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Serap
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Puts you back in the time of Aquinas or is it just romanticHeh heh, yes, but you’re talking to a guy who reads Aquinas by candelight
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Alex2008
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- They are a drug…whether you want to believe it or not, we are now hard-wired to them and cannot live without them for even a minute. Medical Studies are beginning to pop up and they show people actually get high while using them.
- The industry has done a marvelous job of marketing them to us under the guise that we cannot be/live without them…our culture has bought into that message hook, line, and sinker…especially the younger generation! We cannot NOT use them.
In my opinion (notice I said this is my opinion) these devices are the worst things in a list of many we have made for ourselves. We are devloping into a culture that is narcisstic, incredibly selfish, addicted to the max and lacks connectedness with each other. And Satan knows how to use the existence of this device well!
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Sailor_Kenshin
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Wow. “If man was meant to text, he would have been born with… uhh… fingers…”
Who knew that cell phones were so powerful as to cause the actual downfall of society?
Yeah, I would like to return to the days when I’d have to lug a Bible, a Missal, a phone book, a notebook, and several newspapers to get what the cell provides.
Better ban spoons, too, while you’re at it. I hear that some people use them to administer poison to others! It’s clearly the fault of the spoon!
Blaming tech for man’s fallen nature? What’s up with that?
Me, I think they’re the best inventions since sliced bread and salad bags.
Who knew that cell phones were so powerful as to cause the actual downfall of society?
Yeah, I would like to return to the days when I’d have to lug a Bible, a Missal, a phone book, a notebook, and several newspapers to get what the cell provides.
Better ban spoons, too, while you’re at it. I hear that some people use them to administer poison to others! It’s clearly the fault of the spoon!
Blaming tech for man’s fallen nature? What’s up with that?
Me, I think they’re the best inventions since sliced bread and salad bags.
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Catholic90
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I have everything on my phone! It is how I communicate with my children. I could not go without it, because it is how I contact my father daily. How would we communicate otherwise? How would my son be able to contact me to let me know when his homework project is finished and I should pick him up? How would I pull up the mapped location of his classmate’s house when I am driving to pick him up? (hint: I use the GPS function on my phone!) How would I add the address to the thank you notes I wrote for Christmas? (address book is on my phone). How would the doctor’s office connect with me to confirm appointments? How would I access CAF when away from the computer?
I don’t “get high”…I simply function better without dragging tons of other stuff around with me!
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Joe_5859
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There is no way cell phone use can be compared to drug use!
I have had a cell phone for 7 years now and never once have I gotten “high” while using it. 
Certainly, that tendency can be found in some people, but that’s not the fault of the device itself. I know I could live without a cell phone, but it’s a nice thing to have, especially when I’m travelling for work. I don’t even have a landline. If I had no cell phone, I’d never talk to anyone.
Yes, there is a danger of “plugging in” to our electronic gadegets while disconnecting from the people right next to us. The antidote is moderation, not technological retreat.
Of course, all these things can also be said about the internet, too.
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tgauchsin
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Said before Mass at our church:
“‘For where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them.’ Therefore, I will not be calling you. Please turn off or silence all cellphones before Mass begins.”
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pat_mc_1
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My former parish priest would stop talking or w.e was going on until it was turned off…
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StJudePray4Me
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In my experience, the phone ringing in church usually belongs to an older person who carries it for emergencies and has limited knowledge on how to use it!
I was the lector at the Christmas Vigil Mass, and for the first time since I started (like 7 years ago), a phone rang loudly while I was at the ambo. I have to say, it surprised me, the congregation was very quiet so it sounded super loud. I don’t think I skipped a beat though.
Then, it rang again a minute later. I really think if the person who owned the phone knew how to put it on vibrate, they would have done it after the first ring!!
I actually find it more rude when I am at work (I work at a retail store, high end gift items) and people are yakking on their phones while I am assisting them or ringing them up. At Mass, the person didn’t deliberately have someone call them to create a disturbance, it was a mistake. But when you are having a conversation with someone, their phone rings, and without a second thought, they answer it and starts talking, it is SOOO rude!
