[More Cowbell]

I'm just about 100% fed up with people that can't hang up the damn phone to spend 30 minutes having lunch with me, hike in solitude without texting or just drive somewhere in car without answering the 10 texts of some friend. My plan is to bring a book when I hang out with these folks and just start reading when they have to get on the phone. Make your own rules folks. Texts DO NOT have to be answered immediately if you say they don't. Keep the phone in the pack not glued to your butt. Does a ringing phone or non-stop texting of a hiking partner make you want to scream when you've driven 2 hours to get away from it all? I'm all for bringing a phone for safety, I just don't answer it if it rings or it's even turned off (but fully charged of course).

[NacMacFeegle]

Love the Rhett and Link video- one of my favorite bands! I have a deep loathing for phones, so many times people just use them to talk to people whom they will see in person before too long! Smartphones have made things even worse, since now people are not only distracted by calls and text, but by twitter, facebook, and the many other time wasters on the internet. I usually carry a flip phone for emergencies, but most of the time I just leave it turned off.

[wolffie]

bumper sticker

Vol. 1 of Exploring Washington's Historic Mines (Oso Publishing) has a photo of a couple miners in front of their cabin, holding a guitar and a fiddle. "In those days" the caption reads, "many people played their own instruments". Imagine. Edison thought his recording/talking machine would replace courtroom stenographers; instead, it replaced the singer, the orchestra, the piano player, and everybody else. "Without the automobile that has rendered me unable to walk, how am I going to get to the hospital?" (Phillip Slater, in either The Pursuit of Loneliness or Earthwalk, early 1970s, in a chapter on technology titled, "The Extensdions of Man, or, 'Say Hello to the Nice Fist'"). A friend of a friend was running with earbuds. Ran right in front of a van. Last I heard: hemiplegic, blind, asking my friend for help in ending her life. You can't get to the wilderness if you take the city with you. What I like about my SPOT: although it does ruin the solo wilderness experience, it's a responsible courtesy to the SAR angels who have to come searching for me if I eff-up. I can send an "OK" to my family, but it does not enable me to communicate much beyond that. I'm not really getting away from it all, but I can still pretend. And it really does ruin the wilderness experience. It is not like it used to be.

[coldrain108]

I hate the Phone Zombies. The ones who walk into you because they have their brains glued to their phone while walking down the sidewalk. Then they get all pissed that you weren't looking out for them. "can't you see I'm being an idiot - so it is on you to move out of my way". Sort of the same attitude those folks have in the woods - it is everyone else's job to be on the look out for ME. I don't need a map, don't need any extra gear, I don't even need to know where I'm going - there are plenty of other people out there who's only purpose for living is to make sure I get back safely - so I don't need to bother myself with any of that.

[Voxxjin]

[iron]

i need to find that bumper sticker for my bike commute. i've been thinking of something like that for awhile...

[treeswarper]

Not much of a problem here. Once you get out of the valley, there isn't much in the way of reception. That drives some people crazy. A friend of mine and another guy were cutting up some wood next to a road. Two cars pull up and fearfully ask him where are they? He is a bearded burly guy and said he was all sweaty too. Oh, and he's a banjo player too. Their google map showed them being somewhere that they were not. They could not believe that they were not where it said, and were upset that their phones did not work either, and looked scared. I think he convinced them of their location and then he wrote a song about it--we still play instruments around here, called, Your Cell Phone Won't Work Here.

[Badger]

I was visiting some friends one time and they (he and his wife) decided to hang out and chat with people online. After about 10 minutes I stood up and left. They were floored and wanted to know why I was leaving....

[More Cowbell]

Just saw this today.

[Navy salad]

Most of the time I really don't care about some stranger being glued to their phone. Two exceptions:

• Probably 75% of the time I get stuck behind someone doing 40 mph in a 55 zone, it's because they are on their phone and unaware of the correct speed limit
• People in the gym who look for some comfy place to locate themselves (mostly whatever workout station I'm wanting to use) to send text messages, update their facebook page, take selfies, .....
• Slight variant of above: They are actually moving (sitting there moving bars or foot pedals back and forth), but with virtually no required exertion, thus enabling them to sit there for 10 - 15 minutes at a time

[Josh Journey]

Awesome video! I recently got a cell phone for the first time in my life with zero reception. This means that I can pretty much only use it at home with Wifi or at a store/friend's house. My brother told me recently that I'm "wasting my cell phone by not carrying it around town". Hmmmmmm, what should I do? A few years back I was not among the teens who had a cell phone. I didn't send a text until I was an adult. Sure I had plenty of opportunities but wasn't it to it. - Typed from a non hand set

[cascadetraverser]

I have kids and it is even worse....The biggest mistake of my parenting career was giving my son his first cell phone....

[Randito]

I wonder how many of these rants were posted using a handset.

[tigermn]

[Waterman]

Leave phone off, buried deep in the pack. Anything else that's beeps or chirps,leave it home.