This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. 1) You don't drive and you don't have a cell phone that works, so clearly "It's a pain in the ass to talk on your cell phone and drive at the same time" is a comment that you just decided was true and is not actually something that you know from experience or have ever done. 2)It is not a pain in the ass and my life is actually way LESS rushed because of it. Now, instead of having to spend half an hour driving to a place like St. Patrick's thinking about all the things I need to get done, I can do a lot of them (like call to wish happy birthdays, put in my work schedule, make doctor's appts, return e-mail comments or voice-messages, etc) in the car, which usually frees up a half an hour of rushing phone calls at home. 3) If anyone were actually way stressed out by their own phone, OBVIOUSLY they could turn it off. It's not like everyone hates their busy rushed lives and sits around crying because they remember the day when things were far more simple but cell phones just won't leave them alone. There is no cell phone monster chasing people, forcing them to be rushed. If anyone felt like cell phones were really rapidly pushing them forward, they would just turn it off or leave them at home. 4) You wrote: "Most of you who read this are probably either too young or had parents who were too busy and therefore don't remember the time before cellphones. For those few who do remember, can't you remember how everything seemed so less rushed? Nothing from work could really come home with you, and so when your parents got home, they were home." Kit. Mom is not exactly a business executive who locks herself in her office every night screaming on the phone to her office and depriving you of motherly love. Actually, come to think of it, I can't think of a time when I have EVER seen Mom use her cell phone at home (and most of the time, even remember to take it with her on errands). Therefore, I have to imagine that you are thinking of some fictional family that doesn't exist in which the parents come home and refuse their poor, depraved 16 year old love and affection in order to cater to their cell phones. You just made up nostalgia about something that didn't happen. Yes, in movies, there are a lot of business dads who don't have time for their kids at home, but I know very very few actual parents that way. 5) Lastly, there are not HUNDREDS MAYBE THOUSANDS of crashes a day due to cell phones. If that were true, like crack cocaine, they'd be illegal. There are maybe several hundred a YEAR.

Damnit. I need to be studying for French but my cell phone needed defending.

--Sis

P.S. You also cannot understand the intense time-saving mechanism that is text messaging. I set up lunch dates almost every day by texting on my way to class. Also, don't hate on kids who fake sick to skip class. You should try it. It's fun.

Well Liz, certainly you make some good points, but still, the fact remains that overall I was talking more about teenagers than you about the stress thing mainly because teenagers now are more stressed out than ever. Because it's become a more competitive world and therefore what skills you have, have to be exploited at continually earlier and earlier age to be able to compare to other people. And whil it may be a useful utility to use your cellphone after practice or your club, it's also so very often used to make impromptu plans that lead to having more things to do. And when you talked about "just turning your cellphone off," when was the last time when you weren't in a movie or at a meeting that you felt "safe" or comfortable in turning your cellphone off? I'd think that more people would find it more stressful to have it off than on. Worried about missing a call, or an important meeting, etc. People have become always available and so to be unavailable is a difficult thing to do.
Let me just quickly cover my ass here though. I'm not saying that cell phones are abominations that should be torn from the face of the earth, I'm saying that they've become too much a part of our lives. They've gone from just being functional to integral. I just think we should distance ourselves from our phones lest we become overly dependant. And also, I'm not saying for college students it's a bad thing to have your cell phone on in between classes, but what I am saying is that it is stupid to need your cell phone during school unless you are either A) A senior going to lunch, or B) A person who is going to be going to something important (like a dead family member's funeral and the time that your mom is going to pick you up is fuzzy).

And lastly, I was reffering to Dad and becky, not Mom. Mom has always been busy, but Dad and Becky (not that I'd nessecarily like to see Becky more often..) once did all their work at work and when they got home they were parents. Now they get home and worry about and only do work. A quick aside though, is that I'm not actually talking about my family nessecarily, I'm just pointing out that cell phones and other things that make our lives more "connected" are not always good things. Connecting your work life to your home life is not nessecarily a good thing. That's my only "real" point.