I now walk away from anyone who I was assisting on the sales floor if they pick up their phone. (Unless they say, “Oh sorry, let me just answer this quickly” or somesuch. Most people don’t do this, though. They will answer without a word when I am mid-sentence!)
I have had people get angry after they hang up (“Where did you go?! I wasn’t finished with you!”) and I regularly annoy people at the cash register by acting as though they are not on the phone. I carry on with “Your total is $225.00. How would you like to pay? Cash or credit? Please sign the slip here. You may return within 60 days with an original receipt, etc etc” Some people get so flustered by this, they will actually finally hang up. (“Listen Bea, I’ll call you right back”) but others just keep talking, and glare at me.
I mean seriously, unless you are a Brain surgeon or something, do you REALLY need to be discussing something on the phone while you are buying a birthday present for Aunt Marion???
Wow, that tuned into a rant! lol
I was the lector at the Christmas Vigil Mass, and for the first time since I started (like 7 years ago), a phone rang loudly while I was at the ambo. I have to say, it surprised me, the congregation was very quiet so it sounded super loud. I don’t think I skipped a beat though.
Then, it rang again a minute later. I really think if the person who owned the phone knew how to put it on vibrate, they would have done it after the first ring!!
I actually find it more rude when I am at work (I work at a retail store, high end gift items) and people are yakking on their phones while I am assisting them or ringing them up. At Mass, the person didn’t deliberately have someone call them to create a disturbance, it was a mistake. But when you are having a conversation with someone, their phone rings, and without a second thought, they answer it and starts talking, it is SOOO rude!
I now walk away from anyone who I was assisting on the sales floor if they pick up their phone. (Unless they say, “Oh sorry, let me just answer this quickly” or somesuch. Most people don’t do this, though. They will answer without a word when I am mid-sentence!)
I have had people get angry after they hang up (“Where did you go?! I wasn’t finished with you!”) and I regularly annoy people at the cash register by acting as though they are not on the phone. I carry on with “Your total is $225.00. How would you like to pay? Cash or credit? Please sign the slip here. You may return within 60 days with an original receipt, etc etc” Some people get so flustered by this, they will actually finally hang up. (“Listen Bea, I’ll call you right back”) but others just keep talking, and glare at me.
I mean seriously, unless you are a Brain surgeon or something, do you REALLY need to be discussing something on the phone while you are buying a birthday present for Aunt Marion???
Wow, that tuned into a rant! lol
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Sarabande
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I understand what you mean here. I think older people aren’t necessarily addicted to them like drugs, but I could see how younger generations could become too dependent on them. My family and I will sometimes joke how we actually got along without cell phones for years and now we “need them”. I think they are wonderful in terms of emergencies or traveling on highways late at night or even during the day alone (which I do often in my line of work as a freelance musician).
I’m in my early 30s and although almost everyone my age and younger own i-phones and such, I refuse to buy one. I only want a phone to be able to talk into when needed and nothing more mainly because I’ve seen too many people become way too dependent on it. I can do everything else I need the “old-fashioned” way. lol! Need an address? I look it up in my book which I hand wrote in pencil. Need directions? I either get the information prior to leaving, call the place or person I need to get to or I do go the cyber way or whatever you call it and use my GPS, but you can’t always trust your GPS as I’ve found out often when traveling to different places for music performances/rehearsals. It’s better to use actual humans for better directions sometimes.
When we didn’t have cell phone I remember calling my parents collect when I needed them to pick me up from the movie theater or other place. It seems most places have taken down their public phones though, so you have to rely on a cell phone… I didn’t get one until after college. My parents were pretty much behind the times, but insisted that I have one when my boyfriend’s (now husband) car broke down at 11:00 in evening on the highway when he was dropping me off at my parents’ home after choir practice. We had to go over God’s green earth to find a phone. Eventually, a woman at a house called for us, but I didn’t blame her for not opening the door to us. It was also good to have when I moved to Maine on my own and was travelling by myself a lot.
