I have a cell phone for one reason, well really 2 reasons: for emergencies & for picking someone up at the airport! Otherwise, I prefer my landline like my 95 year old mom since I call her every morning at 8am. Cell phones are for kids & for a few rude young adults who seem addicted. Dee

I no longer have a landline either, but I use MagicJack, which works with a regular phone via my computer. It's really cheap - $20 a month, including long distance.

I have a cell, another cheap deal, just for emergencies. I simply HATE talking on the cell; sometimes the words are garbled, and I have to decipher what is being said. I often kid others that my phone doesn't talk back, take pictures OR serve any purpose except for emergencies.

Don't even get me started on the adults/kids addicted to cells -- I consider it rude to see people out in public so absorbed in their cell phone they don't even notice where they are. A couple years ago, a teen texting on his cell rear-ended my car - totaled the car, but at least I had no injuries.

I still have long conversations by phone with my sister who lives 70 miles away, but I used to get annoyed by surprise calls from others. I love caller I.D. now, which allows me to know if I will answer or not. And the answering machine, a big favorite too!

When I was little, I'd pick up the phone and say, "Hello, Kay?" Either the operator or my mother would tell me to hang up. I just knew my Mom talked to my aunt Kay that way(on the phone) and I want to also!
When I worked in our library, I'd have a long line of patrons waiting to check out or something. They would be patiently wait and the phone would ring. I was required to pick up. And the person on line would magically leap to the front of the line to have my full attention. Drove me nuts. Very unfair.
I started to text because two of our grandkids have that ability now. Sigh. Such a royal pain! The texting, I mean! Sometimes I'd just give up and call them. Much more fun.

According to other articles, even email is going the way of the dinosaur. Not here. Texting for me isn't. Phoning is reduced to two...my eldest daughter and my friend Bobbie. Bobbie and I have a once a week phone conversation that lasts about an hour. If I didn't go along with her phone program, I knew I'd lose a friendship. Long ago, we decided that we liked hearing each others voice. Perhaps it made the friendship more real. Cell? I confess, I now use it only in emergencies.

Reminds me of the time I got a wrong number. But when a child answered the phone, apparently before anyone else heard it ring, just for fun I started talking to the kid.

I said hello, he(?) responded with perfectly intoned gibberish, which I recognized right away as toddler-speak. I asked for his name, and the kid suddenly started listening without saying anything, until I asked if Mom was around, which started a conversation that went on for probably five minutes.

Ultimately, I tried to get the child to go get Mom or Dad, which was partially successful, since I heard him go away and chatter at somebody. But then he came back to chatter at me some more.

This happened a few more times after I repeatedly convinced him to try to get Mom or Dad to come to the phone. He knew what I was asking for, and I could hear him heroically trying to get their attention, which was never forthcoming.

Finally I gave up and started offering a few animal sounds, woof, meow, oink, moo, all the Farmer in the Dell animals. This was entertaining for both of us for awhile, but inevitably I finally had to say goodbye and hung up.

For me this was a magical little opportunity to chat again with my favorite type of person: a toddler.

For him, it was probably his first telephone conversation. And for both of us it turned out to be a pleasant, if ultimately secret, mid-day phone call.

I generally don't like talking on the phone, cell or land-line. But I do enjoy my phone calls to my 85 year old friend in Connecticut. I live in Arizona and I call Julie whenever there is a UCONN women's basketball game on. We talk basketball and get up to date on what's new.

Sometimes she calls me during a game. And sometimes we talk twice, or even three times during the game.

When it's not basketball season, I sometimes think I'm interrupting her routine when I call. But when it's about basketball....no problem!

When I was 5 years old, my dad worked for the phone company. Our phone number was 1111J. Later, we had a two-party line for a time. I rarely used the phone when I was young.

Now I keep a corded phone on hand in case of power outages. For talking to family/friends, I use a cordless phone with a headset.

My cell phone is usually turned off, but of course I carry it when I'm out (I'm on AT&Ts "GoPhone" plan; no contract). Heaven forbid I should go out phone-less!

Once in a while, I text my sister, but texting is way too slow on the teeny-tiny keyboard on my "old-fashioned," 5-year-old cell phone.

The phone, I decided long ago, is not my boss. My answering machine, like a secretary, takes the calls, and I call back when it's convenient.

I wonder what's next in communication devices. Transfer of thought waves maybe? Yikes!

Interesting post. You didn't mention the fact that the ubiquitous cell phone may be dangerous, that holding it close to the head may cause brain cancer. (My ex used to work in this industry in France and warned our kids, who got gadgets so they do not hold the phones to the head.) I swear by my landline. Friends still use the phone for talking, but my kids send mostly messages through the computer.

There's something about a voice, the intonations, the concreteness - I love phone calls from my children and the others in my family. We email, but for the personal touch, the phone is important, even for brief calls. When someone dies, sorry, I don't want to learn by email or text.

Texting has its uses, particularly when verbal conversation isn't appropriate, or, like email, it can be responded to later.

I've never felt that a phone call was rude - just some callers, like telemarketers.

