The way people have become so dependent on their cell phones amazes me. I see them on the bus checking and re-checking their phones to see if someone called them, walking down the street with the phone glued to their ear, coming out their homes with the dog and immediately calling someone up and talking the whole time they are walking the dog, ditto with the kid. There is a playground not too far from my home and I see the parents there talking on the phone and paying no attention to their kids. If someone didn't jog their memory that their kid is getting beat up they probably wouldn't even remember the kid is there. The drivers with the phones just plain scare me. I see them turning the corner and talking on their handheld phones at the same time. I see them in the lines at stores talking on the phone while the clerk waits for them to pay the bill and the people line up behind them. Ludicrous!! You even see people walking together to go someplace and they are talking to other people all the way there. If you really gave a damn about who you are with then why not pay a little attention to them. There was a reason you were going out together, I assume.

I got dog carcass, blood and guts all over the front and side of my vehicle in Phoenix on Monday because some woman was too busy talking on her cellphone to have time to steer out of the way of the already-dead animal lying in her lane on I-17. While I wouldn't go for an outright ban on their use in vehicles, there ought to be some requirement for hands-free operation, especially in a high-traffic urban environment.

They need to ban the handsfree sets, because there is nothing creepier than someone walking around talking to the air, with that glazed look they get.

I can see Ronald Reagan clearly, saying, "There you go again."

Yes, talking on the phone impairs one's ability to drive, as does any of a number of other distractions. When you find that you cannot talk on the phone and drive safely at the same time, stop doing one or the other.

Is that not what every reasonably prudent person does? Either you say, "Traffic's getting heavy; I'll call you back," or you park and finish the call. Discourteous cell-phone use is just that.

Gun control mentality: attack the technology because some individuals can'r handle it.

Gun control mentality:

I simply can't figure out why everyone in my family wants one and is so excited to get one. Why do most people think that being permanently available to all at any time is a good thing?

Lou:

That's inane. We don't leave it up to drivers whether they should be driving drunk. Endangering yourself and others during a licensed activity is criminal.

i ride a bike to work so i get a chance to observe things, and i see a lot of people talking on the phone and not paying attention. i would estimate that the ratio of women talkers to men talkers is about 4:1. cell phones are the new make-up.

seems to me the penalty for getting in an accident while talking on the phone should be identical to doing so while drunk.

I can understand their use by high school kids, it's just part of that hyper-socialization phase they go through. It's like a Borg-hive-collective thing, you gotta re-establish your connection to the mother ship every 10 minutes, or you're in danger of permanent exile to solitary geekitude.

Women use it so much because it lets them (or gives them the sense of) getting multiple things done at once. Which is a thing that I never understood the appeal of, but somehow women succumb to the temptation of arranging the details of the church picnic while they're shopping for groceries.

I was sitting on a plane waiting for takeoff once next to a woman who was making a series of cell phone calls, leaving instructions for this or that. Her last call was to her husband, and she was trying to talk him through doing some transaction for her on the internet, and it was obvious that he was resisting taking on this task. The flight attendant gave her several warnings to turn her phone off, and was just about ready to have her carried off the plane before she cut the call short.

I'm with Peter. I cherish my moments of unavailabilty.

OJ: your kids are little. When they get to be old enough to drive and to be out late, you will appreciate them having a cell phone and answering it.

P.S. if you don't want to be available, the things have oon/off switches. Just turn it off.