Cell phones in life&death situations...

"Migrant Uses Wireless Phone to Call 911 While Adrift at Sea
A migrant adrift at sea with 66 others used his wireless phone to call 911 and guide a U.S. helicopter to their boat. The emergency service was able to determine from signals given off by wireless phone towers where the call was coming from. Police relayed the phone call to the Coast Guard, which dispatched a helicopter and two cutters to rescue the 67 migrants. The man was able to guide the helicopter to their location by remaining on his wireless phone and telling officials when the helicopter sounded nearby. (Source: Associated Press) "

"Boy Uses Wireless Phone to Save Life
A 14-year-old boy in the U.K. used his wireless phone to save his life after receiving serious leg injuries in a motorbike accident on a mountaintop. The boy was suffering from hypothermia when police located him. According to police, if the boy had not had his wireless phone with him, they could have been dealing with a death. (Source: BBC News) "

"Student's Suspension Shortened
Following hundreds of angry phone calls and emails, school officials at an Army base city have reduced a suspension imposed on a student who wouldn't give up his wireless phone while talking to his mom, an Army sergeant serving in Iraq. The Muscogee County School District Board of Education, which serves Fort Benning, allows students to have wireless phones in school but not to use them during school hours. According to reports, the student was suspended for disorderly conduct after refusing to hand his wireless phone over to a teacher and cursing at the teacher. However, after an extraordinary amount of phone calls to school officials, the county lessened the amount of the student's suspension from 10 days, down to 3 days. (Source: CNN, Associated Press)"

Ability to be in contact essentially in the middle of nowhere can be a way to save a life or a way to get the son of an army sergeant in Iraq, suspended from school. In times of crisis, it is only the ability to contact that matters. At other times, however, inability to understand the context of the conversation partner can change the dynamics of the conversation, and, even put that partner in an uncomfortable position. As cell phones take telephone conversations from the well-established context of a home or an office to an anytime anywhere state, context becomes yet another variable in the "appropriate conversation" equation.