I live a different lifestyle with a cell phone than I wouldn't live without one. I travel for my job and I still have kids in school, plus I have elderly parents.
I remember when my dad first got sick almost 30 years ago. Answering machines were new then and it was wonderful to be able to leave the house and not miss a call. My mom just went on and on about how wonderful it was to be able to reach me and leave a message. When her dad was sick many years before that, you had to stay home or miss the call. Now almost everyone has some type of message device weather its voice mail or an answering machine.
Fast forward 20 years ago, I worked out of town because I had a pager and people could reach me with the pager. There were always phone booths around and every gas station or rest area had one so when I was paged I just called people back.
Now I have a cell phone and I can almost always be reached. I limit who has my number, so I only get calls from people I need to get calls from, but there is no way I could work out of town and travel like I do without it. Last year when my DS and my DFIL were both in the hospital 60 miles apart, the cells phones were a life saver. I could work and still keep tabs on everyone. If it were back in the days before cell phones, I would have been pretty home bound.