I have a friend who sews bridal outfits who says bridesmaids are requesting phone pockets in their formal gowns. (She has not had that request from a bride yet.) I buy my skirts and pants at thrift stores and only get those with pockets. Another friend who sews is putting pockets into a pocket-less skirt I adore and can't get rid of.

This brings back a memory of my first phone call. One day when I was somewhere between three and four years old, I decided I wanted to talk to my father. Our telephone was one of those black Bakelite things they had then--large, clumsy and heavy, at least for a little kid. My mother showed me how to work the dial with my stubby fingers.

I could hear the ringing at the other end, and a male voice answered. "I want to talk to my daddy," I said, and he answered "Okay, who's your daddy?" "My daddy!" "Kid, I can't put your daddy on the phone if I don't know who he is!"

In frustration I started crying, put down the phone and ran out of the room. Later my parents explained to me that other kids have daddies, too, and all that. But it was a long time before I asked to use the telephone again.

The memory remains so vivid, I sometimes wonder if it didn't begin a pattern in my life, because I've never been really comfortable using the phone. I seem to need to see the person I'm talking with--make eye contact, and so on.

Today, I ride on city buses, my primitive cell phone that my daughter insisted I get in my pocket, while all around me people yak and text on their iphones, blackberries, etc.

Recently I installed Skype on my laptop. Much better.

I'm not a big phone person--never have been. When I was very young, we still had a party line. Quaint, indeed!Even as a teenager, I didn't spend as many hours on the phone as many of my contemporaries did. Now I use my cellphone to call my husband from the grocery store or if I'm gong to be late getting home, and that's about it. Occasionally, if I'm waiting for someone or something, I'll watch the news on CNN. I can't imagine doing much communicating on that tiny screen and with those tiny keys. Yeah, it's probably a generational thing.

Jeez Ronni, you got a hot topic here!

I already posted but after reading everything, I realized a couple of things remained for me to share.

First, I hope I live long enough for the generations of youngsters of the future to shake their heads in dismay at the silliness of texting: "Mom, did you ACTUALLY use those tiny tiny keyboards to tap out messages? Why? That sounds so nuts!"

Second, a while back I started taking my phone into the bathroom with me so I would know if anyone called. Then I realized there was actually a better reason to do it: in case I "have fallen and can't get up!" God forbid.

Finally, as for the landline, I learned that landline phones continue to work even in a blackout... just when you might really need one!

Like you Ronnie, we had a manually operated phone system in the small town where I was born and bred. Turn the handle and ask for a number (or even just ask for a person or shop).
As for a mobile (cell to you) phone, I don’t have one. This may shock people but there you are. I’ve found that if you have one people ring you. I plan to be the second last person in the country to get one.

I have an iPhone and use it for texting with my children and my sister. I have Skype on my computer and use it to talk with my grandson so we can see each other with the web cams. I use it as my calendar, alarm, play games, and browse the internet. I resisted the idea of a cell phone but after the plans went to so many minutes for a fixed price I used it a lot more.
I would give up the landline but DirectTV requires it for the DVR.

Don't have a cell phone. Don't want a cell phone.
Life still goes on...

Yes, we had one...biggest waste of money and aggravating to boot.

People who wish to reach me have managed to figure out how to dial my telephone number and either speak to me or leave a message.

I have two businesses and am active in my community. Between my telephone and email messages, everything is still rolling along.

After my husband's heart attack two years ago, one of the CCU secretaries said that she figured we would "have to get a cell phone now." Guess she figured wrong.

I love SuzyR's comment, "...The phone, I decided long ago, is not my boss. My answering machine, like a secretary, takes the calls, and I call back when it's convenient...".

Lived in a city as a child and we had a dial phone. My grandmother who lived on a farm had a wall phone with a hand crank. We turned the crank to create a combination of long and short rings in a code that varied depending on who was being called -- party line. Grandma had a code that rang at her house if someone was calling her i.e. two longs and a short.

When my husband was living we had to keep a land line because he had to call into the hospital regularly for a pacemaker check they could conduct over the phone using special equipment they gave him. I've kept the land line since his death because reportedly emergency 911 calls are received more directly, so faster than those from a cell phone. Caller's location also is automatically displayed with land line emergency calls which has not been the case with cell phones in every community. Not sure if these differences still exist.

Being disturbed by land line callers hasn't been a problem for me ever since answering machines. I can, and sometimes do, just let all calls go to the machine, then if I want to talk I can pick up or not. Occasionally, with a few people we pre-arrange a land line call or Skype time, often by texting first, but generally not by email 'cause I only erratically check email anymore. Some of my correspondents and I find texting convenient when either of us is away from our home, we have a few minutes and may need or want to make contact.

Emails for me generally don't have as much immediacy now that their novelty has long since worn off, but do serve as info conveyors to keep in touch with one anothers lives.

I do try to keep a cell and/or portable phone within reach at all times for emergency use which offers some increased safety and reassures my adult children.

Kids weren't allowed to talk on the telephone back when our ring was a long and two shorts, nor did I ever learn to use a telephone any more than absolutely necessary. Many years in my adult life, I had no phone.
I still don't talk on the phone any more than required, even though we have a landline and we have cell phones. I jump each time the darned phone rings. Unfortunately, my husband is a real phone gabber. Otherwise I could unplug!
Email, forever!