Cellphone Catastrophe

 Vanessa Garcia, staff writer

On television, you tend to see commercials that advertise free ringers, jokes and pictures.  But are they really free?  What you don’t seem to notice is that there is always a charge, especially for text messaging.  The commercial gives you directions on how to download the ringers, which involves text messaging.  In order to download the supposedly free ringer, you have to text message, and ion order to text message, you have to have the Internet, which the companies tend to charge for.

Cell phones are great to have and use, but when it comes to downloading ringers and text messaging, it’s not so cool.  It really doesn’t matter what company you are with or what your plan is, it’s the fact that cell phones are going to be expensive no matter what.  Ringers are to cool to have on a phone for some people, but for those some people it’s not so great when you see the bill.  The company not only charges you for buying the ringers but they also charge you for the airtime.  Once you have gone over your limited use of minutes, they start charging $10 megabytes after your limit has been used.

I tend to know this information from experience, and let me tell you when my bill came in, it wasn’t pretty.  My mom was pretty upset when she saw that my bill was $354.  It wasn’t my minutes that killed me, it was the ringers and the text messaging.  There are some plans that have a certain amount of text messaging that you can send for free.  For example, if you have unlimited text messaging, you are still going to be charged for it, because you are being charged for the messages that are sent to you.

With technology increasing, it is just going to hurt us more financially, which college students can’t afford.  A while ago, I saw on television somewhere in China, I think, they have cell phones that are now Debit cards.  First there were the camera phones and then came along the cameras with the computer and with camcorders.  It’s great that they are coming out with all these cool things, but what the inventors and the companies need to think about is their customers and their financial status.

There are certain styles pf phones that are coming out, such as flat phones and phones as little as your finger.  They seem pretty neat to have on television, but when you go tot buy it, it’s not so cheap.

Text messaging comes in handy when you need something, but when it comes to just text messaging just for the heck of it, it can kill you.  Now, when it come to minutes, that’s a different story.  Some companies don’t give free minutes till after 6 or 8 pm, and then there are some companies that don’t give free minutes.

When cell phones are used during the daytime, they take up minutes, unless you have mobile-to-mobile, when you can talk free with another person with the same company.

There are some great reasons for having a cell phone and there are bad points, but they do come in handy in case of an emergency.

I have nothing against technology increasing.  It’s all good.  But like I said, what inventors and companies need to think of is their customers, because there are some people that aren’t so rich and can’t really afford it.