Monday, May 2, 2005

Cell Phones are the Devil

Cell Phones

The other day I went to my daughter’s school to pick her up when she was not felling well. Standing in the attendance office two things stood out. One was the bowl of razors sitting on the desk. I will blog about that another time. The other was the two high school girls that help the attendance lady text messaging on their cell phones the entire time I was waiting.
I don’t own a cell phone. My wife and kids do not own one either. Why would we? Why do high school kids need cell phone? Why do they have them?
These are all questions that there is not a real good answer for. Lets take a few arguments and see.

Peoples reasons for their kid having a cell phone.

1. How else would they get a hold of me?

Ok, lets think about this. First why would they need to call you from school? Sick? The school no matter what we think will let any child call home if they are sick.
Need to be picked up early or late? Do you not make plans and stick to them?
“They call me and tell me were to pick them up” Hello stupid, tell them were and when you will pick them up before hand!
“I might be running late” So you use a cell phone to make up for poor planning on your part?
“what if an emergency comes up?” such as? Fire? Ill? Wreck? 9-11? Again our schools can handle emergencies!


2. All the kids have them.

Ok stand back burrito.
We are teaching our kids to withstand pear pressure when it comes to beer and drugs and sex and rock and roll (ok not rock and roll but it worked)
But on the other hand we are teaching our kids that “everyone has a cell phone so you should too?”
That is a bad argument for having one.

Teach your kid that its ok to not be the same as the rest of the world.


Now lets get to the real reason most high school kids have cell phones.
Bottom line, because there parents don’t know how to say NO
We expect our kids to say NO to Drugs or Booze but we wont tell our kids No when it comes to something?
The other is pure laziness on the parents. They don’t want to plan ahead. They don’t want to be inconvenienced. They don’t want to listen to there kids complain about not having what the other kids have.
But we expect our kids to talk to us about drugs, alcohol, and sex? Why? We don’t want to listen!

Tell me your reasons why you “have” to have a cell phone. There is not one. Not a single reason.

A DR.? before cell phones there were pagers. Before pagers there was a rotary phone. Before that you sent a car to find the DR. Before that you sent the neighbor in a buggy. Before that you ran over to his hut.
Yes a Dr having a cell phone could actually save a life. “Call my Dr. and he will tell you what I am allergic to”
So yes could save a life (although carry a metal tag around you that has your blood type and allergies?)

Give me some good reasons to have a cell phone.

“my wife can call me if she has an emergency”
Yes she can. My mother had more than one car break down on her while she had kids and she did ok. Yes it would have been nice to just call triple aaa from her cell phone but alas she had to think about the best way to get out of her predicament and in the process her children learned to think on there own.
And what was great growing up without a cell phone, if we did something really bad and she called dad and he wasn’t in the office, she had to wait until he called back, giving her time to calm down maybe forget some of it if not all of it. If she had a cell phone the relay would have been instant and that woulda been bad! (ok that is a big reason for kids to not want there parents to have a cell phone)

So go ahead and give me your reasons on “needing” a cell phone. I believe I could shoot each one down. It might come down to semantics, but you don’t need a cell phone it’s just a convenience, kind of like toilet paper.


Blogs like this make me wish that I knew how to write English better.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do you pick on cell phones?
Your point that cell phones are a convenience, not a need, is certainly valid. But, 98% of the things we purchase and pursue are conveniences.

We "NEED" food, clothing and shelter. No more, no less.

The following are equivalent to cell phones in terms of need:

TV's, video games, home computers, dvd players, backyard swimming pools, stereos, cameras, cosmetics, any telephone (land line or cell), baseball games and amusement parks, PDA's, most automobiles (with the possible exception of a volkswagon bug), bicycles, and ............

Why pick on cell phones??

Hearse Driver said...

Pick on cell phones?
what the hell, do you think they have fellings and I hurt em?
I guess I better not call them a bitch or you will really get upset!
I cant write about everything at once, I will get to each thing on your list in due time.
Oh and your volkswagen is just as much a conveince as a limo, do not try and kid your hippy self!

Anonymous said...

The Pear Defense League would like you to refrain from mentioning "pear pressure" in such a negative light. Fruit is not harmful and pears mean you no harm

Hearse Driver said...

They fall out of trees and hit you.
I think they are out to get us.

Anonymous said...

You must have had wonderful parents to raise someone with such a positive outlook.