That said, I rarely hear people’s phones going off at mass anymore. Christmas Day I did for the first time in a long time. When I usually here the phones go off, though, and no one turns them off, I notice they are older people who don’t know how to work them. OR they answer the phones to tell their friends or family that they are church.
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maryjk
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Holly3278
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I try to always make sure my cell phone is turned off either before entering the church or at least before Mass starts and if I still have it on when I enter the church I make sure it is in silent mode and then I completely turn it off before Mass. The only reason I leave it on before Mass at times is so that I can see what time it is.
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garn9173
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Agreed. How don’t work in retail, but I find it totally rude when someone is yakking away on their phone in the check out line.
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promethius
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I assume you have a source for this assertion?
The industry has never advertised under the guise that you can’t live without a phone. However, we do know that life is much more convenient with them, and that has been the standard by-line of cell phone companies for a LONG time. Granted we live in a society where comfort and convenience are the bread and butter of life, and materialism is a particularly rampant heresy in the United States, it’s not surprising that we’ve bought into this convenience mantra… but it’s our fault, not the device itself.
I lose. Since the US Government has figured out that cell phones exist, I’m expected to basically have mine on me at all times. That, I would say, is the worst element of cell phones: companies basically presume all employees will have them and therefore treat employees like they are on-call 100% of the time (and if they want to call you in for a shift, by God you’d better answer your phone!)
That’s a bit extreme… but not surprising. People said the same thing about cars, planes, computers, etc… but can you imagine life where you were constrained to an area within 10 miles of your home (maybe 20 if you owned horses)? Could you imagine having to take a ship to visit another continent? Could you imagine going back to calling the movie theatre for movie times, or having all correspondance by snail mail? Of course not!
The reason you pick cell phones is the age old resistance to technological change, same as it ever was. Cell phones are your victim because they happen to be one of the areas where technology is expanding fastest. Resistance to technological change, unlike “cell phones are drugs” IS a well documented phenomena known as Metathesiophobia
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Deo_Gratias42
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Perhaps if we go back to these youtube.com/watch?v=694TX2lQ7Uo people will feel less inclined to bring in their cell phones to church.
Last night was a really bad for cell phones going off during the silent Canon during our low Mass.
I faith my priest will address this from the pulpit.
Last night was a really bad for cell phones going off during the silent Canon during our low Mass.
I faith my priest will address this from the pulpit.
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agnes_therese
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The worst? Really? Nothing mankind has made is worse than a cell phone? Not the atomic bomb? Nazi gas chambers? crack cocaine? pornography?
I’m afraid I will have to respectfully disagree with you on that one. No way my cell phone is that much of a danger to the world – especially since I refuse to use it while driving. (or in church, of course)
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AthenaC
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Haha - perfect!
I admit this is something I don’t really like about my new church (I just moved literally across the country). To my knowledge, most everyone had cell phones at my old church. Heck, even a fellow catechist had a bluetooth perma-glued to his ear. But I don’t recall a single person’s cell phone going off during Mass the entire time I attended. (There are other things I miss about that church - picture a skylight right above the altar so during the Liturgy of the Eucharist at 11:30 Mass the altar is illuminated from above! Very cool!)
At my new church, someone’s phone goes off at least once each Mass. Usually twice. And unless it’s the same person who changes their ringtone all the time, it’s different people each time. Ugh.
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theidler
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Hahaha…Puts you back in the time of Aquinas or is it just romantic
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Catholic90
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I do everything with my phone. It has seriously cut down on the clutter! I no longer have to have huge white and yellow pages taking up space in my cupboards, and I do not need an address book to lose. I don’t have to print maps from the computer. There are very few public phones, so it is a safety and convenience feature to have a cell phone available!
My kids do not have phones in their dorm rooms either, so they must have a cell phone.
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Kerry77
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I agree!
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Catholic90
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With the opinion cell phones are like a drug?
Where is the source for this?
My son in college contacted me on his and my cell phone tonight. He does not have a phone in his dorm. How else would you suggest he contact me, if not using his cell phone? Also, how would I receive his communication, if not on my cell phone (no land line).
Seriously. How would we connect otherwise?
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