The few. The proud. The cell-phone-free. According to industry statistics, only 24 percent of Americans still don’t have a mobile phone.
The holdouts cite a number of reasons for sticking to their land lines, such as cost, manners and the desire to sometimes be left alone.
But we think they’re accentuating the negative. Here are a few reasons to own a cell phone that they probably haven’t considered:
You’re in a dire situation. For instance, you’re sitting alone on a park bench with the crossword and you desperately need someone to give you a five-letter word relating to an obscure type of bird found only in Albania or you won’t be able to think about anything else for the rest of the afternoon.
You need to deliver an urgent message. Such as the snappy retort you couldn’t think of three hours ago during that argument with your sibling or spouse or annoying co-worker.
You need to avoid someone. The person next to you on the train who wants to tell you their whole life story doesn’t need to know there’s no one on the other end of that phone conversation you’re having.
You need a backup plan. It may seem wrong to take a phone on a camping trip, but you’ll appreciate its handy glow when all that water you drank catches up with you at 3 a.m. and you open the tent flap onto the deep, dark woods only to discover the flashlight batteries have died.
We’re sure there are more reasons, but we have to take an urgent call.
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