Is there such thing as being too connected?

Some readers who don’t have cell phones griped about people who do.

"One cannot go anywhere without being completely annoyed by people yacking unnecessarily and uselessly on their cell phones," Jane Armstrong from Washington D.C. wrote.

Brandon Nash from San Francisco agrees. “Let’s not even start on the inane dialogues that constitute most cell yackity-yack sessions I overhear — ‘I’m on the bus’ — ‘I just told you I’m on the bus’ — ‘the bus, stupid’ — ‘the No. 2 bus,’” he said in an e-mail.

But they're not the first to raise issues with cell-phone etiquette. Theaters often ask us to silence our phones, some fancy restaurants discourage them — and the Federal Communications Commission has grounded the concept of cell phones on planes. The reason was technical, but many air travelers breathed a sigh of relief. (Imagine the noise pollution.)

Living in the here and now
Some readers maintain that some cell phone users are too obsessed with being connected.

“Not acting like Pavlov’s dog when a buzzer goes off is a good thing,” wrote a reader from Harrisburg, Pa., who doesn’t own a cell phone.

Reader M. Kohler from State College, Pa., who got one to appease mom, argues that cell phones can keep people from living in the here and now.

“I feel cell phones are actually disconnecting us from the immediate world,” wrote Kohler, 40. “Try interacting with the world in front of you and the person next to you, instead [of] subjecting your personal phone calls on us in public, and worse, while you drive.”

Cell phones might disconnect us from the real world. But aren’t there upsides to being constantly connected to friends and loved ones?

‘My friends all think I’m crazy’
Some readers with cell phones offered these thoughts:

“Being deaf, I desperately NEED one! (Text phone),” wrote Joanna Roos from New York City.

Understandable. Here’s another: A mother from Jacksonville, Ore., said in an e-mail that her cell phone keeps her family together while they’re apart.

“My children live in different states. I have a brother who lives in another state and drives [a] truck interstate, so I don't get to see him or my mother, who also lives in another state very often,” she wrote. “I would be lost without my cell phone, because to me hearing my loved ones' voices fills a void that their physical absence creates.”

But some readers said they just don’t want to be too available.

Renee from Augusta, Ga., said in an e-mail that Sprint provided her with a cell phone when she worked for the mobile-service provider as a saleswoman. When she left the job, she kissed her phone good-bye.

“My friends all think I am crazy, but I love the freedom of not feeling like I have to answer the phone all the time,” she wrote.

“I’ll probably eventually go back to having a cell phone, but for now I am enjoying not being on call.”

MORE FROM WIRELESS

Wireless Section Front

Windows Mobile 6.5 phone gallery Dell smartphone to debut in China, Brazil Review: New BlackBerry Storm improves on original Newsweek: How texting can help you save money Review: Motorola's Droid a serious smartphone T-Mobile says phone service outage resolved Scared of flying? Press the fear iButton AT&T to Verizon: There’s a lawsuit for that iPhone comes to China without key feature NBA introduces live games on mobile devices Wireless Section Front   Add Wireless headlines to your news reader: