personal hang ups

Today is the 25th anniversary of the first commercial wireless phone call, this article notes.

I jumped on the cell phone bandwagon a little late. I got my first one in my senior year of college, about five years ago. My current cell doesn't take pictures or really do anything cool at all. Sometimes I pretend it's a highly technical imported device when I use it as an alarm clock.

I still have a handful of friends without cell phones, but that number is dwindling.

I just don't think it's realistic to go without a cell now. I can't imagine my parents allowing me to embark on my cross-country drive here without constant phone access. I told this to someone opposed to cell phones, and he said, "Well, the Donner party made it across the country by wagon." Yeah, but they also got EATEN.

That said, I definitely have my cell phone gripes. The biggest of which is when people are talking on a phone while in the grocery store checkout and they don't even acknowledge the cashier through the whole transaction.

I have to say, though, I've learned to view many of my former cell phone pet peeves as just a fact of life.

In this day and age, is it possible to complain about cell phones without sounding like a crotchety old man?