Cell Phone Advice for the Technology-Impaired

You might get a kick out of this exchange between Salon.com's advice columnist and a poor guy who's just trying to have a normal conversation with his wife on the stupid cell phone.

You should also read the letters from readers in response, which contain some good advice and information. Such as:

There are actual technical reasons for having problems with cellphones,
particularly the digital variety that are now the norm. The first is the lack of
"sidetone", a playback of your own voice to you as you speak. It not only
confirms the phone is working, but helps you get the volume of your voice right.
Landlines have had this since before most of us were born, and analog cell
phones generally had it. The lack of it often causes people to think you can't
hear them. The results are pauses, repeating, shouting, asking if you can hear
them, etc.

And:

I've seen this before. She's not holding the phone to her ear correctly.
I'm betting the tiny speaker is right in the tip of the phone. Typically this is
the case with flip phones. You have to get this speaker right over the
opening of the ear, in order to hear what's going on. Often people will hold
the flip part of the phone, with the screen in it, flat against the ear. The
speaker winds up somewhere to the back of the external ear. This causes the
exact problem you describe. Holding the very tip of the phone to your ear is
an unnatural feeling for someone who is used to a full size handset.