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They don't heed call of the cell

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The New York Times

Published: October 25, 2009

Not so long ago, we all lived in a world in which we decided where to meet friends before leaving the house and we hiked to the nearest pay phone if we got a flat tire. Then we got cell phones.

Well, not everyone. For a hardy few who choose to ignore cell phones, life is a pocketful of quarters, missed connections and a smug satisfaction of marching to a different ring tone.

For Linda Mboya, a 32-year-old who lives in Brooklyn and works on arts and education programs at a nonprofit group, it also involves never letting sleeping dogs lie. A friend who lives on the top floor of a house in Brooklyn has a perpetually broken apartment buzzer. So Mboya makes noise to disturb the dogs who live on the first floor, who then bark and announce her arrival to her friend.

"This system works pretty well," Mboya said, though the dogs' owners might disagree.

After 20 years, 85 percent of adult Americans have cell phones, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Those who still do not have them, according to Pew, tend to be older or less educated Americans or those unable to afford phones. "These are people who have a bunch of other struggles in their lives, and the expense of maintaining technology and mastering it is also pretty significant for them," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project.

But there is also a smaller subset of adults who resist cell phones simply because they do not want them. They resent the way that ring tones, tiny keyboards and screens disrupt face-to-face conversation.

"It's a luxury not to be reached when I'm out and about," said Gregory Han, a 34-year-old writer and editor living in Los Angeles. Life for him is a lot more planned than most, the consequence of not having a cell phone - or even a landline - at home.

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