They can be useful. They can also be a crutch that can seem to remove the need for other things like public phones, skills for meeting people without them, etc.
Other down sides of the cell phone phenomenon include:
* They take people’s attentions away from the world around them.
* Many cell phone users assume that everyone else should have one, should answer them, etc. This leads to new peer pressures, broken relationships, and impositions, lack of privacy, lack of peace/time alone.
* People get used to relating to each other via phone and text, which are limited compared to spending time in person.
* People feel entitled to use their cell phones in inappropriate circumstances, such as during classes, public performances, bathrooms, libraries, while spending time with someone in person, etc.
* Some users even start to feel unsafe or disconnected without their cell phones.
* Cell phone companies have been exploiting the market and wasting many people’s time and money with their domineering “minutes” and “plans” and other crazy complicated pricing schemes.
* All the cell phones produced and discarded amount to a lot of garbage and resources used.
* Lots of people are spending a lot of time with these radio devices near their head or body, and it’s not known what health effects that might have in the long term.