and chain", Boonmee? Thought you'd moved out from your parents home already

Just reminded me of another reason for not having one - so the "trouble and strife" can't find out what I'm up to, where I am or snoop into how many "Noks", "Leks", "Kungs" and "Nois" are in the memory list!