h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mine typically has 2 possible locations. When-ever I leave the house, say 3 or 4 times a week, it is in a holster on my belt. Otherwise, it lays ignored on a corner table in the living (sitting) room.

I have heard of people that are so attached that theirs is on the night table and looked at frequently during a night time. And how attached are the many people whose phone devices meet their fate in a toilet?

I have a long-unused cell phone next to my computer. I don't even remember to recharge it.

During the day, or evening, if I'm in, at home, then the phone is useually sitting on the sofa, or, of course, slid down the back of the sofa.... If I go out, it normally gets thrown in my handbag... At night, when I'm its either plugged in (turned off), laying on the floor, next to a socket in the guitar/studio room... I don't think the mobile has been upstairs in the house, for... about four years or so, back then I'd often use it just as a skype phone for calls, over the house Wifi... guess its been a long while since I used skype

So, you skip skype?

My phone is kept in a little plastic bag (to keep it dry if it rains) inside my backpack's front pocket. I normally check it at regular intervals on Saturday mornings, until I receive the text confirming my parkrun time and then I don't necessarily look at it again for a few days. Unless I open my bag's front pocket for other reasons, I might look at it then. My phone's an older model so if I don't use it for phone calls, the battery will last just over a month (a real month, I don't just mean February).

The phone's about 9 years old, I've probably had the simcard inside it for about 5 years more.

<BB<

I keep my phone in the phone pocket of my bag too, so I have it with me in case of emergencies. I don't check it every day, but use it more when I'm going on a train journey, as I can make arrangements by text and keep in touch with people if there is a delay. I sometimes make phonecalls during those trips if what I need to say is too much for a 140 character text message, but the tariff I'm on is cheaper for texts (which is good, because I'm not very good at hearing on the phone in a noisy environment, so I prefer texts if at all possible).

I'm surprised we haven't adopted a more appropriate name for these devices. Calling them a "phone" seems more and more inadequate. (Excluding those prudent few of you who haven't gotten on the planned obsolescence treadmill of smart phones.)

Most people use their "phones" as phones rarely at best. These things are much more powerful than the desktop PCs of just a decade or so ago.

I often refer to mine as simply my "mobile" as short for "mobile device", not phone. Neil Stephenson suggested calling them "jee jaws" in one of his books. (Or was it Ernest Cline in _Ready Player One_?) That wasn't going to catch on, but I appreciate the initiative.

Do you have a preferred term or suggestion?

If shirt pocket size, I just call it my 'cell' or 'mobile' with a long 'i'.

...as to when I use it, I try to have it on my person or at least within arms reach at all times against prospect of medical emergency.

(If I hadn't 12 May of 2017, for example, I'd probably not have survived my double major herniation.)

I use it daily for time and calendar functions but make phone calls on the average only every three days or so.

My texting also cost less than voice calls and I receive an important text on the average once a week or so....

Mine finds frequent use for photographing my latest culinary creation for some friends' viewing. And since taking over as the Secretary/Treasurer of one of the largest Branches of the Royal Canadian Legion - June of 2017 - text contact with many of the Executive seems about the only way to converse.

And it actually does make or receive about one voice call a week.