How important is your phone to you?

[The Curmudgeon]

Something that gets thrown back in my face from time to time are my rants from about nine years ago concerning mobile phones. That they were for morons. That they were pointless. That ringtones, covers etc were all worthless gimmicks to rob fools of their money and that I would never, ever own a mobile phone.

Now? I'm pretty much glued to my phone. Part of me hates that, but fuck it, that's the truth.

Let's consider though, 9 years ago is a long time for anyone, but it's been an absolute lifetime for mobile phones. Back then they WERE shit, and being able to send LOL XTHNX texts were the fucking highlight of the damn things. That I could've lived without.

I recently upgraded my iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5, and it's Samsung who coined the phrase "life companion", but that's exactly what my phone IS. Besides keeping in touch with people, (y'know, calling people..phones still do that), any wait time I have traveling to work (I get a train) is taken up on my phone by playing games, sending e-mails, writing and reading messages on this website and on Facebook. I have the Songkick app that means when any band from my iTunes list plays in my area, I get a pop up message telling me. And oh yeah, iTunes - where the majority of my music listening habits happens. I honestly would hate to be without my phone.

So am I alone in this? Or have we all embraced the technology and it's now firmly grounded into lifestyle?

[trashcanman]

Meh. It's nice to have the convenience, and the games are great for time killing, but all in all I could easily do without. I find phones fucking infuriating in that now it has become socially acceptable to sit there and fuck with the stupid thing while someone is talking to you IRL. Pathetic.

[The Curmudgeon]

Christ, yes, that's unforgivable. I went on holiday last year and was at a party with a bunch of 18 year old girls (you can imagine how I hated that idea). For most of the night the whole table sat like fucking zombies peering into their Blackberry phones, actually texting EACH OTHER. It was like a scene from a Stephen King novel. Unreal. Welcome to the future.