I had our land line shut off today. It feels odd. For years, a land-line phone was just something that everybody had. You moved into a house, you had the phone turned on with the electricity and cable. The phone was your lifeline to the outside world. It was there when you needed it for whatever reason. Ma Bell was a trusted friend of the family.
Then along came wireless phones. At first, they were a joke - they used to come in a good sized case that you had to lug around. But with various improvements in technology, they moved from luxury item to near necessity. They can be very handy -- and they're starting to take over. The days of your land line phone and answering machine are numbered.
I remember hearing somewhere that the phone answering machine is the ultimate in middle-class insecurity. Why would that be? Because it feeds into the whole idea that you're important enough that you might miss a phone call -- and you aren't secure enough to shrug and say "If it's important, they'll call back." With a cell phone, you'll never have to worry about missing any call again, because you never have to leave your house without your phone.
I'm part of the new tribe of cell phone only carriers. But it can be lonely without the soothing sound of a telephone dial tone.
7:52:58 PM 
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