Kim Scioloro has never pondered her ring-tone choices.
She has never snapped a photo with a camera phone nor reached into her purse to take a call while standing in a checkout line.
Scioloro, a freelance writer from Sacramento, Calif., is part of a vanishing breed of Americans who are saying “no” to cell phones. According to CTIA, which represents the wireless-communications industry, about 24 percent of Americans are without cell phones, and that number is shrinking year by year.
“I tried a cell phone once, and it was one of the most annoying hours of my life,” says Scioloro, 47. She has trouble with the “infuriatingly tiny” buttons on most cell phones. She has no desire, she says, to discuss private or business matters on one in public, or to hear others do so.
“Plus,” Scioloro says, “I really like the fact that there are times when I’m simply unreachable.”
According to CTIA, which tracks wireless use internationally, 233 million people in the United States have cell-phone service, or more than 76 percent of the population.
Many wireless fans, especially younger ones who grew up with cell phones, can’t imagine living without them. For them, portable phones are symbols of freedom, security and convenience.
So who are the holdouts?
They’re not all curmudgeons and seniors, although older people do make up the most reluctant age group, CTIA’s John Walls admits.
According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, more than 45 percent of those who rely strictly on land lines are ages 65 and older, compared with 16 percent of the population overall.
But cell-phone holdouts also include students, business professionals, college professors and young moms.
James Dante, an adult educator, engages in daily battles with students who “regard a ban on cell-phone use as a stint in Guantanamo Bay prison,” he says. “I try to enlighten them on the advantages of living without a cell phone. But I’m sure that for them, listening to me is like visiting a museum.”
Marissa Taylor, 21, of Roseville, Calif., experimented with wireless phones but decided that, for now at least, they’re more trouble than they’re worth.
“I had a cell phone, but I got sick of paying insane amounts of money for talking,” she says. “I’ve saved so much money simply by getting rid of something I don’t need.”
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