Telephones- Want or Need?

I just survived without a house phone for nearly a month, and for a large chunk of that time, I was without a cell phone as well. It was an experiment I do not care to repeat, but I definitely learned that it is possible to manage without a phone at all.

Not long ago I delved into whether cell phones were needs or wants, but that post was basing it on the supposition that you owned a house phone. The cell phone post was written a few days after I switched from a monthly plan to a prepaid cell phone in the hopes of scaling back our embarrassingly large phone bill. I bought a 10 dollar prepaid card and was hoping it would last me a while, as I was going to try to cut my communication costs by following these tips.

Then we moved to our new house, we had scheduled the phone company to move our line within a day or two, but there were so many problems hooking up our phone line. The phone technicians must have come back 4 or 5 times in addition to a few visits by electricians, etc. The new apartment is pretty, but with its newness comes other issues, like unfinished telephone wiring.
We moved in on the second of May and only got a land line on the 25th.
To top it all off, because I had a prepaid cell phone with no land line, my minutes on my phone got used up very quickly, even though I was rationing them. Because of technical  issues, I still haven’t been able to purchase more minutes for my cell phone. For about 2 weeks, I was without either land line or cell phone.
I managed. It got annoying. It got others annoyed at me because their phone costs were increased as a result. It was quite inconvenient, as the 21st century civilized world is built on the assumption that you have phones. But regardless of all that, I managed. No one died because I didn’t have a phone. No one got hurt. It was uncomfortable, but it helped me realize that phones are luxuries. Not one I’d willingly forgo, but if I survived without it, it can’t possibly be a need.

Instant Communication is Important Today

The biggest way we were able to manage without a phone in today’s day and age was because we have a computer with wireless internet. While waiting for our phone and internet to arrive, we piggybacked on our neighbor’s WiFi (with complete permission). Having the internet helped us out because in today’s world, you do need to be able to contact people.
People today live relatively secluded lives. We don’t live in little villages with our extended families surrounding us to help us out as needed. Our husbands are not just a few minutes away working in the field. We are not particularly self sufficient and need to travel to get what we need from other people and stores. Because people are traveling farther on a regular basis and we don’t have our extended family nearby to lend a hand should the need arise, we do need a way of communicating.