Have you dumped your landline yet?
It's hard to believe that 10 years ago a cell phone was still a novelty. Now it's nearly impossible to imagine life without mobile communication.
As new modes of communication open up, will others go by the wayside? There may be a generational divide opening here, as younger adults in particular start asking themselves what good is a landline anyway? About a quarter of adults age 18 to 29 rely on a mobile phone as their only telephone service.
I am tempted to dump my landline, not because I have an amazing relationship with my mobile phone, but because telemarketers have turned my ringing landline into an incredible nuisance. An admittedly unscientific study of my caller ID log reveals that I've been getting four junk calls for every call I actually want to receive.
I am finally learning that I don't have to drop what I am doing to answer the phone, and I've gotten good at the quick hang-up. My problem now is that I am in phone-avoidance mode, and I am unmotivated to even listen to my messages, knowing that many of them will be robo-telemarketers.
And yes, our number is listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, but between the nonprofit solicitations and political fund-raising calls, we hear from plenty of people. I think our home number was once listed on a business registration that must have been ported widely through the Freedom of Information Act, because we get plenty of business-to-business solicitations as well. The detailed rules of which calls are covered under the Do Not Call Registry are so convoluted that it would take a team of lawyers to extract them from the FTC's Facts for Business explanation. Enforcement of the rules is another issue altogether. How many of us have the time to file a complaint every time we get a call that breaks the rules?
In any case, the only reason to keep the land line at this point is to make sure that all these annoyance calls have a dumping ground other than my mobile phone. When that phone rings, at least I can be sure it's someone I really want to talk to.
If you've gone completely wireless, leave me a comment explaining why. Did you ever have a landline (other than your parents'), or have you always relied on a mobile phone?
Amy Tiemann, Ph.D., is the author of Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family and creator of MojoMom.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
1) Real 911 - we've had to call once (our daughter had a febrile seizure and we had no idea what was going on). There's nothing like hearing an operator who lives in the same place you do double check your address and tell you an ambulance is on its way.
2) Cancer risks - jury is still out on cancer risks and cell phones. See David Berlind: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=774 and http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3858.
3) Phone during power outages. During Ontario's last major blackout - not all cell phone towers continued to work. Even when they did some cells were jammed so you couldn't make a call.
All this to say not yet and not for sometime to come.
Cheers
Mark Levison
http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/
- by Qzzzzz December 6, 2007 8:36 AM PST
- Kt1, moderator for help.com, called me a liar in the shoutbox. After this incident, she bullied me into a confrontation and had me banned from the site. She has consistently protected "known troublemakers" on the site. MANY good posters have left the site due to the moderators. There is some LIABILITY on Cnet's part to look into this matter and give me an answer to why she can call me, LIAR! Thank you, Quay Parks (Qzzzz) Sure thought Erik, not sure about his title on the site, would have had enough respect for me to have given me an answer, thought he was a good and fair man. But, would like some answer on this matter. Again, thank you.
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