Why I Will Never Own a Mobile Phone: A Rant Against The Modern Mobile Phone

"I don"t have one, and if I can help it, I won"t ever get one in the future. And I hate the assumption that I need one, or that I"m strange for not having one. I opened a new bank account the other day and a woman who was helping me (and this is a true story) asked me if I was serious when she found out I didn"t have one. She simply couldn"t see how I could live my life without one. I don"t see why --- I can be contacted at home, or work, so what"s the problem?\nYes, I have a laptop computer and instant access to the Internet; yes, I have a digital camera and yes I have a microwave oven and an iPod but I absolutely refuse to get a mobile phone!\nOf course I can see how useful they could be, and that if there was a real emergency they could come in handy, but that"s not always the case. There was a story of a guy who had a parachuting accident and found himself on top of a cliff with two broken legs. He had his mobile with him but --- guess what? He wasn"t able to use it because he was in a remote area! So, in great pain, he had to pull himself along the ground with his elbows until he got to a road and could stop a motorist. So not much help for him then, was it?\nOther times they create the emergency themselves. Remember that awful story of the Kenyan student? She dropped hers into a pit latrine while "answering a call of nature". So she offered the equivalent of $ 13 to anyone who could get it for her and what happened? Three men died, intoxicated by the fumes because they were so desperate for the money. That"s awful.\nBut these aren"t my main bugbears. No, what I hate is how my daily life is affected negatively by other people using theirs. Take a restaurant --- I really, really hate it when friends arrive and the first thing they do is put their mobiles on the table so that, in the event of it going off they stop talking to you and start ignoring you. Are they doctors? Are they giving advice on open-heart surgery? Are they talking to long-lost friends? Sick relatives? No! It"ll be their mother who they saw recently, or other friends they"re going to meet soon. For me it"s the height of rudeness. And of course I also have to put up with the same happening on the next-door table too. And how inept and pointless the conversations are! "I"m with Jenny and we"re having Dim Sum." The person needs to know that? "Hi, I"m on the train now and will be there in about 10 minutes." So? Are they not expected? Can"t they just turn up in 10 minutes and say "I"m here"?\nI"m also affected by the light --- do the owners really not realize how bright they are? OK, maybe the stupid thing is on vibration but when it"s opened in the cinema, or at a concert the owner is all lit up and the I can"t concentrate on what I"m watching. I was at a concert not long ago, up on the balcony, and looking down on the audience there were always at least five people using their mobiles. Why didn"t they switch them off? It drives me so mad! The mate of mine sitting next to me actually answered his and started whispering loudly --- but when he saw the look on my face he instantly apologized. "Sorry --- it"s my sister." So?\nFinally, it"s an excuse to be late. If the waiting friend can be contacted, "Just to let you know I"m going to be half an hour late", then somehow being late is therefore OK. No! Just make an effort to arrive on time! Sometimes friends even blame me for sitting alone for twenty minutes when it was thy who were late because, they insist, I couldn"t be contacted! No---I"m never, ever going to get one!\n41. When the bank clerk found out the author didn"t have a mobile phone, she simply .\nA. Couldn"t understand how the author could live a life without one\u200b\u200b\nB. Advised the author to buy one\nC. Showed her contempt because the author couldn"t afford to buy one\nD. Refused to offer any help to the author\n42. What do you know about the guy who had a parachuting accident?\nA. He landed on top of a cliff \u200b\u200b\u200b\nB. He had his mobile phone with him but he wasn"t able to use it.\nC. Finally he had to stop a motorist for help.\u200b\u200b\u200b\nD. All of the above