The Good and the Bad of Cell Phones @Solsticepublish, @Solsticeshadows

Cell phones are one of the greatest inventions to come along since the air conditioner.  It’s hard to imagine life without them.  If the dog runs away and everyone goes out looking for her the one finding her can simply call everyone else home.  In the old days, the dog would be at home asleep while people were still looking for her.  Every day I see people shopping and they take pictures of what they want to buy and send them to their significant other.  That person weighs in and the buying decision is made.  Who here has gone to the grocery store and called home to see if there was anything else you needed?  You can send your kids out in the neighborhood to play and then call them on their cell when it is time to come in for dinner.  Those are the most basic uses.  I know people who play games until the battery dies and then plug it in and play some more on their phones.  They give directions.  They tell us who sings a particular song.  They text.  They Twitter.  They are a phone book and a yellow pages all in one.  So what could be the harm of these phones?  I can walk into my living room and no one even says “Hello” to me.  They don’t look up from their phone screens.  Then there is the price.  I see commercial after commercial about how cheap it is to join a certain service but when I’d do the math, it would come out about the same price for my family.  That’s where they get you; with family plans.  And then you can’t break them anyway without a huge penalty.  One company will pay the penalty for you but their service is high priced and poor quality.  That’s another problem.  I’ve known people who went on the plans with the cheaper companies but the service was poor and the coverage was inferior to say the least.  They ended up switching back.  After all, what good is a cheap cell phone if you can’t talk to anyone on it?  Someone said to me the other day, “If I could go back in time I would buy shares of Verizon.”  She has a point.  You either pay more for better service or pay slightly less for poor service.  Even if you go with the second route, however, you are still paying a lot of money for a cell phone.  They used to be relatively inexpensive.  Now they have data plans and renewal fees.  And you have to have a case or it’s going to look terrible after a couple of drops, not to mention damaged.  Then there’s insurance.  You’re going to drop your phone.  It’s going to happen.  When it does it very well might break because these things are very touchy and temperamental.   To buy a new one without a plan is around $500.  That means you need insurance and that’s another addition to your bill.  These phones are great.  I can’t imagine life without them.  But man, are they expensive.  I don’t have the answer.  Maybe one of you has a good story to tell.